I was sitting on my deck drinking coffee, enjoying birds while mosquito coils were burning to keep mosquitoes a suitable distance away. A lack of clothing is too inviting for the nasty little critters. Wrens, Robins, Finches, and Eastern King birds kept my wife and I entertained while we felt at peace with the world. And then, I heard the neighbour’s twins crying next door as their mother was preparing to take them to daycare. The twins are about a year-and-a-half and have a sister who is ten years old. They have been our neighbours for just over two years.
The previous owner was a widow similar in age to us. She rarely left her patio when she was outdoors. The fence between us needed replacing years ago, a task performed by my son and me, a five-foot tall fence. There was a a higher cotoneaster hedge on our side of the fence which made it harder to look into our yard – not impossible, but harder. The cotoneaster hedge was trimmed severely so I could raise the fence boards to avoid having them rot. The hedge, as you can see, doesn’t hide anything – yet.
I never worried about losing my clothing in my yard in the past. My neighbour on the opposite side of the widow frequently came into our yard when she knew I would be out doing stuff in the yard while nude. The neighbour on the opposite side of our property, a divorcee who is a year older than me, has also seen me in my yard. The neighbour behind our house across the back lane, another widow, had on occasion seen me on rare occasions when she sat on her back porch, which was a rare event. I felt safe even if visible.
That all changed. The widow across the lane sold her house to a family with two teenagers, the widow to our right sold her house to the young family, The house on the opposite side of the divorcee was sold to another young family. The street and back lane are now busy with children. The last thing an old man wants is to be charged with indecent exposure even if he is in his own yard. The only thing I can be thankful for is that no one in town uses drones to invade people’s privacy.
Is there even such a thing as privacy? Since I have dared to put this journal online, I can’t really expect privacy, can I? The truth is, I want more people to see my posts there and interact. Last week was a good week with 60 visitors, not views, visitors. Do I blame people from being disinterested or even unaware of this blog site’s existence? Not in the least.
I know better as do you. Our own phones are now listening to us waiting for us to say something, perhaps even directly to them. As we talked this morning, we mentioned buying a product because our children and grandchildren are coming next week. As my wife turned to her phone to bring up Amazon, the phone was already ready to show her the product.
Should I be worried?