why i don't like where i live

on saturday rupert had to call 911 for the second time in as many weeks because of an accident in front of our house. we have the misfortune of living at the corner of the biggest intersection in our neighborhood. it's not a big neighborhood but there's a four-lane street in front of our house that's quite long. as a result we get a lot of cars that speed down the street at all hours of the day. we even have crazy folks doing figure eights in the intersection in the evening, revving their engines and leaving tire marks.

the last two accidents were both apparently caused by cars that ran a red light (can't say for sure as i haven't seen the police reports). about two weeks ago a kid on a skateboard was hit by a car. rupert happened to be in the frontyard at the time talking to our neighbor. they had their backs turned to the street so they didn't see the impact but they heard it. when rupert turned around he saw the kid flying through the air and land in the street. the impact from this weekend's accident caused one of the cars to go crashing onto the sidewalk between a utility box and a wall. luckily, there was no one on the sidewalk. there was, however, a family with two kids on the sidewalk across the street. if the car had swerved the other way who knows what could've happened to that family.

every time this happens, and there have been at least four of five accidents that we've been around for since we moved in, i get scared to death that a car is going to come crashing into our house one of these days. it's also frightening to think that everytime we cross the street -- and it's often because we walk to school every day and walk to the park and the library about once a week, if not more often -- i'm putting my children in danger's way. i have to trust that people in cars are paying attention, following the rules of the road, and not speeding. since i cross the street so often i forget that there are thoughtless drivers who think nothing of speeding when there are children around; and i get careless and cross on a green light, assuming that cross traffic has stopped.

so there's another thing to put on my list of "wants" when (actually, more like "if") we start thinking about moving: a house on a quiet street with very little traffic.