The pool and the weird house next door

We have an inflatable pool in the backyard. You know, the kind that you fill up and then by the next day it's half empty and you have to fill it up again? Well, maybe that's just ours. Anyway, three of the four kids are out in the pool and I can hear them screaming from every corner of the house. I guess it's a good thing our neighbors on one side are out of town, and the other house is "empty."

I say "empty" because I'm not really sure if it is. You see the house next door is owned by people who rent it out, and since we moved here in 1999, we have had numerous neighbors - some good, some bad, but all temporary. Given the fact that my wife LJ and I are not really outgoing, this means that we haven't really gotten to know any of them, and never even met a few. Anyway, over the last three or four months, someone has come to mow the grass, and every once in a while there is a car parked in the driveway for a day or two. The garage, when I've seen it open, is full of boxes and junk, and usually has a car there. But there is nothing in the yard to indicate someone lives there. I never see anyone going to the mailbox or milling about in the yard except when the rare vehicle is there (usually cleaning up the yard). The other night though, it appeared that there was a light on inside, although the curtains were drawn and I couldn't tell for sure.

You know how in the interviews with the neighbors of serial killers who finally get caught, there's always someone who says, "He was always so quiet"? Well, I'm thinking we might have one next door now. Or maybe a shut-in. Or possibly no one, although I don't understand the boxes in the garage otherwise.

I guess I should be grateful. The last neighbors were a couple or three college age girls (I guess), who had some kind of hippie commune going on over there. There were usually at least three or four cars parked in the back yard, sometimes as many as eight or ten, along with a purple Firebird that was always parked on the street (I don't know what their problem was with the driveway and garage). I could never figure out how many people were actually living there, but periodically there would be a couple of preteen boys that hung around on the weekends and jumped on their trampoline. There were college girls and boys, and from time to time there were older folks as well. We also would see a 20ish chick with a baby. I know that house is smaller than ours, so I don't have any idea how they all fit in there together, but I sure didn't mind seeing them leave.

Ok, now one of the boys is urinating in a bucket beside the pool. Guess it's time to wrap up.

UPDATED:
OpinionJournal.com's James Taranto echoes me in his August 22 "Best of the Web Today" blog:

Never Trust a 'Nice, Quiet Kid'
Cops in Blacksburg, Va., have captured 24-year-old William Morva, an escaped convict who allegedly shot a hospital guard and a sheriff's deputy to death, the Associated Press reports in a dispatch that ends with this observation:

Akio Robrecht, 27, of Blacksburg, said Morva was a couple [of] years behind him in school. Morva "seemed like a nice, quiet kid," he said. "It's kind of hard to believe."

Have you noticed how whenever there's a news story about some crazed (alleged) killer, his neighbors always describe him as "nice" and "quiet"? It really makes us glad the people who live near us are loud jerks.

So I guess there's something to be said for obnoxious neighbors.