Tourists get on my nerves, but most of them have simple manners. I’m currently on the lookout for an exception.
It was a quiet afternoon and I was nodding over my book, thinking of going up the ladder for a nice old-man nap when the boys went to Defcon One. Some kid was out in the wash on a little red dirtbike, kicking up sand and making noise for the hell of it.
Now, I’m ambivalent about strangers using the wash. On the one hand, yeah, every inch of land down off the plateau is private property. On the other hand, the wash is a natural road and people are going to drive on it. I do it every single day, and I don’t confine myself to the parts where I have clear permission. Neither do the neighbors. So while I’m not crazy about people riding past the Lair on the wash, I’m not in a great ethical position to object, y’know?
On the [third?] hand, raising hell on the sand when you can see perfectly well that there’s a occupied dwelling right over there is just bad manners in anybody’s universe. And so I did what I would never have done had it been a neighbor rather than a tourist: I fulfilled the boys’ fondest wish. Dirtbike Boy left in a screaming hurry.
Once I had the boys back from their fun, I backtracked the bike and found something that made me wish I’d taken sterner measures. Dirtbike Boy had been exploring places he clearly had no business going. No B&E or anything, but I’m quite within my job description when I assume he was checking things out for later attention. When I hear him again, it won’t be the boys he has to contend with.
Certainly one of the hazards of living off the beaten path. Once in a while it comes to the attention of ethically challenged individuals (or groups of them) that there might be some easy pickings out there. Good dogs are certainly a great deterrent.
Petty theft and shoplifting are not unknown in town, but the county total for home invasion here stands at zero… and that record has not been broken in the eight years I’ve been here. I hope that would be scumbag understands that people who live in remote places are probably armed, and able to defend themselves.
BTW… just thought about your ex-cop sort of neighbor and wondered how he’s doing?
Funny you should mention him, for after a long period of silence there have been developments. Physically he seems to be fine, but it looks like we might get together tomorrow so I’ll know more after that.