I have an example how how I’m not the only one who is having trouble with all of the people coming to see the birds going into the chimney. First, let me show a picture of the hill before it got really crowded:

We’re figuring there were about 2000-2500 people here tonight. If you look very carefully, you’ll see kids running up and down the hill with cardboard. They slide down the grass on the cardboard. While most of the cardboard is taken home by the parents for recycling, a lot ends up being a present for the neighborhood.

This morning I walked around the hill to see how much crap was left by the huge crowd that came yesterday. It was the night that the grade school encourages their kids to come out. Turns out the thing I saw the most of was little straws and little straw wrappers. I don’t have kids, so I don’t know, but are juice boxes still hugely popular?

My next-door-neighbor had some trouble, too. Most bicyclists just lean their bikes up against trees or the fire hydrant. Dangerous, but I haven’t heard of anyone having trouble yet. Tonight a couple of clowns decided they should walk onto my neighbor’s yard and lock their bikes to their fence.

The worst part is that some neighbor kids took offense (not kids of the next-door-neighbor, but other kids) and put mulch on the seat of the bikes. This caused much yelling by the bicyclists. Heck, my suggestion was for me to go get my Harbor Freight imitation Sawzall and cut the lock. We could set the bikes out in the street, and the clowns would be out $50 for their lock. Actually, maybe I should get a pneumatic grinder with a cutting wheel just for such emergencies. Probably not worth it.