Doors

Today I feel like crap. My eyelids are swollen and heavy. There is no rational explanation for this. I'm doing minimal work at work, but there is some work to be done, and I'm doing it. Dammit.

I don't know if you remember the saga of the entrepreneur-next-door (aka the drug dealer), but back in February he was busted. Since then, as far as I could tell, the lower unit in the building was vacant. Yesterday, when I got home, there was a pile of lumber and a door on my front lawn--on the part of the lawn that appears to be shared by the two buildings, but actually belongs to my building. They had ripped out the old door frame and replaced the door. The new door was painted grey and had no door knob, just a deadbolt lock. You read that correctly: no door knob. Is that creepy or what?

This morning, much to my dismay, the door and lumber were still resting in the front yard. The knob-less door was ajar so I knocked to see if anyone was there. No answer. I poked my head in--it smelled bad. I saw a rather dank and dingy staircase and three (?) mailboxes and a table lamp without a shade on the landing. Where could a third unit possibly be? (My building has four units, two up, two down; this building is half the size of our building and shares a wall, thus it should only have two units.) I wanted to ask them, politely, of course, not to dump their construction debris on my front yard. No luck. I wonder what surprises I will come home to today.

I decided to move the lumber to the neighbor's side of the yard. A man (middle aged, black) ran from across the street to help me. It was a good thing, too, because that door was damn heavy. He did some yard work for us this weekend, under the direction of clueless upstairs neighbor, who has yet to mention anything about it (like, how much she paid him so I can reimburse her). He wanted to know if we were going to hire him and I had to say that she hadn't talked to me and that we all needed to agree. He nodded and mumbled and went back across the street.

I just can't get over the knob-less door. What is that about?? (And in my neighborhood condos go for $300k+ and houses start at $500k. They usually have door knobs.)

Grateful for: helpful neighbors.