Something oddly jarring tonight

[LVSteve]

In the urban setting, residential streets have a routine. You pick up on when certain neighbors come and go, what time the mail comes, and when the Amazon/UPS/Fedex deliveries usually take place. When things are "off", the more situationally aware among us notice, sometimes to the chagrin of others who accuse us of being curtain twitchers.

Tonight at about 2015, I had a "what the devil is up" moment when putting out the trash and getting the mail. Tuesday is trash day and the trucks generally come early because of the heat, so best plan is to put them out the night before. Tonight, almost none of the homes near my end of the street had their trash and recycling bins out. One immediate neighbor usually has theirs out by 1700, but tonight, nada. Same for two homes across the street who usually have the bins out by 1830-1900. Looking up the hill on our side of the street, almost no bins were in sight. Not quite so unusual on the other side as at least two households fairly close up the hill are 2300 bin rattlers, given past observations.

I commented about it to my wife when we got indoors, expecting to get a bit of an eye roll. Not this time. She said something like, "I knew something outside was odd, but I couldn't place what it was. You're right, that is strange." Nice not to be accused of being in Condition Amber 24/7 for a change. So, have my neighbors all been kidnapped by aliens, or replaced by Stepford families controlled by AI?

 

[moonsterman]

My trash is out as well , streets are quite here too something is in the air??

 

[UncleEd]

You missed the one day delay in trash pickup notification. Or garbage workers are on strike. Or you have a broken clock.

 

[Lonestar57]

It's good to take notice when things seem out of sync. I live at the end of a usually quiet cul-de-sac. Neighbors know each other and watch out for one another which is how it should be. Especially these days.

 

[ladder13]

Everyone went to a Taylor Swift concert?

 

[fordson]

I live on a cul-de-sac in an almost rural area with good neighbors near by. When their habits change, such as trash cans out or not, I notice. Sometimes I have to check with the wife that it is in fact trash day, because no one else seems to have their trash out, they're out of sync…..it's almost as if the neighbors all agreed to pull my leg……eerie…….

 

[s&wchad]

Perhaps there was ripple in the time/space continuum...
How close are you to Area 51?

On a more serious note, a lot of my neighbors put their trash out on the regular day, even though there's a one day trash pick-up delay due to certain holidays (New Years, Christmas, 4th of July...). I chalk that up to poor situational awareness.

I've also seen three different brick mailbox columns that were creamed by drivers and witnessed a head-on collision between a woman in a Cadillac and a young girl driving with her father in a mini-van. I also had an x-neighbor pull out of his driveway at 5am with his headlights off and slam his BMW into a huge construction dumpster that had been on the side of our street for over a week! I also helped a neighbors wife who was rubbernecking a garage sale, left the road and stranded her SUV on a good sized decorative boulder. I chalked those up to attention deficit syndrome.



These were all in a subdivision that has a 25 MPH speed limit!

 

[fatcat3]

It's OCD. Good for you and a big thumbs up for noticing, but it's trash.

 

[65-2x2]

I can't see my neghbors from my house, now I think that I am missing out. My dog keeps watch on the property from the bed beside where I am typing from and she lets me know when anything is amiss. I have about to figure out her language, low growl: Squirrel. Loud growl: stray cat. Raising holy hell: deer.

 

[Telecaster]

Our recycle pickup is every other week, so when I roll out the bin and no one else has, I check the waste collection app and if I have the date right I just shrug and move on.

 

[s&wchad]

It took me a while to find the photo I took of the creamed mailbox. I added it to my previous post.

I was working in the yard, heard the crash and walked over to see if the driver needed help. He was on his way back to work after coming home for lunch. The vehicle had dealer plates and the front end was trashed! When he got off the phone, I asked what happened. His english was poor, but I thought he said Buck. I asked: You saw a deer? He said: No, bug in my car! The car had to be towed.

Here's another subdivision highlight that I captured. New BMW, parked going the wrong way, half in the front yard. Sunroof up, driver window down, sprinklers on!

 

[dockmurgw]

What is this putting your trash out thing? I take my contractor clean up bag packed to the gills 5 miles away on a Saturday morning, where a privately owned garbage truck sets up in a church parking lot and takes it for $8 a bag...I can pack 2 to 3 weeks of trash in that bag. The kid even takes it out of the back of my truck, so I tip him, and he gets a Benjamin at Christmas.

 

[gwpercle]

I didn't put out my trash and recycling bins Monday afternoon ... for Tuesday pickup ... because the wife was gone and I didn't have much of anything to put out ... No sense haveing them stop and pick up next to nothing ... the wife comes home Wednesday and I will get plenty to put out ...
That what you get when you marry ... a Trashy Woman !

