Nerve

They took it. I know they did. I didn't see them actually take it, but I knew it, I knew they were the culprits.

I heard a door slam very early this morning. Then another, and another. Hoops, and hollering and laughter. They were at it again. The kids, well technically teenagers, were across the street next door goofing around at just after 5a.m.

I wasn't surprised, they are there all hours of the night some week-ends. Usually they come at midnight and stick around til 1 or 2 before taking off home or other parts unknown.

But this morning they were there early just before daylight. Just before it was light enough for me to go search for the Sunday paper.

Of all the nerve! I knew they took it, they knew I knew that they took it. They knew I was watching them. I didn't trust them, first my paper, then who knows what next. Usually I pay them no mind, kids will be kids was my motto. All kids hung out and drank beer at some part of their adolescence. Other than picking up a bit of trash and empty beer cans the next day I usually had no problems with them.

But they had crossed the line. They had stolen that most sacred of things, my Sunday paper. I think they knew they had erred in their ways too. They didn't stay long. Just long enough to drink a few beers, play in the cornfield across the road and toss ears of corn at each other. When it was lighter and they had left I went in search of my paper.

I found it, ripped from it's brightly colored orange plastic wrap. It was rumpled, damp from the wet grass and looking a bit forlorn but it was all there. I bundled up my paper and walked back across the street feeling like my paper had  been violated. Gone was it's new fresh paper smell, it felt dirty and used and I was half way tempted to toss it and get a new paper. But that would have been ridiculous. So I read my paper half hearted-ly but it didn't feel the same. My quiet, idyllic Sunday morning had me fuming.

I noticed there seemed to bit of that going around on the internet lately. Mr. Oz posted yesterday about a lady trying to make off with some shirts at his garage sale. Already at the cheap price of a dollar, she evidently thought the deal wasn't sweet enough.

I read on a fellow face booker's wall about their neighbors sneaking over and stealing the rocks from their rock garden so they could build a fire pit. I was glad to hear he did get his rocks back, but it makes you wonder just what are people thinking?

My mom came thru the door the other day very agitated and upset. "What's wrong", I asked. "They are at it again", she replied. "They are driving thru my yard again". It's the same old story from last year. There is a guy in town who has a 4-wheeler and likes to drive it thru her front yard. There is an alley way up at one end of her yard, and a private access road down the hill at the bottom of her backyard. Across from it, is another piece of land that is all timber and brush and it also belongs to my mom. To the South of her is a farm field, and to the North of her is the road that curves around a corner.

The 4-wheeler guy likes to drive down the alley from his yard and drive thru her front yard, behind her chicken coop and another shed to drive down the access road into the farmer's field and into the wooded areas beyond. Most times he just drives thru the front yard, but he will on occasion drive thru her back yard, a couple times, even thru her garden in the early spring and winter. He will maneuver his way thru the wooded area, driving thru the other plot of land of hers and end up back on the road, making giant circles.

Last year when my brother lived here he had a talk with him and it stopped. Well, now that my brother has moved from the area it has started up again. I guess the guy feels he has nothing to fear from a little old lady. He would be surprised to know that little old lady wanted to put up an electric fence and hoped he would run into it. I had to talk my mom out of that. Even though it would give her some small satisfaction it would be dangerous. I warned her about him getting clothes-lined. He could be seriously hurt, and even though he was trespassing he would sue her for any injuries and would most likely win. That is just how our justice system seems to be any more.

It makes you wonder just what in the world is going on? Just when was it that the world started being so indifferent, so callous, so self absorbed to think that anything goes. If they want something, take it. If they see an opportunity for personal gain, take it. It's not just from the current younger generation, it's everyone.

You wait patiently in line, someone always tries to cut in, and then acts indignant when called out on it. Driving the speed limit and following the traffic rules, somebody passes around you on the shoulder of the road so they won't have to obey the limit behind you. It's the people that steal flowers from your yard, steal parking spaces from the handi-capped, pocket items accidentally lost by others. It's a constant sense of entitlement and believing that rules don't apply to them, or their kids, or their pets, or anything that would inconvenience them.

It drives me nuts this lack of basic good manners. This lack of integrity and doing the right thing, and recognizing boundaries, and of what is just right and wrong.

Today the phone rang and upon answering it, was the blaring pre-recorded political message by a current presidential candidate. I could only put the phone back on it's cradle with a little more force than usual. I could only mutter under my breath about telemarketers and the like calling on a Sunday. Of all the nerve!