news from the hood

After dinner, we were outside relaxing on the patio, letting the kids run off some steam, enjoying the cool air and watching the sun set over the cornfield. The neighbor's house is close, but not terribly close. They also decide to come outside for the idyllic evening.

A brief small talk exchange later, they light up their cigarettes.

And the smoke drifts right over into our "fresh" night air.

Curses. So much for the perfect night.

Tonight we went on a walk around the block. I hate to sound racist, or stereotypical, but Sean pointed out something that makes me wonder. A new family moved in across the way. They've been there a couple of weeks now. I hate to say that one thing has anything to do with the other, but they are the only non-caucasian family in the nearby houses, and instead of curtains, they have taped newspaper in the windows. And in the bedrooms, they have tacked up sheets. The sheets don't cover the windows, and they aren't even tacked up neatly. Sheets can totally be made into curtains...but these are just thrown up there like spiderwebs. It looks really, well, ghetto. I can understand poverty. Maybe they spent everything just to buy the house. But, even sheets can be taped up so that they don't look like sheets tacked up randomly. I dunno. It isn't that hard to hang a curtain rod. Probably less time than to tape a newspaper mosaic to the window. Strange. I just hope they can afford curtains before we have to sell in a couple of years.