Wouldn’t a rock yard be easier?

Photo by Diego Jimenez on Unsplash

You could be forgiven for thinking my neighborhood must be some sort of “news desert” — a place the Columbia Journalism Review defines as lacking a traditional daily news outlet. After all, it’s not like I’ve been keeping you up-to-date. For more than a year now, I’ve been less than diligent about publishing the news from home, even as I’ve worked to keep you up on current events from around the world through my day job.

Rest assured, however, that my recent lack of enthusiasm for the hyper-local doesn’t mean the neighborhood isn’t up to anything. For instance, spring’s early bloomers are putting on a show. The daffodils broke ground a few weeks ago. Their yellow petals are now spread wide, soaking up the spring sunshine. Also, the flowering Bradford Pear trees in our yard are peaking this week.

My neighbors, meanwhile, are getting busy. Unfortunately, they are busy MAKING ME LOOK BAD. As I left the house to run an errand last week, one was on his hands and knees cleaning out the flower garden near his mailbox. Another was putting a fresh coat of white paint on his picket fence. The guy who lives in the house behind ours is preparing to spread mulch. More than thirty bags are neatly stacked along the chain link fence that serves as the property line between our two (ahem) estates. And to top it off, yet another neighbor made me feel terrible about the sorry state of our yard. He was…