Out for a walk with Clover, and I find myself wondering if that guy up the street — a near-neighbor, I suppose, who lives about half-a-dozen houses up the street — has finally taken down his Halloween decorations. He puts on such a show that he starts putting crap in his yard sometime in mid-September. Surely, I think, surely he’s taken the last of the decorations down — huge skeletons that have remained in his yard long after everything else disappeared.

But no — no such luck.

“He can just put hearts in their hands and he’ll have Valentine’s decorations,” K laughs when we’re talking about it later in the evening. “And then an Easter egg!” she adds.

“Maybe a flag for Independence Day,” I suggest.

We come to a few simple conclusion, though:

1. We’re glad this guy lives up over the hill, and we don’t see this unless we go for a walk.
2. We’re glad the neighbors around us have, well, taste.
3. And we finally see a positive use for a HOA…