Interaction Theater

What’s Going On Over There Now?

The above is an expression us neighbors have used many times when we call one another.

Members of the family across the street are always doing something bizarre. It seems that they do most their off-beat stuff in their front yard. It is like they are doing a live play, their front yard is a stage and they each have trained their voice to bellow so that there are no bad seats… everybody can hear every curse-filled sentence, whether you want to or not.

Usually how the show starts a police car or two parked out front with police officers discussing matters with some of the household members. … or it doesn’t have to be a police car, it may be a visitor that looks a bit shady that looks like he might have some business to discuss.

Four of the five houses that surround the front yard are all audience members. When an action is going on that looks strange, one will call another one and say, “What’s going on over there now?”

Then when word spreads to all houses the shades are pulled shut with just a small opening in one of the windows in each house. Then we watch, all from different angles, and discuss what is going on with our phones. Sometimes some of us will have to fill in the others on what happened earlier that day. All but old Jim, 88 years old. Jim just leans on a rake and stands in his yard as close as possible to the action and looks on them wide-eyed and never blinks.

The above picture is a stage prop that is a big bunny that I thought looked interesting. It has been on top of their garbage can since the teenage boy’s girlfriend and their 2 kids moved out, with a police escort, last week,

This morning, unfortunately, I was part of the action. I was an actor. But it was before daylight, so no one could see me.

This morning at 6:30 I stepped out to take Willow for our morning walk. I noticed the two dogs from across the street under the street light, just hanging out. One of the dogs is a pitbull dog.

I heard that the pitbull dog attacking an elderly lady and her dog. The elderly lady and the dog ended up with gashes. Willow and I went back in, went to the basement and I picked out a well-balanced cut-off cue stick, and we went on our walk.

When we were walking on our driveway the dogs were no place to be seen. Then, once on the street they came galloping up barking and growling. One of them lunged at Willow. I whacked him on the side of the head. It stunned him but didn’t stop him. The other one kept lunging and each time I swung. After the first hit they both artfully dodged my swings. The people across the street were not home.

They dogs backed us into the house. I sat there and simmered for a while. I can’t even go on a walk. I’ll be damn!

I called my neighbor Jim and told him the situation. He said a few days ago he noticed the dogs were looking very skinny and neglected and he thought they were starving so he cooked up a batch of hamburger meat and carried over to them…which they quickly gobbled up.

I told him I was going to call Animal Control. It was dangerous to have them loose. There is a leash law. He agreed.

Oh wait, I forgot, the laws don’t apply to that family.

I called Animal Control. They said OK. That was about 8:00 this morning. I noticed the pitbull was sitting on their front step (center stage) about 8:00pm, 12 hours later.

Action!