The binoculars are always close at hand

A typical breakfast scene: Erik surveys the neighborhood from our “hilltop aerie.” What’s he looking at? Perhaps a lithesome jogger? Actually, no. When I took this picture he was admiring something poking out of a recycling bin over on Coronado Terrace.

I’ve never quite got used to my man’s propensity to snatch up the binoculars, but I don’t really disapprove either. Erik is a peculiar peeping tom. His viewing interests fall into 3 categories:

1) Scavenge opportunities
2) Happily spotting people and/or dogs we know on the street. Sort of as a sport. (“There goes Blackie!”)
3) Foiling wrongdoers. Because he’s so nosy, he knows who lives here, and has interfered with nefarious activities in the past (casing, tagging, etc.).

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13 Comments

  1. Awesome. And are you also the folks who know the dogs better than the people? I know just about every dog that regularly walks around in our neighborhood, but probably only half their owners.

  2. @Gaucho

    Yep. Dog walkers know dogs, and people through their dogs. Unfortunately we’ve fallen out of the dog walking loop since our dog passed on, but soon enough we’ll get another and be back in the swing.

  3. Oh you need to get another dog. I’ve been without for almost a year now, and I’m feeling the hole. But I’m working on enclosing my front yard so that I can do that (also because I want to grow grain out front, etc.).

    I keep a pair of binoculars by the back door for bird watching, which is pretty good, in these parts, especially since I started gardening. Now we have lots of insects eaters that come around supper time in the summer. Every once in awhile I’ll see something different that needs identifying.

    Your binocular use sounds a lot more interesting, though. I’m also on first name basis with a lot of the dogs in our neighborhood. So dog starved; it’s pathetic.

  4. Aha! Now I know what those double-flashes are that I see when my binoculars are aimed in the direction of your house!! (Actually, I am mostly bird-watching—but doesn’t everyone who lives in a hilly area have binocs at the ready? You needn’t be in the least ashamed. I’m not.)

  5. Isn’t living at the top of a hill awesome?!?! I love looking out over the properties below us as though we are in a tree house or a castle looking out on our subjects in the valley below.

  6. Ha! My husband goes nowhere without his binoculars! He uses them to check things in his fields: irrigation, plant growth, employees lolly-gagging (his words, not mine)…he just sits in the truck scoping out his little world!

  7. @Rena:

    Yes, Erik got quoted–even though we don’t live in Altadena (we only wish we did ;)). Those are our friends Gloria and Steve in the pic with the goats. Their goats are wonderful, and have caused in me an extreme case of goat envy.

  8. i also have binoculars at home mainly to watch the birds at our feeders. I didn’t need them to see my neighbor call for his dogs buck naked at his front door. not a sight i wanted to see.

  9. okay… my mom just turned me on to your blog.. you are cracking me up. i will frequent your site for not only homesteading inspiration, but for a laugh.

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