Neighborhood Watch

Wherever I'm working, I like to take a walk during lunch.  In the past that's meant a walk around a studio lot, or the neighborhood of the building, whatever.  Thankfully, for the last handful of years, it's been my own neighborhood.  For better or worse, all these years later I still don't know a lot of my neighbors.  Well, not on a first-name basis, but I can easily identify some of them with things like "that's the guy with the house with 4 cars out front" or whatever.  

At one end of my street, on the east side, lives (apparently) an older couple.  If I've ever seen them, I don't remember them at all.  What I do know is, on nice days (75% of the time) their front door is open.  That wouldn't mean anything if it wasn't for the fact the 2 of them speak comically LOUD to each other.  You can't see through the screen door, but you don't need to.  In the ~15 seconds I'm walking past this house, you can hear a lot of confusion.

Old Lady: "WAIT!  Is it April or is it TUESDAY?"

I don't know, ma'am, nor does the man inside.  This line wasn't said with stress so much as it is more a plain statement.  The inflection and words chosen does indicate a question, of course...at least I think so.

This past Fall saw quite a surprise as I turned back on my street:

(A loud crash is heard from inside their home)

Old Man: "What was that?"

Old Lady: "BEEF FAJITAS!"

Thankfully, they didn't hear my sudden burst of laughter, or if they did, I'll never know.  For most times when I walk past this house, this isn't anything I seek out, yet it's almost as if it seeks me, knowing that it's serendipity: there's more out of context gems ahead.

Old Lady: "That's when she was at the BAR.  And she HELD ON TO THAT THING.  And it was HARD."

When I remember to do so, I bring this up to the neighbors I know.  It brings a laugh, but they don't know them either.  Or they offer some sort of vague detail like "I think they had someone living in their garage for a while" which only invites more questions.  I've realized that if I did know additional details, it probably wouldn't be that fun anymore.  

Old Man: (coughs loudly)

Old Lady: What?!

Old Man: Huh?!

In those moments of peace to clear my head in a workday, there's the sounds of birds chirping, the sights of flowers in bloom, a dog here and there, and this house in a constant, nearly urgent state of flux.  Back to work I go, thankful for out of context humor once again.