Friday, February 16, 2007

Scenes From a Balcony: Scene 1

Seeing as how I no longer live in the apartment that overlooks the dumpster, and therefore can no longer witness any Dumpster Drama... I shall now bring you Scenes from a Balcony, as my new apartment now has a balcony that overlooks the street. This required a new graphic. (No, I don't live at the Charles in Charge house. That's what the front of my building really looks like.)

Anyway...on to the story. Scene 1 opens at the nice hour of 7:30 PM. This is when I got home finally. I live less than 15 minutes from work, but I had to stay late. Right when I drive down the street, I hear continuous honking, and I see it's coming from a car parked across the street. (Love the invention of the car alarm, lemme tell ya.)

Fast forward to 3 hours later when I'm ready to go to bed. The car alarm has been going on and off continually every 20 minutes. I've been debating for the last 3 hours on what I should do. Should I plug my ears and go to sleep? Should I call the nearest tow truck company? Should I call the police? Or should I go outside and throw a high-heeled shoe at the windshield out of pure frustration? Finally I make a decision: I don't know the number for the local towing company, but I do know the number for non-emergency police.

The operator has finally answered and by the time she does, I think the car alarm has stopped for good. But I ask her to please send a patrol car out to look in to it. New to the neighborhood, I anticipate a car to come out in about a half hour. None ever came. I guess now I know the type of neighborhood I'm in now. No longer in the plush beachside community I once cherished. I'm in the city -- the real city! With it's car alarms, noisy traffic, and lack of police protection.

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