Look, A Light!

It's late.. yes.. I'm working late. For those of you who know me this isn't unusual. When I have a lot going on, uh, which seems to be always, I tend to work at night with no disruptions and I get a lot off my desk (I'm actually seeing wood grain tonight on this ol' table top).

Tonight I'm walkin' the property with my gal pal Callie - she's a cat - but more like a dog walkin' the property with me. Now she's sitting on my desk out here in the office in front of the keyboard at the moment... however I digress. We came out to check the buildings on the property and was greeted by an eerie fog. The orange street lamps in the neighborhood cast a glow like something out of Carpenter's "The Fog" going down the street in both directions. I love it. It's quiet and surreal. Callie is right in front of me, the attack cat who doesn't have a chance in hell against any critters, but she doesn't care. She's with Pop and that's all that matters. Yeah.. pop will protect me (well, I would, but some of those darn critters can run faster 'un me).

I look next door to see that the house that's been vacant for two years... has a light on. I mean elec-tre-city people. This house has had some bad mojo history I ain't afraid to say. So seeing any light on in that place startled me for a bit. The bank recently had the house cleaned a few weeks ago (about time) and put up on the market - for the first time in two years! We have a good neighborhood, but an empty house can invite trouble. Our friends and family know about the history of said house. I'm sure it's been tied up with the bank for one reason or another as I know it went into foreclosure, but I'm glad it took awhile to "air out" so-to-speak. I think of the actress Zelda Rubinstein (I believe that's her name.. why would I remember that so clearly?) her character in "Poltergeist" where she says, "This house is clean." In this case I think it needed to breathe, and now it's ready to start over.

I understand there is a bidding war going on with the house. I'm glad. It's about time it had some new blood. I even heard some people looking at it last night with flashlights at 8:30, of course I went right on over to talk to them. They were cool, but anyone making noise at the "empty house" will be met by ol' Hinchy here. Well.. it's now even later.. and I was just coming out to check the grounds and I ended up in the office talking about "the house next door." I think the unease of the history of the house is what disturbed us most, or rather, the people in it. The whole story is quite sad, but it's one of those cases where you knew a train wreck was going to happen, you just didn't know when or what was going to happen. So the train that was the family next door has moved on, but we still live next door. The surrounding neighbors are good people, some have been here thirty plus years, and they're great people to have here. We look forward to the new tenants and making our little corner of the world whole again.

Well, Callie has finished cleaning her damp fur here on the desk. I wonder if cat dander is something you should vacuum out between the keys on the keyboard. Well it ain't happenin' tonight people.

Oh.. and that picture above? That's not the house.. something I scoured from the Internet, a house in fog. A house with life inside.

I'm off to bed, and thankfully, the light's on next door. A sign of good things ahead. It's about time that ol' house had some life in it.