Things I've Seen Around the Neighborhood Recently

• More skateboarding.
• Owls flying overhead in the evening.
• People living/squatting in houses with gutted walls and tarped roofs.
• New trash heaps in front of previously neglected houses—the familiar post-diluvian detritus: old albums, report cards, letters, dolls, clothes, furniture.
• An under-the-radar open-air auto repair "shop" run out of a FEMA trailer on the otherwise empty block two streets over.
• A lady in an outfit that struck me as a tad saucy for Sunday morning (matching turquoise halter top and bubble skirt, four-inch heels) crossing herself as she passed in front of a church on the way to the corner store.
• The Hondurans around the corner playing soccer in the adjacent empty lot.
• The filming of a scene from the newest Tommy Lee Jones movie in the flooded-out church down the block.
• Neighbors gardening. (I like to think we started a trend.)