Yesterday

The campaign to save the park (No on G) is over and I now find myself with a lot of free time. I hadn't tracked my volunteer hours, but someone on the campaign must have because I was told that I had volunteered 400 hours over a span of about 2 1/2 months. Color me blown away. 

I have not mentioned the folk who live across the street in what I've dubbed 'party house' in some time. I could not tell you how many people live there. I could not tell you who owns the nine or ten cars associated with party house that are parked along our short block, but I know that a few of the dudes who may or may not live there are mechanics and some seem to be used-car salesmen. There is one primary tenant who is likely on the lease; she has lived there since we moved into the area six years ago. Aside from her, there is a rotating cast of women (and men and pets) who come and go. A new chick showed up about a month ago. I've seen her a few times; she once came over to introduce herself when I was leaving for work. -seemed nice, but was a bit too animated, if that makes sense. 

Yesterday afternoon, we came home from running errands to discover that various porch items had been moved around. We had had a parcel delivered earlier in the day. Could a delivery driver have moved the items? I put everything back in its place and thought little of it. At around 5p, I took one of my cats out for a walk. The new tenant across the way was hanging out of the kitchen window chatting to herself while the dudes who wrench on cars were out tinkering on a Mazda Miata in the driveway. I could hear her exclaim about my cat, Bart, while I took him around the corner. During our wee walk, Bartie sniffed some plants, tried to roll in dog urine and slunk away from approaching children. We were out a total of about 10 minutes tops, before we made our way home. We rounded the corner and were met with an emergency vehicle parked out front of house. There didn't seem to be any urgency as the EMTs got their gear. I wondered why they were here. I have an elderly neighbor who lives alone and wondered if he were OK. As I approached my front door I could see that the emergency services personnel were following me up the front door path. I turned with my cat in my arms and asked if they needed anything. One of the EMTs asked if I had recently called 911. I said that I hadn't and volunteered that maybe our elderly next-door-neighbor had before taking my cat inside. My husband went out to speak with them and was told that someone had called in a report of a '45-year-old white woman' at our address with a bloody nose. I suppose that that was meant to have been me. Thank you for shaving off a decade of my age, but WTF, I was out walking my cat, no blood anywhere on my person. The ambulance left and my husband thought to check the doorbell camera to see if there had been a bloodied woman out front of the house. There had not been, but there was video from 2p that showed the new tenant from across the way coming up to our door, fucking with our porch items, then having a sit on our garden bench for a spell before fucking off back across the street. I can't know for certain, but I feel like it was she who called emergency services. Let's hope her behavior was a one-off, if you will, but I fear it might not have been.