Signs of Spring and a Pregnant Woman Enraged

Upon arriving home from camping, the signs of 'real' spring were popping up all over the place. The garden has many unknown plants coming up and a few that are a little more familiar. I was thrilled to find lots of tulips hiding in there. Here is a picture of a couple of them.

And some Hyacinths:

The tree with the purple leaves in the back yard is just bursting with flowers. In the picture below, if you look real hard, you can see a little blue bird perched high up in the branches. No, wait a minute...I think that might be Archie!


Perhaps one of the more telling signs of spring...O'Malley is venturing outside after a long winter of living it up sleeping on the electric blanket on my bed! Here she is sunning herself on the deck:


In other coming back to reality news...in anticipation of spring, about two weeks ago we decided to move our trampoline down to the third level of the back yard in order to save the grass on the second level. When I arrived home I was chatting with my neighbour next door who wanted our trampoline moved. I was very puzzled because as far as I knew, the trampoline was located in the 'no man's section' third level of our yard. It stays pretty wet down there and I was under the impression that it was drainage owned by the City or something. So upon further investigation of property lines and such, it turns out that the whole third level is owned by our neighbour! All these months, we had no idea! So of course I felt like a big dum-dum and apologized for my 'take-over' of that level. I had been cutting the grass down there last summer, and we put our big ole trampoline down there to boot! I certainly didn't intend to come off like a bull in a china shop and just take over. Oops! Perhaps it was a lesson in doing our homework before assuming. Live and learn.

On a different subject, you know how there are some people that you just know what the rest of their life will be like? You don't have to be a clairvoyant, or a profit...you just know? I've posted before on how different the people in Ohio are from Southerners. Here is another incident, this time, directed at Archie. Archie and his friend next door were riding their bikes out front when these three kids walked by. I've seen them several times before, but don't know exactly where they live. There's one in particular which looks rather thuggish, if you'll pardon my judgementalism. Every time I see this kid, I always think about the tax dollars I'm going to be spending housing this punk first in juvenile detention, then in jail. He'll father a bunch of illegitimate children and not support them. He'll be in and out of jail for the rest of his life. It's one of those things I just know.

Anyway, the three kids were walking by on the sidewalk. One was a teenager, and the other two look to be anywhere from 9-11 years old. This describes the thug-kid--nine to eleven or so. They stopped and began talking to Archie and Mimi. I saw this out the window and had a bad feeling about it. I came out, just as the kids had begun to move on and Archie and Mimi began to ride down the sidewalk. As they passed the three on the way back up the sidewalk, the little thug pushed Archie off his bike and began to try to take his bike from him. I shouted at the punk kid and was hurrying toward them. The little thug ran away like the bully-coward he was and left his two comrades holding the bag, so to speak. I think I properly terrified the other two boys...an extremely enraged pregnant woman barrelling her way toward them looking rather scary. I think Archie saw the look on my face and decided he and Mimi should get the heck out of dodge and get to the house. I saw the other one-the thug one- hiding from me behind a car. I asked the two where that little punk went. They were quick to rat him out. Funny, they knew just who I was talking about...no need to clarify who the 'punk' in the group was.

Of course I knew I couldn't catch the kid, I just gave the other two quite a tongue lashing to convey to their friend when he came out of hiding (the little coward!). I am a bit ashamed to admit I took the low road in the end...When the boys were 'excused' from their tongue lashing, I saw the thug one dart from behind a car. I shouted after him, "You'd better run! Stay away from my kids, you little shit!" Perhaps not my finest moment, but I was so angry. It took quite a while for the shaking rage to subside. *Sigh* I think I'm turning into a Northerner.

Later on, I saw the boys walking down the block. They were just about to walk down the street in front of my house, when they saw me and quickly crossed the street and changed courses. They went a full block out of their way to avoid walking in front of my house! The thug one pulled a hooded sweatshirt up over his head. I guess he was stupid enough to think I would have no idea that he was the person who assaulted my son! It is comforting to know that I still have "it". You know "it"...the ability to scare ill-behaved children enough so that they will walk a long time out of their way to avoid going anywhere near me.

I can't believe someone would try to take a little kid's bike! While he was on it! I've never seen behaviour like that before! I know there are rotten people in the South, except perhaps they are transplants. No self-respecting southern kid would dare do that! They might steal it from the house later on while the bike was unattended, but never right from under a kid who was on the bike!

Last night, after I had time to calmly think through the events of the day, I was able to talk about it with Archie with a little more perspective than just rage. We talked about some things that might have contributed to that boy acting so horrible and we decided in the end that we felt sorry for him because apparently his parents must not love him enough to take the time to teach him the right thing to do. During bedtime prayers, Archie asked God to help the boy feel bad for what he did and to not do it to other kids and for his parents to teach him to do the right thing. My heart isn't quite as forgiving yet, but it's getting there. Still...that punk had better think twice before stopping in front of my house again!