Alcoholics Anonymous

The cardinals are back at the feeders. I see them a lot in the winter, the fiery red feathers of the male and the duller feathers of the female accented against the white snow. But today they’re hovering around the feeder, competing with the sparrows, blue jays, and chickadees for seed.

It’s not as hot, but it’s still very humid. Whenever I leave my air conditioned home, it feels like I’m walking in soup. In fact, I did walk through soup today. I took my car into Midas for brake replacement, and ended up just getting the back brakes replaced, an oil change, and a serpentine belt replaced. All for $519! I’m trying to keep my 2001 Volkswagen going as long as I can.

The Midas station is just a couple of blocks away, so after I drop my car off, I just walk home. Then I walk back when my car is ready. So I had my stroll through soup.

Let’s see, I also repotted a couple of plants today. I did the laundry and vacuumed.

It was steamy when cutting the grass and my shirt was soaked with sweat. My across the street neighbor came over and asked me how I was doing. And he didn’t mean how was I doing cutting the grass. He and Ray were friends and he had been in our house with Ray a few times.

That was nice. Most people assume since my year is over that I’m doing great, so it’s nice to have someone ask me how am I doing after three and a half years.

He’s 81 years old (and he looks darn good, too), so I’m sure he’s seen his share of widows. He and his wife are so cute. He drives her everywhere. They have five daughters and three grandchildren and have lived in the house across the street from me for 56 years.

He knows that widows never do OK after the husband dies. He’s a very nice man. A good neighbor.

After working up a lather of sweat, I trimmed and did some weeding.

I also trimmed the lilac bushes. They were taking over the patio. So, as usual, I stressed out about how to tackle this project. Ray was always the lilac trimmer, but I thought it through. I have a small saw in the garage and I used that to trim the branches.

It took 10 minutes and I reclaimed my patio from the lilacs. It was so easy, that I was embarrassed I made such a big deal of it. I’m sure Ray was very proud of me.

My alcoholic neighbors have finally reached their limit. Finally.

The three of them (two brothers and one brother’s girlfriend) got into a fight the other night. Her yelling woke me up and after I assessed the situation, I called the police.

A couple of windows were broken. Stuff (heavy objects that were thrown) that were laying all over the yard. They were all yelling at each other.

The police came within five minutes. After getting the stories, they arrested the two brothers, cuffed them, and took them away. One of the officers spent a lot of time in the house taking photos and left with an evidence bag.

The girlfriend and her friend or relative (a male, very young probably late teens or early 20s) stayed in the house. This male drinks and/or does drugs with them; too, he’s just as bad.

Since I know the landlord, I emailed him and let him know what happened. He was at the house when Joe brought me home from work on Friday evening. I guess they’re also behind on the rent. One of their checks had bounced. He had picked up the police report, domestic assault. He told me he’s going to have them evicted.

I notice today that the brothers are home. I’m hoping they’ll move out soon. I’m not sure how long my landlord will give them. He has a valid reason to evict, so it can be immediately.

So all that drinking and doing drugs just piled up until they had to blow off and do something stupid. And destructive. And costly to them in the long run, as my landlord will file an unlawful detainer against them and it will be difficult for them to rent for several years.

As a sober person, I’ve never figured out the need to get drunk. Asher told me that being drunk kind of puts your problems in the background and you feel like nothing can bother you. But, the part I can’t figure out is that your problems are still there when you sober up, or like my neighbors, your problems are worse, so what’s the point?

It’s something I’ll never understand. So I’ll just continue to be a sober person.