I named this "View from the trailer park" but I haven't really said anything about MY trailer park.

I had driven by the park a lot before I started going there to see the woman who became my wife.

It is next to a new museum in our region, one I was working at when it first opened.  I was like most people about trailer parks, in that I didn't think much about them unless I was going to one to visit someone, which I rarely did.

Actually, I was more interested in one, particular trailer, because my beloved lived there.  My beloved and her cats!

Did you know that trailer parks seem to call cat ladies?  I did not know that, but now I do.

Most trailer parks are outside the city limits, so any rules about number of animals often do not apply.  Certainly, in our case, trying to find a place to live that would accept 4, 6 or 7 cats [depending on how you count the little darlings] would be prohibitive.  Suffice it to say, we will be staying put until the count decreases somewhat.  A number of our cats are pretty old, and we've already had to have previous cats [and our darling dog Scooter] put down due to illness.

There is another cat lady living across the lane, but most of her cats are inside.  She spends most of her time, says my darling wife, cleaning and taking care of her menagerie.

Once I started living in the park, I noticed new things.  I love living out of town - it's only a short walk to the riverfront trail, which pretty quickly goes through a wildlife area.  When the weather's warmer and dryer, I love to go for hour-long walks.  Sometimes my wife and I even get to go together.

The ebb and flow of life in the trailer park is great.  There are many Hispanic families [our area is noted for fruit orchards, particularly cherries] who have traveled through following crops and have settled in our town.  We actually have children who have grown up here whose parents settled here after working the orchards.  At the library where I work, we often have children translating for their parents or grandparents.

We have a great family living across the lane next to the other cat lady.  They have little ones and an extended family and group of friends, so there's often lots of activity on the weekends and during the summer.  When it's properly taken care of, there's even a little pool that can be open during the summer.  It's great to walk down to the pool, cool off, and watch the kids at play.  I almost even remember what it feels like to play like that.

We seem mom or grandma walk the little ones down the lane to the bus stop on the highway into town.  If I'm home in the afternoon, I can see the reverse as well.  Then there's the tiny one who goes from his parents' place to grandma's for daycare.  He is quite the cutie, and it's been fun watching him go from tottering along to walking almost faster that grandma wants to go.

At night, lying in bed with my wife, reading before going to sleep, we can hear, and feel, the trains as they move along the river.  Most of the time its comforting, but sometimes it's a little distracting.

Well, that's a little bit of what it's like for me to live at my trailer park.

Have a great rest of the day, and keep reading!