Don't take this the wrong way. I don't hate children. I don't hate anyone or anything except cheaters. But when I moved back to this part of Ohio I had forgotten that around here being stupid is a mark of "manhood." It is actually practiced by some, and that is a strange tradition. It is probably why this area is a national leader in drunken driving arrests, drug arrests and illegitimate births.

I have relatively new neighbors two doors down. They are a young couple, ages unknown but they appear about thirty. They have an infant, a toddler, two young boys about seven and ten, a young girl about four and a girl about twelve. They are living in an old large house that was converted into four apartments, two each up and down.

They live there rent free as the deal was they would rehab and repair the damage wrought to the house by the last renters, people from Kentucky who lived there about eight months. They nearly destroyed the interior, and when they fled in the night without paying two months rent, the place was just about totaled. The exterminator spent three days killing the roaches and ants.

(I lived in CA almost thirty years. Out there, when you exterminate or when you buy or sell a house, the law requires it be "tented." The exterminators cover and seal the entire house and garage with a giant blue tent and pump monoxide gas into it for hours. That kills everything that is alive, including ants, bats and termites. Termites are the scourge of southern California... Here they never tent homes but go around spraying with a tank.)

The "two-doors-downers" are stupid people. I know stupid people. I can tell.

They have a large black dog. It runs free most of the time, which is a punishable offense you can pay a fine for, plus you may lose the animal. The children are out of control 24/7. The parents literally ignore them. One of the older boys plays in the back yard with a long-handle axe. He chops at a tree, and he smacks it into the concrete sidewalk. He bashed the side of their outside-positioned washing machine. And while he is doing it his little sister plays within feet of him!

I will call Animal Control if I see the dog in my back yard one more time. I have informed them of that. There is little I can do about the children, but they are decibels above toleration and scream constantly. I could call Family Services about the axe, though, and I am considering it.

Stupid begats stupid.

Another house across the street: I went out on my front porch for a coffee break this afternoon. On the front porch roof of a big house converted to apartments, I saw a young guy standing in front of an open window. At his feet, on the porch roof, was a Hibachi in full flame.

The stupid guy was going to barbecue on his rented porch roof! He stood there with his arms folded, a can of beer in one hand, and stared across the street at me with my open mouth.

I said nothing. His fire settled a little. He wore no shirt and was covered with tattoos. After the coffee I came back in. In a few minutes I saw a fire captain's car pull up to his curb. I watched through the screen as the fire captain walked to the boulevard grass, pointed up and shouted for the guy to close the lid on the fire and get "the Hell down here right f---ing now!"

Another man arrived in an official-looking car. They stood on the sidewalk and tried to explain to Stupid that his activity was 1. Illegal, 2. Dangerous, and 3. Stupid. I went out on my front steps and tried to listen but they were really dressing him down. They didn't take him away, though. They should have. There are safe places for people like that where they can't burn down houses or harm others.

Somebody undoubtedly stupid begat him, too.

My lease is due for renewal in September. I think I am going to look for another place to live around here.