When I left out on the road a couple of weeks ago I knew that the current property managers were leaving and new managers would be coming in. When I got home Friday I found that they had indeed hired new managers.
Yesterday while I was sitting in my recliner and working to finish up my Christmas knitting I heard a small commotion outside so I checked to see what what going on. I saw a woman whom I recognized as one half of the new management team standing on my carport, phone in hand, having a less than friendly sounding conversation with a guy on a bicycle who lived across the street from me in my old place a couple of blocks over.
She was saying that she was calling the police just as I opened the door,. I said hello to "R" and asked the woman what hell was going on. She asked me if I "know this guy", indicating my former neighbor and fellow bicyclist. I told her that indeed I do and that he lives here in the community.
Her demeanor changed and she said to him "Well I guess I won't call the police on you then" and walked away still carrying her phone. It was obvious she was walking the neighborhood looking for trespassers. Good on her.
We've had a real problem here with trespassers, break ins, thefts, and vandalism. The tire on my bike was slashed a couple of weeks ago. The former management here was too lazy to actually patrol the area and would never, ever call the police on trespassers even though the entire neighborhood is private property and there are no trespassing signs and each end of every street, which are all marked as private streets and not throughways.
I'm happy to see that we now have a management team that is willing to enforce the no trespassing and at least make an effort to keep out those who have no business being in the neighborhood in the first place. I spoke with my friend "R" for a few minutes. He was a tad upset about the confrontation, but I calmed him down (he'd had a few too many brews) and convinced him that what she was doing is a good thing and that it'll just take time for them to learn who everyone is here.
He's a good guy but to look at him he does look like a low-life LOL so I can't blame her for questioning his being on the property. He told me he was out looking for his new neighbor who is a 75 year old man with Alzheimer's and has a tendency to wander off and get lost. That's the kind of guy he is, he was worried about this old guy and was trying to find him before he got into some sort of trouble. I promised him that I would keep an eye out, and talked him into going back home before he got himself arrested for riding his bike under the influence.
I took a quick ride on my bent, found the old guy over at the C-store, and let him know that "R" was looking for him and wanted to make sure he was ok. The old guy said that he was feeling pretty good today, wasn't having one of his "senior moments" as he put it, and would thank "R" when he walked back home again.
I then settled back into my recliner to continue working on Christmas gifts. I finished the one for my mother and started on the one for her husband. I should have that one finished later today or worse case tomorrow. Just in time for Christmas.
I did run into one snafu after I started his gift. Just about the time I was looking at what I had done to that point and decided that I didn't like it the cable pulled out of the end of the needle and the work fell off. Argh! I just set everything aside. I called the company from whom I purchased the needles. I know several people who have had the same thing happen and knew they'd make it right. The CSR apologized for the problem and assured me they would send out a replacement set of cables right away.
I then rode to the store to buy some super glue so I could make a temporary repair to the cable and get my work finished. While there I found some yarn that I like better than what I was using for this gift. Once I had the cable patched back together, I cast on this new yarn and went at the project again with a different look in mind.
I'm much happier with this different yarn and the different design approach I am taking for it. I got quite a bit of it done last night and it's looking pretty good. The only bad thing is I am starting to think I am making it a little too small, but can't be sure until I have more of it finished. I am hoping I am wrong, but want to get it far enough along as early as possible today so I can be sure. I will hopefully still have enough time to start it over again and have it finished before Christmas if I have to frog it and start over again a little bigger.
Ok, enough loafing on the computer, time to get back to knitting.