Compassionate Curmudgeon

Abandoned Car?

I live on a dead end street that has three dwellings (well, five, if you count the corner houses) but plenty of room to park. Since most households these days have more than one car, this street becomes the overflow parking lot, usually filled in the wee hours of the night by people who don't live in the neighborhood.

Now that wouldn't bother me except that sometimes these outsiders park in front of my carport, keeping me from moving my car.

For the past several months (at least since April and probably since March), there has been a red Mercury parked directly in front of my gate. Some time in mid-May, I began to wonder what the problem was. Was it an abandoned car? It didn't look like there was anything wrong with it. Its inspection sticker was good until the end of July.

Anyway, a few days ago I decided it was long enough. I went to the Philadelphia city website and reported it as an abandoned vehicle.

Today I noticed a police car parked behind it, so I ventured out to see what was up.

I confirmed with the officer that I was the one who had reported it, but I had no idea if it was really abandoned.

He told me it was a stolen car.

New rule: from now on when I see a car parked in the same location for more than, say, two weeks, it's going to be reported.

BTW, the car has now been removed, presumably to be reunited with its rightful owner, or perhaps the insurance company...

What Makes Hammy Run?

There are a lot of gray squirrels in the neighborhood, and it's often difficult to tell them apart, but by carefully watching them and observing their behavior there are a few that I've been able to identify.

One of them is Hammy, whom I've named after that hyper-caffeinated squirrel voiced by Steve Carell in the movie Over the Hedge.

Hammy is very excitable and prone to get into trouble. One time I was in the living room and heard a noise at the window. It turned out that Hammy, apparently in an attempt to get into the house, had leaped from the staircase on my deck to the casement window, which was partially open. He was hanging precariously from the casement window's rail. I don't know which of us was more surprised to see the other.

On another occasion, I was down in the basement getting ready to scatter some peanuts that Hammy had just requested. I have a sliding glass door, and the agreement that I've made with the squirrels is that if they come and stand on the ledge, I'll toss them some peanuts.

Well, Hammy was standing on the ledge as per the agreement, but he must have been especially anxious to get the peanuts, because when I bent down to pour out a handful of nuts, he tried to leap right through the glass door. If the door had been open he would have landed right on my face. Once again, I'm not sure which of us was more startled.

Hobart

I've been seeing a lot of Hobart lately.

This year he's plumper than he's ever been, so I guess life has been good to him.

But it's hard to get a good snapshot of him, because whenever he sees me, he runs away...