Change of pace here. As many of you who read my blog know, I'm a graduate student at New Mexico State University.
Which is in Las Cruces.
Which is basically little Mexico.
Most of the time, when I try to commingle with "ranch-type" folks (like myself), I feel like I've happened into a spaghetti western gone horribly wrong.
That being said, I am a college kid and therefore do not live in one of the nicest parts of town, to say the least. It's not a bad part of town, per se, and all of my neighbors have been exceptionally nice thus far. But... well... I'll just have to let the situation speak for itself.
I came home from Christmas break the second week of January to a new addition to my street. I live at the end of a cul-de-sac, and thankfully my landlord had a carport installed behind my house near the yard gate, so I always park back there and not on the street. My immediate neighbors also have taken to mostly parking in the back. Consequentially, it seems that one of my other neighbors took advantage of the extra space on the street.
Before I go any further, I'll have you know that I am the furthest thing from racist so I'll ask you to refrain from calling me one.
But these particular neighbors air on the "sketchy" side.
When I say "sketchy", I mean that their Civic's hood and driver's side door are not only different colors from each other, but also from the rest of the car.
I mean that they have a one eyed cat that often eyes me (pun intended, no pun intended, I'm not sure) from his perch on said car.
I mean that they pay their rent entirely in cash each month (or so says the grapevine).
These neighbors also happen to be Mexican. As a result, I have taken to mentally referring to them as the Sketchicans.
Nice folks, though.
I digress. I come home from Christmas break, and this is on my street:
Now, I'm not sure that you can entirely see what is going on here. So I zoomed in and snapped a closer picture (from my incognito spying position around the corner of my unit) so that you could get the full effect:
Yeah. That's right.
There is a basketball goal.
On my street.
Chained and padlocked to the rim of an SUV.
I would like to point out that this particular SUV was not regularly on the premises before the arrival of the basketball goal. I can only assume that a friend has loaned the SUV, and in return gets to use the goal.
Ya'll, the basketball goal (and thus, the SUV) has not moved for at least 4 weeks (I'm assuming this was a Christmas gift so it's probably closer to 4 or 5 weeks now). Lord knows how long it's going to sit there.
Not that I mind! It doesn't affect me. Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, it's great. There's some grown(ish) men that participate in the evening games but usually it's junior high aged kids out there, which is way better than them sitting inside mindfully watching TV or playing video games, right?
I mean, it definitely is a little bit... "sketchican" of them.
But, kudos to them for investing in something active.
And kudos to them for protecting their investment!
Stay positive, my friends. -C.
