The STOP Hits the Fan
One person's gold mine is another's ceptic tank. Our stop sign is being challenged by our neighbors one block south, and they have good reason to complain. Their street is wider than ours and for years they've been trying to get stop signs installed at the same intersections we just did. Whoa, are they upset to find we were successful and they were not. They're ready to do battle with the city using every legal weapon they have. I know this because Tony, a nice guy from the wide street, came by today to ask me how we managed to get the stop signs.
Tony has lived in his home on the wide street for a gazillion years. He's been to City Hall many times. Now he's tapping into his life savings to fight what he believes to be grossly unfair. After three hours on our front porch with Tony, me, Gary and our neighbor, Bunker, we all agreed to support one another however we can. Of course Bunker, Gary and I don't want to lose our wonderful new stop signs (what will I tell Keegan?), but for the sake of community, we'll do what's right. It's a long story with beaucoup twists and turns. If you didn't know the whole thing, it's not worth going into, but hey, we're sympathetic to Tony and our other neighbors to the south, so we won't contest their fight. We're all in this STOP business together.
OK, now that I've done my "United Nations of Costa Mesa" thing, I'll tell you that my gut boiled, my skin heated up and my face struggled NOT to contort into nasty grimaces when Tony said he would be filing an injunction against our stop signs. I felt my eye twitch. And I told him he should talk with Gary. Just at that moment, Gary drove up in his truck, as if God was there helping me with this crisis. And then Bunker showed up too. I was able to go inside, take deep breaths and a shower, cogitating about the goodness that exists somewhere in my heart. I resolved not to chain myself to the stop sign pole and scream dark epithets about all the people on the wide street who want to ruin our newly won traffic control and my grandson's glee. I'll "get over it" one more time, then wait out the ulcer.
Best not to get too attached to anything this lifetime.
Tony has lived in his home on the wide street for a gazillion years. He's been to City Hall many times. Now he's tapping into his life savings to fight what he believes to be grossly unfair. After three hours on our front porch with Tony, me, Gary and our neighbor, Bunker, we all agreed to support one another however we can. Of course Bunker, Gary and I don't want to lose our wonderful new stop signs (what will I tell Keegan?), but for the sake of community, we'll do what's right. It's a long story with beaucoup twists and turns. If you didn't know the whole thing, it's not worth going into, but hey, we're sympathetic to Tony and our other neighbors to the south, so we won't contest their fight. We're all in this STOP business together.
OK, now that I've done my "United Nations of Costa Mesa" thing, I'll tell you that my gut boiled, my skin heated up and my face struggled NOT to contort into nasty grimaces when Tony said he would be filing an injunction against our stop signs. I felt my eye twitch. And I told him he should talk with Gary. Just at that moment, Gary drove up in his truck, as if God was there helping me with this crisis. And then Bunker showed up too. I was able to go inside, take deep breaths and a shower, cogitating about the goodness that exists somewhere in my heart. I resolved not to chain myself to the stop sign pole and scream dark epithets about all the people on the wide street who want to ruin our newly won traffic control and my grandson's glee. I'll "get over it" one more time, then wait out the ulcer.
Best not to get too attached to anything this lifetime.
posted by Shannon Ingram | 4:31 PM
1 Comments:
Stop in the Name of Love
I admire Shannon's empathy for her signless neighbors.If I wanted a stop sign on my street, finally got it, and a neighbor on the next street didn't like it, I'd probably be thinking"itty, bitty boo for you". However, Saint Shannon, in the spirit of cooperation, is willing to give her sign up for solidarity with strangers on the next street. Stop the madness. She is just too sweet That
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