Things That Go Bump in the Night

Around 9:00 this evening we heard a loud bang, so a few of us rushed outside to see what had happened. One of Rachelle's former classmates who lives up the street was driving down our street, grazed our next-door neighbor's Jeep and then smashed into another of the same neighbor's cars, and that car bumped into the front of our red van (the same red van that slid on black ice and into a pole 2 weeks ago). There was very little, if any, damage to our van, more damage to the car that was grazed, and lots of damage to the second car and the driver's car. The owner of the second car has no insurance, so it's a good thing that he wasn't the one who caused the accident. (He's doubly fortunate in that he might not be a legal resident of our country either.) The poor driver that caused the accident was, of course, embarrassed and called her parents to come to the scene. We helped our next-door neighbors obtain the insurance information as they aren't too familiar with the intricacies of those details in our country. (I would suspect that there are many U.S. citizens who aren't either.)

While I surveyed the accident scene I recalled another such accident that occurred in nearly the same spot a few years ago. The "victim" in that accident was our Ford Ranger, and the driver of the car that hit our truck was the boyfriend of another neighbor who lives up the street. (That boyfriend had hit another car parked along our street just the week before.)

Then I remembered another "accident" (which was NOT an accident) that occurred last summer. I heard a loud crash at 3:00 am and then heard a car alarm a few seconds later. A delinquent had hurled a rock through the rear window of a Ford Expedition that belongs to our neighbors directly across the street. The police responded to that incident.

Many years ago we were awakened by yelling, so Lance went outside to investigate. A bunch of teenage boys were engaged in a fist fight in the middle of the road, so Lance turned the hose on them. The fight broke up and the boys left.

Shall I go on? There's more. I think I'll stop, but suffice it to say that we've had plenty of action in the 22 years we've lived on our street. I prefer quiet evenings and nights any day (or night).