Still Up & Coming

It's 3 am and I cannot sleep; I'm wide awake, not even a little tired. It has been a while since I've had insomnia and this is can be blamed on adrenaline - it's aftermath continues on. Ryan is playing games on his gameboy thingy - Nintendo DS. He loves that thing.


For the past month or so there has been a man parking his van across the street for a week or so at a time. He lives in the van. I kept a wary eye on him at first because we had a guy sometime late Winter that was sleeping in his truck for a few nights - at first he was parked kitty corner to us and it seemed each night his truck moved a little closer to our house. One night before turning in (wow, that's an old person statement if ever there was one) I let the dog out who proceeded to bark and bark and bark at something. I peeked through the blinds in the front window and saw the man and a dog in his truck - the guy waved at me peeking through the blinds. I called the dog in then I called the police. He pushed my button. It took that gesture for me to call the police - I didn't call earlier because some guy was down on his luck and had to live in his truck - although a preferable place for one who is living in ones car is NOT in front of my house. There are lots of bridges and overpasses under which one can park one's vehicle. There is a bridge not so far from our house that is the proverbial bridge under which one should not pass under past dusk. I'm sure it is not the safest place to park a vehicle but isn't' that what locks are for? Well, now I'm starting to sound like a snob.


Back to the story. I called the cops, told my story, someone came out rather quickly; cop and creepy truck man had words - nothing heated from what I could tell. Creepy man in creepy truck drove away. I haven't seen him since. Maybe he went back to dwelling under a bridge. Or, better yet, he was able to find gainful employment and is sleeping in a bed in a safe place.

So man in burgundy van made me cautious - when he was in his van I would give Kea the signal to bark - it's never a bad idea to bring attention to the fact that a dog does in fact reside in the house and that the dog barks - never mind barking is not her thing and tail wagging and prancing for joy like a kid hopped up on sugar is her thing. Dog that barks = some level of added security. Then I noticed Burgundy van man shaving in the morning and getting out of van and walking to the center - where he works - grounds maintenance of some sort. He leaves on the weekends and comes back during the week. Ryan noticed he has a small portable TV that he watches whilst sitting in the van when he gets off work. Van man doesn't stare at us, doesn't say hi to us, he just leaves us alone which I really APPRECIATE. Ours is a relationship of mutual ignoring.

Then tonight there is burgundy van with non-threatening, employed but not making enough to afford a bed somewhere man in his abode minding his own business. There is now also a big, old blue van with some sort of pop up top. The back window has curtains. I pop my head in the house to ask Ryan if the blue van is the "Hookermobile". When we first moved in our neighbors told us about the prostitute who 'works' our area - an older woman who I, upon seeing her, determined is CLEARLY a discount hooker - sporadically and not as often as in the past because like the title the post implies, our neighborhood is still smack in the middle of the "Up and coming" stage of gentrification.

Ryan asks me why I think he knows what the "Hookermobile" looks like. I tell him I'm watching him while giving him the two finger eye point from me to him like in Meet the Parents. I step back outside and finish eating my apple and continue my encouragements of the dog and her pottying all the while staring at the van. There was someone in the front seat and someone moved the curtains in the back. No other motion was detected in the van. I determined by the lack of motion, rocking if you will, that the van was indeed, not the Hookermobile.


Before I let Kea in I tried to get her to speak but she just freaked out and ran around the yard like a rabid dog and made funny grunting/growling sounds. Eh, I'll take crazy rabid looking dog to show off to the strangers sleeping in van #2.

Each time I got up to relieve my compressed bladder I peeked through the curtains to look at the van. Not a lot to see. Just a van with street lights shining on it. I lay back in bed ready to go back to the land of weird preggo dreams when I hear a car door slam shut. I pop out of bed and see a dark figure walking up the stairs from the sidewalk to our house! "Ryan! Some is coming up the stairs!" A startled Ryan pops up out of bed and comes over to the window. The guy is now at our door and there is another person in the street also advancing toward our house. My heart is racing and I'm thinking, "is he going to break into our house? What does he want?" Then he rings the doorbell 3 or 4 times. OK, not a burglar - unless he is ringing the doorbell to get us to the door so he can politely ask us to leave while he takes all our earthly possessions. Ryan lowers a window and asks the shirtless Hispanic man what he wants. As soon the window is open you hear the other person in the street, a large white woman, yelling at him. Hispanic man asks us to call the police. Large white woman holds up what looks to be a phone in her hand and says, "I'll call the police! You tell me who to call and I'll call the police!" These two so belonged on the show "Cops".

