Thursday, August 23, 2007

The odd thing about port-a-potties...

Hi. This is a non-knitting post, but hey. I'll leave you with a nice pretty picture at the end. Deal?

So. Some of you may or may not know that my husband and I live in a relatively new development. Now, if you've seen these new developments, you know that they give you nice happy grass and a tree in the front yard and a big pile of dirt in the back. And then they require you to do your own landscaping. We were some of the last people to move into this development, hence, we are pretty much the only ones who still have dirt in our back yard (actually, it's a jungle of weeds that the dogs stalk crickets through) and the neighbors are starting to look at us funny.

Enter the landscaping company. We contracted to get some landscaping done.. uh... to be honest, it's a total overhaul. Being that this is a multi-day job, this nice landscaping company put a port-a-potty outside our yard on the sidewalk.

So the odd thing about port-a-potties is how many random people just stop by to use them. I understand the landscaping crew, that's fine. But the other night some random dude drove up in a truck, used our port-a-potty, and then tore out of the neighborhood like his hair was on fire. Just now the solid waste folks (yeah, I know, but I'm not going there) stopped their massive truck, both used our port-a-potty, and took off. There have been other incidents, but I wasn't here, the neighbors told me about it.

I don't know why, but all this random port-a-potty using seems really strange to me. I hate port-a-potties. I will only use them under extreme duress. I suppose it's easier for guys, since they don't have to sit down, but still. It's just gross. Isn't it gross? I mean, honestly. Just thinking about all this makes me wanna go wash my hands.

Let's change the subject. This nice new neighborhood also has a big field that they land and launch hot air balloons from. Hence:


This first one is from one of the loft windows looking left. You can just almost see the mountains under the right balloon...

The next shot is from what used to be our back stoop. The line on the right is my house. You see that park on the left? A few weeks ago, one of these balloons almost landed in that park!





The neighbor behind us got a good view...

4 comments:

Cecilia said...

That is so cool that you have hot air balloons to enjoy up close like that! And I totally agree about the porta potty. I have, in moments of extreme desperation, considered stopping at roadside porta potties, but have always ruled it out, partly because that porta potty belongs to someone else, and partly because I guess I've never been THAT desperate. I would almost always choose peeing in nature over peeing in a porta potty.

Anonymous said...

That is weird about the portapotty. It's cool that you can see the balloons like that though. I'm just close to a military base so I get to see the planes fly over. Much noisier.

bunchkin said...

I'll have to admit to using one of those "on the street for someone's home improvement projects" port a potties. I was yard saling. My 4 year old was threatening to pee in his pants. I was desperate. It was either that, or open the car door and let him pee all over someone's front yard. As gross as it was, I'd rather go in the port a potty than have to stand there red faced while he did his business! :-)

Anonymous said...

I have to confess too that we once stopped on our walk around the neighborhood to use a portapotty since my then 3yo was not going to make it. In my defense, it was in front of a house that was not finished being built yet.

Your neighborhood is beautiful! We had to deal with that too when we had our home built. The landscaping in the backyard was ugh for 6 months until we were able to get it finished! The balloon are really cool!