I've said all along that the new House of Love IV is a major major major upgrade neighborhood-wise from the House of Love III.
And after a few days and nights there so far the contrast between Clintonville Proper and what I used to refer to as Clintonville Lite is immediately noticeable!
The Walking of The Hoont
When we left Victorian Village in May 2003 taking The Hoont walkies pretty much stopped.
The House of Love III was surrounded by a neighborhood where people regularly threw bottles and shattered glass everywhere and while larger dogs may not have a problem with it, small short-haired black and tan hounds couldn't handle it.
I think we went for walks about twice in the entire 4 and a half years we lived there.
The new hood?
It is like dog walkies heaven!!!
It is very much a dog neighborhood and I'd hazard to guess 85% or more of my new neighbors have dogs from small terriers up to great dane sizes.
And they take these dogs for walks regularly!
In the morning. In the evening. Whenever! There are dogs and people about Clintonville! It is pretty amazing!
What's even more shockings is how conversational the people are!
Clintonville Neighbors
My new neighborhood is a sharp contrast to the old.
In Clintonville Lite OSU campus area, if you are older than 30 your are pretty much invisible. For the most part, we didn't really exist to any of our younger renting neighbors. We only existed to those who also owned homes around us.
I didn't really think of it like this until last Friday when I met a 30-something married couple taking their baby for a stroll past they House of Love III. They were amazed that it sold so quickly and for so much money.
This couple was, like me, hoping the neighborhood was turn and moved in a few years ago in the hopes that things would continue to improve.
Like me, they were also sad that things had gone downhill quicker than they expected.
Anyway, they mentioned that they regularly talked to the renting college 20-somethings but once their child arrived they completely became invisible to them! It was like they transformed into totally different people merely by the fact they now had a child!
The guy even said that he was walking his dog with the baby in one of those chest-slings and some college kids basically called him a queer fag or something as he walked by them?
Huh?!?!
Only college retards could possibly mix and match slurs to call a father walking with his baby daughter a queer fag!
Oh... I so love the retarded 20-something set!
But I digress.
Over the past few days...
(1) I've had one neighbor down the street stop by bringing lemon-poppyseed muffins as well as a Nivea gift bag (possibly for my non-existent wife). Inside the bag was a welcome card from their family.
(2) The neighbor from directly across the street walked over to say hello and welcome us to the block. He is obviously good friends with the previous owners.
(3) The married couple across the street (in one of the Tudor-style architectural historical houses) came over to welcome us. They were coming back from their run and saw us in the garage with the appliances.
(4) We've been invited next door this Saturday to a cookout/OSU football tailgate party.
Now we've only barely moved in and 4 different times people have made an effort to say hello and be neighborly.
This is like... not right. We are truly in a parallel universe from where we were less than a week ago!
And I can't say I dislike it.
Silence
While there may be a lot of dogs around, and cars do occasionally come flying down the street (speed bumps would be a nice deterrent) the neighborhood is extremely quiet.
Almost unnervingly quiet.
I still sleep with some white noise on but on the whole, I think I can wean myself off of it.
What's scary is I think I have psychological scars from living in the campus area.
I'm actually thinking I am hearing things when they possibly cannot be there!
I now expect that when I'm on Percocet or Vicodan but there's no way I can possibly be hearing distant rock music and bass at 2am! No possible way at all!!!
Even the marching band practice from nearby Bishop Watterson High School doesn't bother me.
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