Spring
What is spring like where you are?
The neighbors come out of their houses and start making lots of noise, thank goodness the trees foliage out between us about the same time.
What do you like most about spring?
Cracks me up how excited everyone gets about planting gardens, and you know they’re putting stuff out too early, and they wind up starting over 2 or 3 times, and every year they do the same thing all over again.
What smell reminds you of spring?
Sure missed that awesome gasoline powered tiny motor smell, here come all the lawn mowers, roto tillers, weed eaters, ATVs, doesn’t matter how wild the woods are right at your back yard, you can smell everyone along the ridge running motors of some kind.
What is your fondest memory of spring?
Tornado weather, booming thunderstorms, deluge, neighbors panicking.
What do you dislike most about spring?
The dogs and cats that get to start wandering around without supervision.
Summer
What is summer like where you are?
If the humidity doesn’t drive the neighbors back to the state they’re retiring from, the bugs will.
What do you like most about summer?
Staying cool indoors while the neighbors run themselves silly in the heat and saying they need a vacation from their vacation.
What smell reminds you of summer?
Sweaty people.
What is your fondest memory of summer?
Sweaty people complaining that it’s hot but they’re too dumb to get out of the heat.
What do you dislike most about summer?
Sweaty people spreading fleas and ticks because they don’t properly treat their pets that they let run loose all over the woods.
Fall
What is fall like where you are?
An all around frenzy of neighbors getting ready for holidays, parades, school events, etc.
What do you like most about fall?
Everyone’s too busy to bother me.
What smell reminds you of fall?
Gotta love that funky burning damp leaves smell that chokes out the neighborhood.
What is your fondest memory of fall?
Everything Halloweeny from the good old fashioned days when Halloween was still fun.
What do you dislike most about fall?
The leaf blowers and the super religious neighbors who are really killing Halloween around here.
Winter
What is winter like where you are?
Never fails that a neighbor panics and has drama on our most snowed in days.
What do you like most about winter?
No bugs, no smell of bug spray, no fear of pesticides drifting around from the neighbors’ yards.
What smell reminds you of winter?
I have central heating to get away from the whole wood smoke experience, which I spent half my life with. Neighbors on both sides keep that experience going, and the neighbor across the road nearly burned his house down.
What is your fondest memory of winter?
The neighbor nearly burning his house down.
What do you dislike most about winter?
Neighbors parking along my yard to go sledding.
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Might need a little disclaimer on this one. I’m not anti-neighbor. I’m actually a really laid back person. But I grew up in true solitude on a big farm away from a lot of people. Now I live in a rural subdivision that city folk think is really great, lining houses up along the rocky ridge, surrounded by forest, and they bring all their noise and pollution and pets and yard lights and virtually purge the great outdoors of its natural experience. I don’t think anyone appreciates stars and bird calls at dusk and spring frogs singing and the utter quiet of moonlight washing a perfect snow any more. I live 20 miles away from the metro area, and every day, all day long, I hear motors, people yelling, dogs barking, construction, and I’m not even starting in on the noxious smells.
I’m not a tree hugger. I believe in people owning land. But people in general are a rabble and stress me out just living near me. No one knows how to be quiet and notice what goes on around them any more.