Gary

 

[mckenney99]

I moved from a very rural setting, where I never heard people talking or vehicle doors slamming unless they were in my driveway. 12 1/2 years ago I moved into the city, into a subdivision of small lots with all brick homes. The layout of the street and construction of the houses is just like living in a rock canyon, so voices, the sound of car doors slamming, unfamiliar engine sounds and alarms going off drives me nuts. I guess I would be accused of being that nosy neighbor who is still constantly peeking through the blinds to see who is in my driveway, only to find the offenders are nowhere to be seen.

As for noticing the comings and goings of neighbors.
For the first 8 years that I lived in my current home, there was a single, older, very unfriendly recluse that lived directly across the street from me. Living directly across the street from my front picture window, I had a front row seat to his routines which usually included a daily trip out to get his mail and then he would take off in his car and be gone for just a couple minutes before returning home. One Friday afternoon (early 2021 with Covid in full swing) I noticed an Amazon driver delivering a package to the front door, with no one coming to the door. Over the weekend I noticed that the package was still sitting by the front door but thought he had been out of town. On Monday I went to get my mail and mixed in with my mail was a piece of mail for my neighbor. I went to put his mail in his mailbox but his mailbox was packed completely full of mail. I started checking with the neighbors and none had seen him in several days. I finally decided to call the local police to report my observations. With Covid restrictions in full swing, the PD was not responding to routine type calls until I described the situation to one of the officers via the phone, who finally agreed that they needed to check on him.
Long story shortened (too late) after forcing entry into the house (with an estranged family members permission) they found the neighbor on the floor unconscious. The medics initially pronounced him DOA until one of them just happened to see him take a single shallow breath. There was no indication how long he had been down, but he had assumed room temperature, his muscles had set up in a rigor like state and his pulse was virtually non-existent. Unfortunately, ultimately my neighbor didn't survive and I still kick myself for not paying more attention to that little voice in my head that initially noticed his routine was off and not checking on him earlier.

 

[Jim Watson]

I have an interesting garbage/recycling setup here.
A garbage truck goes by every Tuesday morning. But it doesn't stop, it goes on to another street. My garbage truck comes by Wednesday morning, followed by the recycle truck later in the morning.

But today, the next door neighbors have put out their bins although they won't be picked up for 24 hours. I will roll mine out this evening for pickup tomorrow morning.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

There is a fine line between neighborliness and nosiness and I wouldn't feel too guilty about the fate of an unfriendly recluse. In my church a former member , 20 years older than me, like me, a retired Army Reserve/National Guard officer, but we never clicked, the one time I paid a Deacon's hospital visit to him, he was more interested in the TV than me.
It often seems today with more people living closer together than ever before that people want less interaction with neighbors than ever before, little sense of community. I read a book entitled Bowling Alone which addressed this issue, the author quoted another writer who noted "there's no place so lonely and desolate as a suburban street on a hot afternoon." People come and go in my apartment complex with no goodbyes, my SIL said in her middle class neighborhood there is little neighborly interaction.

 

[oldbrownhat]

...My dog keeps watch on the property from the bed beside where I am typing from and she lets me know when anything is amiss. I have about to figure out her language, low growl: Squirrel. Loud growl: stray cat. Raising holy hell: deer.

My cat does the same, but his hearing and eyesight are (seemingly) so acute that when he leaps up on the couch and stares intently out the window it's probably because a molecule moved unexpectedly down by the well house. (Or it could be a bear sniffing along the fence line 70 yards away.)

As to putting out the trash, we are in a "Bear Aware" area and are asked to put out the trash around 8am for a nominal 9am pickup.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

Every neighborhood is different. Our friend above,

dockmurgw

, obviously lives in the quiet of the Vermont woods, without neighbors. I grew up with neighbors, I knew most of them, and I had 9 or 10 friends who lived around each corner without ever having to cross the street. When I got married (the first time ) we lived in a huge apartment building, 9 floors, 21 units to a floor, LOTS of neighbors. I learned to dislike multi-family living, even with nice neighbors.

Presently, and for 30 years, I have lived in a quiet, residential neighborhood. I know the neighbors across the street, and all three houses down, as well as those next door on both sides, and many others in the neighborhood, since we frequently attend meetings and social events. But for the points made in this this thread, two Thursdays ago, it was trash day, and I did not need to go outside, so I didn't. On Friday morning, when I opened my garage, there were my two bins, trash and recycling, sitting pretty as you please where they usually belong. One of my neighbors did that, and I still do not know which one. THAT is the very definition of a good neighborhood!

 

[ameridaddy]

.... So, have my neighbors all been kidnapped by aliens, or replaced by Stepford families controlled by AI?

You forgot to change your watch to Daylight Savings Time.
Or, your neighbors shifted to depending on you for their reminder
I've experienced the same thing, and I now think the neighbors are cuing on me when I put my bin out. It seems to me I've been the first for many months.

 

[DWalt]

Where I'm living, trash pickup is always early Tuesday AM and recycle pickup is always early Friday AM. City always notifies in advance if the pickup schedule changes for holidays, etc. I always put out the containers the night before and check to see if the neighbors have too. If they have not, I know I have missed or forgotten a pickup delay message.