Porch Time

Thanks to a break in the God-forsaken heat wave, I am able to spend some time on my porch tonight. My porch is one of my favorite (and newly remodeled) rooms in the house for a couple of reasons.

The first being: my cats love it out here. I currently have six cats living in my home and it can be a daunting task to keep all of them happy. With school, volunteer work, and projects for Lafayette Paranormal Research Society, I keep quite busy. Opening the door to the porch so my precious babies can take in the sights, sounds, and smells of the neighborhood is the easiest way to keep cat poop off my floors and my school papers, along with other documents of importance, in one piece (the youngest, Cassius, has a penchant for paper shredding, eating). In addition, I like to see my babies happy.

Another reason I enjoy “porch time” is the opportunity to air out the house. This Summer has produced so much gross weather that windows and doors have remained shut for, what seems (and smells), like decades. I find it difficult to sleep in a stuffy house; the outdoors smells oh-so-much better. The final, and most important, reason I like to spend quality time on my porch is the fact that I greatly enjoy people-watching. At least once a night (or day) something ridiculous takes place and on my porch, I have a front row seat for the action. In early summer, I witnessed a team of con-artists attempting to get motorists to help a young woman feigning an injury. When I called B.S., they quickly fled the area (I wonder if they were the same three criminals that killed that poor boy).* Last month, a seedy group of characters dumped their trash (along with one wallet filled with counterfeit currency) on my lawn in broad day-light.** There is never a dull moment in the vicinity of Kossuth and Main.

In short, I love my porch and I’m out here as much as possible (weather permitting). I look forward to the fall when I can enjoy it more often but until then, I will settle for little breaks in the weather and not look a proverbial gift-horse in the mouth.

* Featured in my blog in the post “Scenes”

**Featured in my “Notes” section on facebook under heading "Pay-back"