Heading Home (nonpoker content)

Have you ever been to Richmond, VA? Not much of a place. It's not too bad. It's like a typical midsize city in America I think. It's got decent shops, restaurants, nice suburbs, etc etc. But unlike the major cities, it's boring. Of course, if you're from a smaller town, this place is probably perfect as a place like NY or LA might be too big. But growing up in Tokyo, I have to admit... it's boring here.

However, one thing I do love about Richmond is its newly (relatively speaking) renovated airport. The best part? FREE Wi-Fi. Yep, that's right. Now I know most airports have wireless access but it's not the same if you have to pay for it. Hence, this is one airport where I don't mind coming early so that I could just chill out and play poker till the last minute... or blog, like I am currently doing.

But, I didn't fire up my computer to just give you a status update of my travels. Wait, I guess I never said where I was going. I am going home (to Tokyo, Japan) for 2 weeks. Should be a good time. Well, anyways, so this morning, I get up, get ready and when the transportation service comes to pick me up to take me to the airport, the neighbor across the street yells out at me as he's walking his kid to school.

"Hey Alan!"

"Hey Todd."

"Hey man, you gotta do something about your yard. I mean I'll help you but... quite frankly, your yard looks like crap!"

Now, let me give you a brief description of our yard. Is it crappy? I don't think so. Is it meticulous like my neighbor's who is a stay at home dad? No. So, there are some shrubs that need to be trimmed, some weeds that need to be attended to, etc. It's by no means perfect which is why I had the landscaping contractor come by to give me an estimate and scheduled for him to service our lawn in 3 weeks... which was his first available. This, after we already tried 3 different contractors who were booked up.

Another problem was that our shutters by the window came loose and one actually fell. But they were on the second floor and I don't have a tall enough ladder. And it just happened so I called someone else to take care of that situation as well. Should be fixed by next week.

So anyways, our pleasant neighbor continues his morning rant.

"And your shutters are loose, one's missing, and it just looks awful man. It's not helping us sell our house."

Now keep in mind, this classy neighbor is yelling this out from across the street instead of having the dignity (read: balls) to come up to me and talk to me like an adult. And his kid is right there!!!

So I counter with this:

"Well, good thing you are moving. You don't ever have to look at our yard!"

Neighbor: "Yeah, it must be nice to be you. You get to see our nice yard while I have to look at your crappy yard!" (yard fight!!!!!)

Me: "Well, I'm just glad I would no longer have to look at your ugly mug. And don't worry, we have a contractor coming to take care of it. He'll be here in a few weeks."

Neighbor: "Few weeks!? Why don't you do something about it!?"

Me: "I'm going out of town."

Neighbor: "Must be nice!" (heavy sarcasm)

Me: "The best part is, I don't have to see you for the next few weeks. Have a good day!"

And I hop into my ride. I'm fairly certain if his kid wasn't next to him, a few f-bombs woulda been dropped. But no need to go there just because his dad has no class.

One thing I wish I said was when he said something about taking care of my lawn, I wanted to drop a stache reference since he's sporting one... just didn't come to me quick enough. My buddy pouringreign woulda had a field day with that one.

Alright, we're boarding. Have a good long holiday weekend all!!!