Despite rampant bailouts, decency and self responsibility still live.
So enraged at the bailouts I bought myself a nifty yardsign from cafepress. I’ve had several passerby’s knock on my door and ask where I got it. Even a few cars stopped and inquired.
Last Friday night we had just crawled into bed (was a rough week), and there was a knock at the door. It was one of those "Are you kidding me?" moments. Anyhow I went to the door. As I approached it I heard my next door neighbor lady giving a scolding. Now I was curious.
I turned on the porch lights and found her surrounded by 4 teenage boys, and she was still ripping them a new one. She spotted a strange vehicle parked along the road and had observed the teens yanking and ripping my sign from the ground. She basically arrested them, and brought them to my door. Most of them had a "ruh-roh" look in their eyes. She had asked them if they knew what "restitution" meant. One of them who seemed to care less what happened to them attempted to answer.
Then it dawned on me. It was getting colder, and the leaves on my silver maples finally fell, and I have been incredibly busy with life lately. Perfect! I suggested to the young men that 1/2 hour of raking from each of them would cover the expense as well as the inconvenience. However, it was late at night. My neighbor reminded the boys that she got their license plate. I asked them to return the next day on their honor to come and rake. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my share of mischief in my youth. So in a way I was thinking "awww you are sooo busted". Then I thought about the $30 the sign cost me, and how I don’t work for someone else to throw my work away. So then I was getting upset, especially since the sign was specifically about bailouts.
Much to my surprise 3 of the 4 showed up while I was at work. My wife handed them all rakes and away they went. I just want to say how proud I am of the young men who showed for their correction. These boys will go far in life if they continue to abide by such morals (which certainly means they don’t fit the bill for a congress person).
My wife gave them all bottled water. My toddler even went out and talked with them. One of them was aspiring to be a dentist. Funny how it struck me. At first I could care less. After the whole thing was finished I realized it worked out exactly how it was supposed to. No bailouts for them, no grudges on both parties. Just facing the music, like men, and moving on.
As for the one that had no spine… I’m quite sure that he will someday be forced to grow one, but it’s too bad that it will probably be in a much severe way later in life. If he doesn’t learn life lessons now, he’ll end up in congress.
I’m so glad there are people like my neighbors and that there are young men like this.
A few years ago I invested in some ‘lattice’ type covers for about $0.98/foot. I tried it out on one section because if they didn’t work well, I didn’t want to remove the entire length of the house. They worked fine for the first season. But now in the spring the helicopters fall into the slots and stick there from the sap. It looks like I’m growing a garden of helicopters in my gutters. They keep larger leaves out, but twigs and smaller debris gets gummed up in there from the sap and I have to remove them, clean it out and replace them again. My advice: don’t bother. It’s just easier to get up there 3 times a year for about 2 hours cleaning them out.