I pad into the kitchen to call the non-emergency police number - they were fighting over the van. Eh. The non-emergency line (that I took down from my first call to the police about the creepy man in the truck) is now a business hour only line and they quickly give an alternate number to call. I grab a marker but I can't remember the number and there's no way to repeat the message so I hang up, call again and jot down the number. A lot of work to go to, I'm sure, but I don't want to clog the 911 system with non-emergency calls. The second number is truly a non-emergency number. Illegally parked vehicles, abandoned vehicles... there were 9 options. I only listened to the first few and realized the option I needed - homeless people fighting over a van - was probably not there so I hung up and called 911.

It must be a slow crime night in Seattle because in less than 5 minutes not one, not two but three cop cars showed up. One dude even left his lone red flashing light on. Kind of obnoxious but I shouldn't complain - they answered the call and arrived pronto.

Interruption: The dog is having a dream. Her paws are twitching and she's barking in her sleep. It's a quiet, high pitched bark that makes her cheeks puff out - it's beyond cute. Great, now she's snoring. I hate snoring. I may have to wake her up.

OK, back to the cops arrival. I watch everything through our bedroom windows with the curtains parted and give Ryan the play by play as I see it 'going down' while he is playing a game on his DS. Shirtless Hispanic man gives his side of the story (thanks to our newly installed windows I can not hear a thing save the whistle of the train down in SODO) as evidenced by his outstretched arm pointing at the van then off in the distance then to our house. He sits down on the curb. Large white woman has the stage. Her side of the story is much more lively as there is much more pointing and waiving of the arms. Keys are held high above her head, our house is pointed at. Mr. Cop sitting in car #1 is running their IDs. Mr Cop from car #2 is questioning both parties and ferrying IDs to and from involved parties. Cop from car #3 is bored. He looks takes his flash light and walks up the sidewalk in front of our house and inspects that which falls under the yellow beam of light - the grassy patch of city owned land by the street, the neighbors shrubs, our steps. There is nothing of interest to be found.

Cop #2 has Shirtless Hispanic man put his hands behind his back then cuffs him while he is sitting on the curb then walks him to the hood of #1's car and checks his pockets. It's kind of weird seeing a man stick his hands in another man's pants pockets. After the search - not much of an upper body search since everything was in plain sight - he is led back to curb where he sits again.

Large white woman is given her id back. Shirtless man is put in the back of #1's car to which Ryan commented, "What an idiot! He asked us to call the cops." I agree. Idiot. But who says criminals are smart? Lady gets back in van and all three cops leave.

The End.

One more exciting adventure in our neck of the woods. For the parties reading this that may be concerned.... this neighborhood actually feels safer than our old neighborhood. At the other house we had someone try to enter our house on New Year's Eve when we answered the door - we just arrived home and thought it was our neighbor friend (found out the next morning he was drunk and tried to enter every one's house on our street looking for another party and presumably more booze). On another occasion our neighbor across the street had a gun pulled on him after he told a young punk to slow down in his car. What else? Oh, a meth lab 2 doors down and a crack/meth and who knows what else house at the end of the street. See, our move seemed like a move down but if anything it was lateral and maybe, just maybe, a little bit better. We have 3 neighbors on our street. Next door they are business people and wear suits to work, the guy on the other side is an artist with a 3 year old who is getting cuter and chattier by the day and the ones at the end of the street - I don't remember what they do but they are nice and have a toddler son and they invited us to their open house - they moved in shortly after we did. We looked at their house and decided it wasn't for us. That made for some awkward conversation. David, I think that's his name, said, "So, you guys probably looked at this house, too and decided you didn't like it." Yipes. What do say in response to that? We told him it was too close to the busy road - which was true. We didn't like that it was adjacent to such a busy street. It seems much quieter 3 houses in.

OK, now I'm just rambling. I'm tired again but I'm also hungry. Time for snack then beddie-by again.