Just when I needed some blog fodder...

My neighbors don't let me down :)

We live in an older neighborhood, and when I say older neighborhood that means that the majority of the people on our street are 60+ years old. There's one younger family with kids across the street but other than that it's a social security kind of crowd. There is one particularly interesting set of neighbors right next to us. It's an older couple...probably in their upper 80s. The guy we see occasionally going to get his mail or struggling to bring his garbage can in from the corner. Supposedly there's a wife somewhere in that house, but I've never seen her. The curtains are constantly pulled and I don't think she never leaves the house. To top it all off, they have an alcoholic son who lives with them who (from what I can tell) doesn't have a job and has lost his license to drive. He often can be found sitting in his friend's car downing more beer than a frat party.

As a result of his alcoholism and his parent's age and health problems, the fire department and ambulance is a regular sight on our street. Including yesterday morning. I climb out of the shower and see the reflection of red flashing lights through the window. This sight used to initiate a sense of panic and concern about one of our neighbors. Now it just causes a roll of the eyes and a wonder about which one they are going to pull out of there this time. Usually it's been the son, dragged out in a passed out stupor to detox for a couple days before sending him back home. Once in a while it's the father, searching assistance for some ailment that he suffers from. Again, we've never seen the wife so we're not even sure she's still alive.

Who knows who they took out this time. I was too busy trying to get ready for work to snoop for too long. But, I'm sure that we'll be seeing the local EMTs again on our street sometime soon. None of the neighbors we've talked to really know what's going on in that house although they are starting to have the same opinion we are...the son needs to be taken to rehab and the parents need to be moved to an assisted living facility.

I wonder if the EMTs roll their eyes when the neighbor's address comes up on their dispatch. They're probably tired of coming here constantly.