The 'Burbs

If you haven't seen the movie The 'Burbs, I highly recommend it. It's old (1989), but has a great cast: Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Corey Feldman, Rick Ducommun, Wendy Schaal, and the fabulous Henry Gibson, plus a few others you may recognize. Short summary: some weird new neighbors (Gibson) move into the cul de sac overnight and exhibit some odd behavior. One example is Tom Hanks' son looks out his window during a rainstorm late at night and sees them out in their backyard digging. This particular scene is reason I mention this movie. Last night when I got home from the Wednesday evening fellowship meal at church, I saw my neighbor across the street digging in his front yard. At that time - around 6:00 there were just two holes and he was beginning a third. No other equipment - just a shovel. At 8:30 or so I went out front to check on the weather, wondering if I should go ahead and water or wait for the rain that was supposed to be coming. My neighbor was now inside the house, presumably, but there were a whole lot more holes and shallow trenches all over one section of the yard with no apparent order - completely random.

Take a look at this photo I took this morning at a little after 7am from my front window:

It's a little blurry because of the window and screen. Then I had to crop it in a bit so that the house number didn't show. If you looked out your window and saw that, what would you think? Yeah - that dude's nuts, right? I just thought of the movie Holes with Shia LaBeouf - that would work, too I guess, since we don't know why he's digging. My kids spent some time this morning pondering the many reasons for why he might be digging up his yard: hidden gold coins in a jar; diamonds/jewelry in an old tobacco can; he's a sleeper agent that's been reactivated and forgot where he buried his secret identity paperwork; the guy's really an alien and he eats worms and forgot to buy some; he's a hit man and has been found out so he has to dig up all of his guns and knives and be ready...that one is my personal favorite :)

 

Pink Spirea

Dunno the name of these

Well, the rain that was promised came overnight with a bang, and it's been banging around all morning and likely will continue for the next four days - we are under a flood watch and a river flood warning until Monday. It's a good thing I got the pictures of my plants I promised yesterday before it all started. Sometime during the night a big tree came down in our neighborhood and they had the road blocked until it could be cleared.

I took a picture of it through the windshield of the truck, so there are raindrops obscuring it a bit. I didn't zoom because I flat didn't have time.

I was taking it with my phone and my husband kept telling me to hurry up. No one was coming - what's the big deal? Every time I want to take a picture of something, he rolls his eyes and takes on this long-suffering expression. That's okay, I do it to him, too  :)

I took this from 2 blocks away - sorry it's not clearer