On Saturday, July 18 at approximately 4:10 am, I was awoken by what I thought was a neighbor who had lost their mind.

A chainsaw-wielding crazy person.

My reaction was less than stellar to be sure.

What actually happened was that the informed neighbors and our PUD were trying to take care of an emergency in the form of a broken water line. We even had a neighbor try to warn us, but because we are very early risers during the weekdays, we were asleep and didn’t hear the knock at our door.

Because I feel horribly guilty about my behavior, I have chosen to look at this as a learning experience. Just because I have had unfortunate experiences in the past with neighbors, (and yes, one of those experiences did include a chainsaw-wielding neighbor that divested me of 3 mature trees that were well within my property line at the time), It does not mean that the very quiet neighbors I have now, would suddenly do something so out of character.

What I have had to remind myself of is that I should NEVER make snap judgments based on my own anecdotal experiences. They don’t always apply in our everyday lives.

Again, my sincere apologies

Laura Simpson,

the old dog that can learn new tricks