As I looked over the damage to my house and yard from the recent hurricane, I was reminded of a Japanese haiku written by a man who had lost the roof to his house. In the haiku he finds that with the roof gone he has a much better view of the moon. I guess I need to look at the damage to my fence the same way. Now that my fence is damaged I have a much better view, a much better view of my neighbor's house, more specifically my neighbor's master bedroom window.
It's a funny thing about fences, while they typically aren't built tall enough, or strong enough to keep people out, once a fence is built a boundary is defined and people generally respect that boundary. Certainly most people could climb a 6' fence, but they typically don't, they simply go around it. For the owner of the fence, the fact that people don't encroach through the fence enables them to feel a sense of security and privacy once they have a fence.
Strangely, it seems some people who've grown accustomed to the privacy and security may not immediately realize all the repercussions when their fence is blown down in a hurricane. Well, at least my neighbors don't seem to have absorbed it completely. I realized this as I watched Bill, my neighbor, walk into his bedroom taking a last sip of coffee, step into the bathroom to place the cup on the counter and return to kiss his wife goodbye for the day.
I don't want to imply that my neighbor's are completely stupid, you see, all of the fence did not go down in the storm, just a small part, where a tree broke out a section of boards in the corner. It just happens to be a convenient corner to set up a lawn chair next to my bush and lean forward a bit to watch. Anyway, after the kiss goodbye, Bill headed to his car and his wife, Candice, disappeared into the bathroom to take a shower.
Today Candice's departure reminded me that I needed my binoculars, so I quickly scrambled back to my garage, grabbed the binoculars and moved back to my lawn chair. Sure enough, after a few minutes wait I found myself adjusting the focus as she finished drying off her shoulders and then wrapped the towel around her head. It's so sexy how the women do that.