It's a beautiful day in this neighborhood,A beautiful day for a neighbor.
Would you be mine? Could you be mine?...
It's a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
A neighborly day for a beauty.
Would you be mine? Could you be mine?...
I've always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.
I've always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.
So, let's make the most of this beautiful day.
A sunny, warm Sunday afternoon brought all the active adults out of their villas today.
Across the way, do-it-yourselfer Bud Osmondson was making determined use of a skil saw to construct a basement wine cellar. When the adult beverages came out for the traditional tarmac party and organizers tried to wave him in, Bud couldn't be bothered, he just kept cutting lumber.
We call them tarmac parties in this neighborhood. Actually they are just driveway beer parties, but we have two retired air traffic controllers on the cul de sac (both fired and rehired by Ronald Reagan, years ago, I think) so out of deference, we call them tarmac parties. Which is real special to them, we're sure, because they don't seem to get much deference anywhere else.
Here's a photo of one of them. In it Tom Story appears to be ordering his wife, Sandy, to do a good job scrubbing the lawn furniture. This is pure fiction and an amazing lack of good judgment on his part. Meek Mr. Tom, who does taxes out of his home, always has a hot dinner ready promptly when his working spouse comes home.And Mr. John, the other ex-traffic controller, kept glancing down Abbey Point while sipping his tarmac beer tonight. While John had finished the cleaning in the back yard, there were still other items not yet checked off, and Mary was due home soon.
Gardener Joe Daly was down on his knees today, showing off his industrious side to the tarmac party. This life-long California resident retired to Shakopee, Minnesota. That aside, he is other wise remarkably intelligent, savvy and world-wise. His brillance, however, does not always extend to horticultural pursuits. Today he declared an expensive, hopeful, fall planting to be officially defeated by a Minnesota winter -- once again.
Right on schedule, wheeling down the tarmac in the bright sunlight, came the newest Stonebrooke resident, early bird Gavin Cole Isaacs, the fledge of Derek and Alanna. He showed up a month ahead of schedule. He's healthy now, but still very tiny and when he cries he sounds like a little nestling.His mother is an elementary schoolteacher in Farmington and her water broke unceremoniously during class, giving her a story worth telling for years to come.
New father Derek was not much help, far away at work. Alanna checked herself in to the Shakopee hospital. Derek showed up just in time to say "push."
His telephonic advice to her that morning had been to maybe skip her exercise class that day.The tarmac crowd looked over the baby and pronounced him neighborhood worthy and encouraged the new family to come back soon.
Bella, their slightly displaced poodle, seems to be taking the new situation in stride.
Kathleen showed up just in time to see the gathering and admire the baby. Earlier she had left on a mission to Target to purchase Liptor and a Baby Car seat. Not a combination of purchases a retail clerk might expect to see every day.
