Curmudgeon News Update.

It is abundantly obvious that I am completely subservient to the will of the curmudgeon. Whether this be a transformation or merely my true inner self shining through is a subject of debate.

Dawn and I must be terrible neighbors. That would explain why the neighbors on either side of us decided to move. Our new neighbors on one side moved in about a week ago. I’ve met them, but only briefly…while they were moving in. Moving is so stressful that I’m not sure that really counts. I need to go over there now that they are more relaxed and re-introduce myself. My first impression was positive, although they have three small boys. Already the once quiet backyard adjacent to ours is full of brightly colored plastic crap and screaming. While I understand that is completely appropriate I secretly hate it….what is a curmudgeon to do?

In other curmudgeon news I’ve noticed a startling new trend in our neighborhood – basketball hoops. The addition to basketball hoops to houses with children appears to be the new craze. A year ago it was trampolines. It was easy to pick out the houses with children due to the presence of a trampoline. Although the trampolines that were popular last year were not respectable trampolines like when I was a kid. The new-fangled trampolines had all sorts of mesh walls and padding to make sure no matter what the child tried they could do nothing but land on the trampoline’s bouncy surface. In my opinion, this deprives children of early lessons in practical physics and a healthy fear of metal bars.

Ironically the new trend is to place basketball hoops on the edge of the yard so that the shooter must be standing in the street to play. Have the parents mistaken the road in which one ton vehicles travel for their driveways? How can children who have been coddled by overprotect trampolines be expect not to be hit by cars? They probably expect they’ll just bounce right off of them. It seems like an inconsistent message about what it takes to be safe is being communicated to the children.

Well that’s it for this edition of the Curmudgeon News Update. Now get off my blog!