Family Outing or Neighborhood Rehab

We live on the east edge of town. We have an abandoned house to the west, abandoned mobile homes to our north, across the street to the south is an old livestock yard. To the east a mill house and granary are also abandoned.

I took a break from email, editing and laundry this afternoon. My darling husband suggested a walk over to the mill house property. Being a slow walker, I climbed into my t-bird and drove over to meet them.

The lower reaches of the grain towers and the metal out buildings are a practice canvas for young people with spray cans. Some local people have taken to dropping off 80s and 90s style couches. It also appears to be a requirement to smash bottles after they are empty.

We were poking about, stirring up the wild life and taking pictures. I appraised various tags and Jeepers, our grandson set about housekeeping.

He was putting a cushion on an eighties type couch. I looked just over his shoulder in time to see a police man with his shiny parts.

The officer told us the obvious things, people are vandalizing the area, others are dumping furniture and we shouldn’t go inside any of the silos or buildings.

He said he stopped by because he saw my car parked there.

I told him what he already knew because he no doubt ran my tag. We came over from right across the way and if anything we were making improvements because our grandson was putting the couches back together.

The officer didn’t seem to see the humor I tried to bring to the situation. But, he left us there.

We took more pictures. I wonder where the police were when the tags were going up. I am impressed by how quickly he arrived on the scene of our little family outing. I am sure my husband will let me know if we made the police reports.

So, what do you do on a hot summer day?