If it weren't for neighbors, what would we do for entertainment?

My sister lives in a great neighborhood in a nearby town. The thing is that she lives on a corner. A very busy corner. The road in front of her house has been used as a cut through road from some busier roads, so there is quite a bit of traffic there, so many things have happened at this particular corner over the last 15 or so years she has lived there.

One time a car, which was pulling a boat on a trailer, had an accident right in front of her house and the boat went flying off of the trailer and landed in the bushes of the house across the street from her. She said that it seemed like nobody really knew how to pick it up to remove it.

Another time, she had a girl jump out of a moving SUV in front of her house because she was having a fight with her boyfriend. They called 911 and she refused transport to the hospital. I think she actually left with the boyfriend in the same SUV.

There was the time a man attempted to commit suicide by slicing his wrist in front of her house and bled all over her sidewalk.

There was the time that a hot air balloon basket floated by on her eye level down the street in front of her house.

There have been some criminals being chased on foot in the middle of the night who were caught in her front yard. It could be that they were caught because of her youngest son's interest in digging holes in the yard. I think one of the alleged criminals unsuspectingly stepped into a giant hole and twisted his ankle just long enough for the police to catch him.

I can't think of anymore, but lets just say that it doesn't surprise her (anymore) to wake up in the middle of the night with blue lights flashing on her bedroom walls.

Well, I just want to say that she doesn't have the market cornered on excitement. Tonight, we were sitting outside talking to our neighbors and we kept hearing firetrucks getting closer and closer. I thought they sounded loud, because they cut some trees behind our house, and the road noise seems louder now, but as it turned out, three firetrucks and three police cars actually stopped about 3 houses down from our house. Being nosy and all, we walked down to see what all was going on, and we watched the firemen all decked out in their fireproof suits, go into the house, carry something ablaze onto the driveway and stomp it out. Then, they took a fire extinguisher and hosed it off a bit. After that, the three firetrucks packed up and headed out. It was quite a thrill.

I thought my kids would like to see the firetrucks and the lights and the firemen in their gear, but they were more interested in the dog in the back yard of a neighboring house. "Look Mom, a dog!" Obviously, a good time was had by all.