A Slippery Slope

 There's no pictures with this mornings blog.  This has been on my mind for the last week or so and I just feel I should get it out there.

Remember my neighbor?  Maybe I didn't give you the whole story.  It's been a little weird.  When I bought this property I was the County's Property Tax Manager.  The house next door had sold just a week before I bought mine.  I knew it was purchased by a single woman, probably divorced since her name had been part of another house at one time.  It was funny that there seemed to be a husband at the house.  Let me just say this is a pretty nice expensive neighborhood.

People in California are not very friendly when it comes to being neighbors.  We never talked for probably six years.  Wasn't I surprised when I came home one day to find a murder had happened next door.  I knew they raised goats for high school FFA and 4H projects.  

This guy bought a goat for a pet and kept it there.  Turns out he was in love with the married (male) minister from a local church.  When the minister rebuffed him, he lured him over on the pretense of feeding the goat.  He waited for the minister to arrive, then shot him in the head three times.  Amazingly, the minister lived.  

During all of that, I sat on the driveway with the neighbor/ex-husband (about 50 years old) who seemed to now live there, and we chatted.  He said he worked nights about sixty miles away.  Sure enough, I would see him come home every morning since I'm up so very early.

One morning as I walked outside, I smelled marijuana.  When you worked in Yosemite National Park in the 70's, you definitely knew what that smell was.  I never tried any because just the smell made me sick as a dog.  The neighbor proceeded to tell me he got it from his "doctor" out of town and that he absolutely LOVED it.  It made him relax he stated.

About that time was when he disappeared for awhile.  Turns out he had a fight with the ex-wife and was now parking his car around the corner and walking to the house, sneaking into the garage and sleeping in the attic, unknown to his ex who worked days.  When he finally got caught (he told me the whole story) apparently she let him back into the house, or at least the garage.

The marijuana smoking happened every single morning.  He would apologize for talking a mile a minute, say I could probably tell he had been smoking and changed the subject in a split second.  I could definitely see the change happening and I could see his "doctor" bringing him more and more stuff.

One day when he had their dog out in my front yard, he told me he had tried meth.  WOW he stated!!!  That stuff is amazing!!!  No it's not .... stay away from that.  Funny, I noticed his truck was no longer around and he was out and about during the day, when he would normally be sleeping.  I wondered if he lost his job.

The next thing I know, he's knocking on my door wanting to use my phone.  He said he didn't know why, but he had lost SEVEN phones in the last six months.  Of course I figured he had sold them for drug money.  I'm sorry I stated, but I don't want you calling your marijuana supplier friend on my phone.  Oh no ... I just want to call my daughter.  I listened to the conversation and he was asking her to bring his "package", more like drugs, with her when she came this way.  He was very insistent when she apparently said no.

When he hung up, he said he was moving back East, that I wouldn't see him again.  Good luck I said as I closed the door.  As it turns out he has been seen on many occasions by other neighbors, riding his bicycle near the worst part of town, drug city to be exact, and looks like Hell.

I'm very sad because he used to be such a nice guy, rather friendly after all, very good looking and in great shape.  Now he's a drug addict.  

For those who think marijuana is just like tobacco, it can soon become a slippery slope that you may not return from.  I rather expect to hear of his death any time.   Even sadder to know his family just doesn't care.  

A life completely wasted for nothing.

I now keep my garage doors locked every second of the day and night.