What I wouldn't give for 'normal'

Sorry it's been forever. My life has been a blur. What I wouldn't give to say, 'nothing new or exciting here.'

As far as I can recall, after the golf tourney was a lazy Sunday and a slow week. I really don't remember anything extraordinary. Friday we saw "Fracture." Good movie. Saturday Rick and I decided to hike the Alakai Swamp trail--the highest swamp in the world at 6,000 feet in elevation. We drove the 45 minutes up there (the last 3 miles on a really messy and steep mountain dirt road) only to reach the trail head in a light rain. I barely made it up there in the mud; we had to turn around.

Sunday is when it all started. I was getting ready to go to the beach (for the first time in a month, mind you) and Josh had come over to go with Kristin to church. When they went to get in the car, the neighbor started shouting obscenities at them. He was yelling so loud and angrily the words were hard to make out. He was spitting in their direction and, to top it all off, he was naked. Standing on his front porch naked swearing for no apparent reason.

We've never had any problems with him in the past. He seems a little odd, but we only ever see him weeding his front lawn, and only in the last month or so. Anyway, they came back inside and the yelling stopped. Kristin went back to get her bag and he yelled at her again. We wondered if he was on drugs; they are not uncommon on the Island. Josh called the police and 20-30 minutes later they were here. In the meantime Kristin was trying to make the point that this was unprovoked and calling the cops gave the man a reason to hate us. I saw her point of view, but it was the only sensible option. When the cops came, the neighbor was in the front yard, clothed and weeding. Kristin and I slipped out, feeling safe with the authorities there, and left Josh to do the dirty work.

After unwinding a little away from the situation, I had the presence of mind to call the landlord (who lives 20 feet behind our house) to let her know the police had been by the house. I was home later in the day--a friend dropped off some furniture--and the landlord stopped by to explain the neighbor had brain damage and his son was killed last week in a car accident. She said he has been harmless thus far but is unpredictable. Great. Nonetheless, I didn't feel as threatened. I stayed in the house alone most of the afternoon with the door locked and Rick came by in the evening.

And I wish that was the end of the story, but it's only the beginning. But it's time for bed--and I've been lacking in the sleep department lately. I'll recap Monday and Tuesday soon.