They’re Still Here

My neighbors pulled off a stunning feat and managed at the last minute to scrape together enough money to avoid eviction.

They did that by sticking a sign into the yard stating, “We sell drugs.” Not really, but the amount of traffic we saw pulling up to their house during the two weeks before the eviction hearing was unbelievable. I thought the first rule of selling drugs was NOT to sell them out of your house. Guess they never learned that rule.

Joe and I kept track of the traffic by writing down the car makes, license plate numbers, and description of the drivers, time, and the type of interactions we saw. You know, the quick trip out of the house with a box of donuts to a driver in vehicle that stays less than 15 seconds. No time for a “thank you,” I guess.

I’ve often suspected them of dealing, but it wasn’t quite as obvious as it was at the end of August and into the beginning of September.

But the really sad thing about it is that the kids are doing it, too. I’ve seen several instances of when a car pulls up, instead of an adult going outside with the goods; it’s one of their kids. I suppose people who might be observing will be less suspicious if it’s a kid.

I also observed the guy pull a gun out of the back of his car and put it in his cargo pants pocket one morning.

Yeah, drugs are a dirty and dangerous business.

And it’s right next door to me. Grrrrr.

Eventually I’ll call the drug task force and turn my information over to the police. Whether it goes anywhere is anyone’s guess. All I can hope is that they get behind on the rent again and are unable to avoid eviction or the landlord doesn’t renew their lease, which is up at the end of December.

The landlord doesn’t like the house empty, so as long as the rent is getting paid and the house isn’t on fire, he won’t get rid of them.

But a good thing is that eventually the weather will cool off and people will stay in their houses and we won’t have to look at them so much.

But will the weather ever cool off? It’s still summer here in Minnesota. I can’t ever remember leaving out my indoor plants outside this deep into September before. I used my AC a lot, and I really don’t like air conditioning, but we needed it to keep our sanity.

A lot public schools in Minnesota are not air conditioned, because there hasn’t been any need for it. But school started on a 90 degree note and I’m sure the kids were sweltering in their classrooms.

The leaves are turning early, because it’s been so dry. I don’t think we’re going to have good color this year, because the leaves are dying, not turning.

I’ve finally confirmed that deer are eating my rosebuds. I have several rosebushes and after the few initial blooms of the summer, anytime the bushes were ready to bud again, something was eating the buds right off the stems. They were too high to be rabbits, and I often thought it was deer, and last week it was confirmed, I found deer poop in the backyard.

I live in the middle of the city, but there are turkeys living across the street (the bird, not people!), foxes, deer, rabbits, and coyotes. Pretty soon the bears will move in, too. It’s crazy.

And it’s crazy these stupid drug dealers live right next door to me.