Wishing On A Move

One of my Facebook friends made a post about stay at home dads. Something to the effect should men be stay home dads? He went into a story about how he was one for a while. Personally, I don't have a problem with it. I think that for the most part men can take care of children just as well as women can.

Now, I had never planned to be a stay home anything when I was planning my life after high school graduation a million years ago. (LOL) My plan was to graduate from college, get a good high paying job and eventually get married, have one or two kids, a dog, cat and a nice house in a good neighborhood with good people. Of course it didn't exactly turn out that way. Nothing I plan really goes as planned no matter what it is from my life to dinner. (LOL) But, I have come to accept life as it is for the most part. I can control certain things and certain things I can not.

I told my son yesterday I was ready to move out of this neighborhood. I miss my more quieter neighborhoods filled with tree lined streets more houses then apartment buildings, more peace and quiet and more neighborly people. When I lived in my grandmother's old house for a short time she lived there for over 50 years in the same house and many of the neighbors had been there in the neighborhood for a long time too and most of them knew her and my step grandfather. So, when we moved there most of them knew us too just from seeing us coming and going over the years. They were friendly and we would chat when we saw each other. There was an apartment building that was next door but only two people lived in the building. The owner who was an older woman who had a lot of health problems. At one time her sister and her brother in law owned the building and then her brother in law died and so he married her, the sister and for years they had always kept all the apartments rented then she started having health problems after he died and when the tenants moved out no more moved in. So, it got down to just one woman and her dog and the owner. The only tenant left was very nice. She had a little dog name Daisy. Daisy was a spoiled little dog and very cute.

She would always say Daisy wishes you a good day when she saw us. On holidays Daisy would wish us a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, etc.. My son was little back then only 2 yrs old and she would always let him gently pet Daisy on special holidays like on Christmas. She was a little eccentric but I liked her a lot. She was a retired teacher and taught piano for extra money. 

There is nobody like that in this neighborhood. Most of the time people can't give you the time of day if you asked them. I don't know anyone's name in this building except for one couple and they have lived here longer then me. And I only met them by accident. When I got locked out and lived in the other building at the time they were the building manager and heard me cursing probably and the wife came out and asked if I was locked out and she opened the door for me and introduced herself. I don't think that if that hadn't happened I would know them either. Her husband only recently started holding short conversations with me. Before he might say hello but nothing more. None of the parents except one holds a regular conversation when they see me. I tried to make chit chat with the rest but that was in vain.

 People who move in this neighborhood they probably think that it is quiet but they quickly learn that is not as quiet as they were lead to believe and the people aren't as friendly as they were lead to believe either so most who have the means move away after a short time.

My son said he didn't want to move because of his friends. I told him that his friends can come and visit him at the new place. Mind you I don't even have a new place an with the rents off the hook as they probably always will be in this city, we probably won't be moving fast enough for me. I was browsing the ads on Craigslist yesterday and cringed at the rents for a studio, they want more for a studio then the mortgage payments were for my grandmother's house. It is a shame, a low down dirty shame. I know it can be worse but I also know it can be a whole lot better too. I count my blessings and I am working towards more.