761 Miscellaneous Events

I have discovered that if one does not schedule time for blog-writing, said writing often goes undone.

This past week Mr. 761 stayed up very late talking with a neighbor who’d come to visit (not the nearly-naked one). At around 3 o’clock, said neighbour announced “there’s a greyhound at your door” – something that doesn’t happen every day. Mr. 761 was perplexed, since we have a gate on to our back deck. Apparently the greyhound was clever with his paws, because thrice did he open our gate and look imploringly through the glass at Mr. 761 and our friend.

Perhaps he wanted to join them for a beer? Several had been imbibed previous to our four-legged guest’s arrival, apparently. I was woken up at 4 a.m. by Mr. 761 yelling at the dog, shoo-ing him away, and then calling to me from our back deck, up into our bedroom window.

“Joanie, did you hear that?!“

What ensued was the type of conversation where I replied a few times, and then inquired if he knew it was &$@* 4 in the morning? and tried to ignore him thereafter.

However (and there’s always a however, isn’t there?) the magic bond between me and my sleep was broken. I started registering sounds, and activity downstairs. I also noticed a very strong odor of yet another visitor.

SKUNK. Weird that it sprayed so close to the house, we thought.

I got up. Met the canine visitor, and asked Mr. 761 if he smelled skunk. He said yes, but

Adorably goofy face, for a dinosaur/dog hybrid...

was more concerned with the citronella that the poor dog had been sprayed with (it had a citronella collar for the invisible fence it had breached to come visit us). We made a bed for it in the mud room, and went to bed. I got up again about 20 minutes later when I heard it nosing into the dog food bin that we keep in the mudroom. I removed that from it’s prodigious reach, and returned to bed – about 5 a.m. at this point.

I got up in the morning (Mr. 761 was feeling oddly “delicate” and so he stayed in bed for a while longer) and took photos of the dog and put a notice on Facebook. Through the magic of social networking we found the owner and the dog was returned by noon. What finally dawned on us, though, was that it wasn’t the odor of citronella that lingered in our house, but that of skunk. My house still smells like skunk, in places where the visitor dog (later discovered to be named Cappuccino) had lain.

Mr. 761 has been doing a lot of laundry, and we’re trying to air out the place as much as we can. I had to throw out a rug, and am fighting the necessity of throwing out another.. .I like it, and can’t remember where I got it. It’s the perfect color for the room it’s in. I am hoping that the pong of skunk will dissipate if I spray enough febreeze in its direction.

is this dog laughing at me?

What I can’t figure out is why it took me so long to figure out that the dog had been sprayed by a skunk. It’s funny – I washed the dog’s face and haunches where Mr. 761 had pointed out citronella stains (what? how stupid are we?) and still didn’t figure it out.Perhaps we didn’t want to admit it. Perhaps Mr. 761′s ability to make logical conclusions was impaired, but what’s my excuse?

Regardless, the dog’s owner was very happy (though she looked at me sideways when I discussed the citronella collar spraying her dog ha ha ha!).



Nothing much on this front, really, though I still mourn their lack of window coverings and catarrh-syrup.  I also wish that they did not avail themselves of the speaker phone function whilst having phone calls in their driveway. Now I can hear BOTH sides of the conversation!

To be fair to them, they’re working very hard at beautifying their yard and getting ready for winter (several cords of wood on their lawn at present, awaiting stacking). They seem to be very hard workers, and spend a lot of times out of doors.

There are nuanced niceties that I wish they would concern themselves with –  for example, not yelling into the house (from the driveway) to see if one’s spouse is “on the toilet” would be top of that list. More window coverings are always welcome.

I don’t want you, dear reader, to think that I’m a nasty neighbor. I’m not Gladys Kravitz, peering through the curtains and spying.… I’m just sitting here in my house, wishing I saw less, heard less, and knew less. Those trees and shrubs they cut down to “tidy” the property now afford less privacy. The curiously crystal-clear acoustics between the two houses, along with technology, make it almost impossible for me to avoid hearing their calls unless I leave my study or shut the windows.

Life isn’t tidy, or neat. Life isn’t like movies… life is messy and sometimes loud. Sometimes is creeps in, smelling like skunk. I’m okay with that. Sometimes you do want to know if your spouse is on the toilet. My point is that one’s neighbors don’t want to know. That’s something that we all need to modulate. We aren’t in inner-city conditions here with lots of density, people-wise. There’s enough room to live our lives peacefully, and to not have to share it unless we wish it. That said, just this week Mr. 761 was calling up to me from the deck at 4 a.m. — perhaps we’re just as guilty, though it was an exception to our usual behavior….

I guess perhaps that’s what’s been eating at me — their consistent lack of interest in shielding the rest of us from their quotidian events. No curtains, loud phone conversations on the porch, custody issues played out on the front lawn… if I didn’t know better, I’d say they want an audience. I think, however, that it’s really just disinterest.Maybe they don’t even realize we’re here?

It has been a great week so far. Nothing earth-shattering, but it’s lovely to have friends over for dinner and to have Mr. 761 home. It was great to see our friend Dennis twice in one week – you’re always a pleasure to have over, Dennis. We miss our kids, but saw them both this week, briefly. We’re gearing up for some social events today and tomorrow, and then off on a 10-day road trip to Ontario. Life is good.

And with that said, I’m off to buy shoes. Can it get any better?

Thanks for all of your comments to the blog. I really appreciate them, and like to know that people are reading.