The other day I walked in the door to hear Kelly describing her hectic day spent driving to North Raleigh and back.

“I’m done with North Raleigh!” she declared with a grin.

Having made many trips myself driving up and down Capital Boulevard during the move, I knew what she meant. Our perspective on distances has really changed.
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I walked up to the office just as two police cars were driving up to the corner of Fayetteville Street and Hargett Street. From what I gather, a man on a scooter ran into a pedestrian walking along Fayetteville Street, knocking him down but not seriously injuring him.

While I was glad the man was okay, I was amused at the amount of response his injury garnered. There were two police cars, a firetruck, an ambulance, and a half-dozen cops on bikes that showed up. One of the first cops on the scene began dispersing the bike cops by giving them the classic “there’s nothing to see here” line, after which some appeared somewhat embarrassed.

I was looking into what Raleigh’s Neighborhood Improvement Grant program might do for my new neighborhood, so I wanted to see what kind of programs were being supported by other local governments.

I think I found one that tops them all. Cary’s grant (Cary Grant?) can be used for beatification:

The goals of the Neighborhood Improvement Grant Program are to improve the health of Cary’s neighborhoods by addressing needs through the active involvement of the neighborhood residents themselves. Specific goals include:

• Improve neighborhood organization and pride by encouraging more resident involvement in addressing neighborhood issues and needs.
• Leverage both Town and neighborhood resources towards addressing neighborhood issues.
• Improve community aesthetics by encouraging physical improvements in Cary’s neighborhoods such as beatification programs, environmental enhancements and neighborhood clean-ups.
• Maintain or improve property values in the neighborhood.

I know it might cross the line between church and state, but I think it would be pretty cool to ascend to Heaven and have people pray to me and stuff.

Today marks the beginning of our very last week here at 8321 Hobhouse Circle. We close on our new home on Friday and the moving trucks crank up Saturday morning. While I’m excited about the possibilities our new home will bring, I am also going to miss this house. Its been so good to us.

Kelly and I have discussed this before, how we couldn’t wait to leave our Garner home and didn’t ever regret that move. It was nothing against Garner but more particular to our house, or more specifically our neighborhood, I suppose. We had no sidewalks and no front porch there. We didn’t have the chance to meet our neighbors the way we do here. Even though our new neighborhood has no sidewalks, our home has a porch and our home sits right next to an active pathway into the next neighborhood.
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