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a harmless nut
Thursday, December 3 2009
Whenever the dogs start barking with a certain level of urgency (and, over the years, I can tell when that is), I run to the window to see what the matter is. Usually it's the gas guy delivering liquified petroleum gas or the Central Hudson coming to check the electric meter. Or it's Federal Express or United Parcel Service. But this morning, it was too early for a parcel, so when I heard the dogs barking like crazy, I ran out onto the laboratory deck (still carrying a bowl of cereal and soy milk). What I beheld was the dogs swarming the Lexus of our across-the-road neighbor, who had just had some sort of altercation with Crazy Dave, the mentally-unusual individual who lives in a rental cabin on our downhill neighbors' place. Crazy Dave has a wild mane of grey hair, and it was this mane I saw heading resolutely down the farm road, several yards behind Merlin, his much more mentally-stable Australian Shepherd. Gretchen had run out and waved down our across-the-road neighbor (whose name is Tony) and asked what was up. It seems Tony had asked Crazy Dave (through Crazy Dave's landlord) to point a spotlight in some other direction than at his house, and he'd complied, but when Tony went to thank Dave, Dave exploded into a hurricane of insults and expletives. Tony and his wife are the kind who really should have moved to Westchester County, and these kind of incidents do nothing but apply torque to their sense of well being. For Gretchen and me, on other hand, Crazy Dave is a harmless nut. Sure, he leaves all the lights in his cabin blazing at all hours and he occasionally leaves candy wrappers on the forest trails, but it seems like his heart is in a better place than that of most people.
It was an unusually warm day, with temperatures rising briefly into the 60s, an odd situation that produced a series of gusting winds. I took advantage of the weather to add an electrical outlet to the brownhouse cabin, which would allow me to install a light. I always forget how time-consuming electrical work can be, and this particular work ate up hours of my day.
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