Going to the Dogs

Ok, I realize that the job of a property manager or landlord is to make sure there are people living in their rental units & that there's money coming in. I know that empty units don't generate income. I know I live in a trailer park, but does it suddenly have to become a trashy trailer park? On my row, there's a trailer that has an RV parked in the driveway. Its been painted smurf blue. With house paint. They have another car parked there, angled in towards the RV & a barricade piece wedged between them with a few dead cornstalks shoved in it. I guess that's their version of a fenced yard, I'm not sure.

The people that live at that end let their children play in the street & get mad at all of us when we honk our horns at them. They believe its a playground, apparently & that we should walk in. Its ok for their friends to drive on the road, though. They also get to park on the road & pretty much block our access a lot of the time. There are signs posted on every other trailer, stating that there is no parking, that's its a fire lane & that the parking lot is at the south end. They ignore the signs. Some days, I can barely fit my car between the ones that are parked on either side. A fire engine would never fit through & all of us would lose our homes. For the record, I live right at the south end, the parking lot is across from me & I still make my friends park in it.

To get out of here most afternoons, I'm dodging kids on bikes, (who like to challenge the cars), kids on scooters (who think they can outrun the cars), kids on Big Wheels (who think getting in front of the cars & riding is moving out of the way), RC cars (racing this way & that), and adults who walk down the middle of the road. Then there are the things the kids leave in the road. There was a full-sized mattress out there the other day, that one kid had pulled out the dumpster. One of the people at the end of my row has spray painted a sign on the side of the dumpster. It says, "Slow down children @ play!" and every time I go past it, I say, "Yes, I'll drive the speed limit. You keep your kids out of the road." It seems to be a neverending battle.

I'll be so happy when it gets cold & they stay inside, huddled in front of their TVs.