Sunday, May 07, 2006

Some Folks Just Don't Understand the Meaning of "No Vacancies"

For an apartment building that's about to be torn down in a few months, my apartment building is a pretty popular place. My on-site manager actually rented the last three apartments with the full disclosure that there would be no lease, and that the plans were already in the works to tear the building down and build condos or other apartments, probably by the end of the summer. They rented anyway. So the sign outside our apartment building says, quite clearly and unambiguously, "No Vacancies."

For the last two weeks though, we've had a couple of new tenants who've decided that signs in big red letters just don't apply to them. It's not the first time that we've gotten a duck coming to roost in our heart-shaped swimming pool. Five years ago, a mother (possibly this sexy thing) roosted for nearly two weeks at the end of April with her three ducklings. Last year, another duck (again, the same femme fatale?) showed up with not one, but two drakes in tow, vying for her favors.

And this year -- our last here in the complex, sadly -- we are treated to this couple who come and go every few days, perhaps to escape the crowded filthy nearby Lake Balboa. Perhaps they've just decided that, since the management company has seen fit to lock down the pool until we're all cast out on the street, somebody should be using the fabulous heart-shaped pool. Perhaps they're on their honeymoon, and snapping pictures of them is in really poor taste.

Whatever brings them here, seeing them floating leisurely along the blue surface makes me happy. When you think of all the things I could walk out of my front door to see (I refer you to Mary-Mia's post on Do They Have Salsa in China? regarding the wildlife that landed in her backyard not so very long ago), seeing a couple of pretty ducks, cruising along the top of the water, enjoying each other's company is kind of a treat.

Ah, Spring....

~C~

4 comments:

  1. I can't believe you've been hiding the fact that you have a heart-shaped pool. You shameless vixen!

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  2. Oh, yes... it was once a beautiful complex, before the management company came in and started letting it go to pot. I have a post planned -- complete with pictures of how it used to look -- for when I move.

    ~C~

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  3. I still don't get how ducks just bob on the water, like one of those fishing thingys... How they don't even have to TRY to be buoyant... they just are... well... relatively unsinkable, perhaps.

    I wish I had ducks paddling outside my front door. What a treat. That sounds so soothing. So feng shui.

    Alas, all I have are French maids who always put everything back exactly the opposite of the way I put things (every single day)... and doormen in top hats who make me feel guilty every time I have to use the door.

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  4. MUCH cleaner water than when my parents had the ducks in their pool. Looks positively serene. Now, mind you, my sis and I like to refer to the parents' place as "Grey Gardens" - several pack rat violations are evident and they let the pool go so brown with the ducks and surrounding flora and fauna that mosquitos took up residence - - good times. Good times.

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