I don't know about you, but I have access to a free channel that is sometimes way more interesting than regular TV or cable. It's called Neighbor TV. It comes with some caveats, the main one being you really shouldn't be caught watching it by the lead characters and the other is that you are likely on someone else's Neighbor TV.
Now I don't have a house directly across from me which is an advantage but I can watch the two kitty corner across the street. The male leads are just plain weird and have no common sense. The jury is still out on the women who married them. Don't get me wrong, as far a neighbors go, they are nice but they do make me go hmmmm a lot.
Channel One consists of a mom, dad, and two teenaged kids. They do a LOT of things together - they are always going on walks as a family, eating out on the porch, and driving off to places at all sorts of times. They usually are one of the last ones to mow, the father did it until the girl was old enough and then when she went away somewhere (college?), the boy took over and he's clearly not interested. They tend to wait about 2-3 weeks between mowing. Their poor dog, he ends up spending his time lying on the pine needle sections they never bother raking up. And I'm not sure why they got a dog, they really don't seem to pay any real attention to him until he barks to let them know someone is running or biking down the street when they yell his name/clap and put him back inside. They also don't really shovel their snow despite getting a snow blower, the bottom of their driveway is always a mess in the winter. The dad did let me borrow their roof snow rake indefinitely as he got it but didn't ever use it and noticed me (see what I mean about being on their Neighbor TV?) up on my ladder. One day he came over and asked if I had a circular saw, he was making repairs to the front porch. Now I'm no carpenter but I really could not figure out what the hell he was doing.
(An aside: Speaking of raking, I was watching them do this with leaves one recent afternoon and while it was amusing to watch their rather uncoordinated efforts with no real methodical whole yard plan, I did get a good idea from them. Typically I rake my leaves into piles and rake them onto a tarp/drag to the compost or let them sit for a week or two to have the frost break them down/stick them together/put them in the wheelbarrow - both methods = many trips. This year I borrowed a leaf (pun intended) from them and after raking them into piles, I shoved the leaves (using my awesome rake hands my mom got me one year) into my outdoor garbage can, smooshed them down by stepping in the can to maximize amount of leafage, and dumped them into my compost. Worked great!)
Channel Two consists of a mom, dad, one bio-child, and one adopted son who is now an adult and only comes home on vacations and never mowed or did chores around the house. I have been watching the bio-child since he was a toddler and he just gets stranger and stranger, apparently he still has doozies of tantrums. While the Channel One kids played outside/do chores and the teenager still does some stuff outside with his friends, bio-child is NEVER outdoors and when he is, he's clearly got some issues and he never does any chores outside. One day his outside activity consisted of walking fast around their car and pressing his face on on every window several times. The mom seems normal - she does yard work, she walks the dog, she has people over, and she always waves to me when we see each other on the street. The dad, now he's a different story. He never really completes anything. Some days he will "clean" or "rearrange" the garage which consists of removing everything, standing outside of it staring into the garage, hitching his pants up constantly in between fixing his hat or tweaking his shirt - almost OCD or tic-like while moving one thing at a time back into the garage and no matter how many times he does this there is never any room in the garage for their vehicle. He will wait several weeks to mow too and then do it in parts or leave off in the middle and pick it back up later. He makes big fires in his charcoal grill which is REALLY close to the house, seriously I have seen the paint peeling off the porch when he left it unattended and it was very windy. They have one car and they are constantly leaving home, coming back, leaving home, coming back ad nauseam.
I have seen several "aww" moments between the parents (each set at a different time), it was nice to see the affection between them altho I just don't get it!
Oh, and just so we're clear, I don't watch them ALL the time, just when I'm taking a break during reading, watching real TV, or just emptying my brain from the day. But I have lived here almost 12-13 yrs and it's hard not to see alot in that many years.
