Up-set

I'm just sitting here minding my own business when suddenly the whole house starts to heave. This is a considerable accomplishment on the part of the washing machine given that it's a four-family house.

Then, the recycling bin belonging to the upstairs neighbors is resting peacefully in the corner of their deck one minute and then the next, aided by what seems like a gentle breeze, suddenly goes tearing across the deck, clambers all the way down the flight of stairs, across our deck, down our deck stairs, along the sidewalk, and into the street. Furiously. It tumbles in such a way that if anyone had, for example, been driving in the street at the time, they'd have likely swerved into a parked car to avoid its attack.



I wouldn't bother to mention it, except that this behavior on the part of the washing machine and the recycling bin so closely resembled the behavior I observed in several people behind the wheels of their cars this morning, I had to suspect it wasn't just that the neighbors were overfilling things and leaving their recycling bins unsecured but rather that something is askew in the universe today and it's causing everything to go entirely topsy-ass-turvy.