Pine Arizona’s Compliance Officer….Mama elk

Nuestra Casa, our Leisure World home down “in the Valley,” is in a  community for 55+ year old “active adults.”   And since we’re all old and cantankerous, to keep us happily living together it seems necessary to have rules, rules, and more rules….52 pages of rules. 

One of the hundreds of rules is that on Tuesday, we cannot put our garbage can on out the edge of the curb  until after 5:30 PM.  There are two kinds of old foggies living in LW—those who stay up late to watch Fox News and shows on their big screen TV’s and then sleep in until 9AM….and those like us, who are asleep by 5:30 PM, so we can be out in the cool night to walk and ride our bikes, see the moon, and then the sun rising over the distant mountains.

So, being the bold, brave 75+ year olds that we are, we put our garbage can out on the curb long before 5:30 PM pm on Tuesday evenings.  This may not seem like a very big deal, but my Danny and I have always been “rule followers.”  

And in addition to having respected the rules and norms of our community for all our life, there are consequences in Leisure World for not following even one of these 52 pages of rules….we can be given a warning, fined, or suffer “other sanctions.”

Furthermore, to enforce these multitudes of rules, LW has a paid Compliance Officer, whose sole job is to enforce all 52 pages of rules.  So you see, Danny and I are extremely bold and brave to violate the GARBAGE CAN RULE.  And week after week, we continue to taunt the Leisure World Compliance Officer.  Our only excuse is that we’re not the only old people to put their garbage cans out early….and it’s the only rule that we knowingly violate.

But for six months of the year, we live at our cabin in Pine, and don’t need to worry about rules, fines, and “other sanctions.”  We all get along in Pine, because we mostly all ignore each other, except to smiles and say, “Good morning,” as we walk on our merry ways.  This way we like everyone and everyone likes us.

We put our garbage can out on the street as early as we want in Pine!

In fact, a few days ago, we put our garbage can out at 2:30 PM, since a monsoon storm was brewing.  And we felt quite accomplished that we had beat the storm.  It let loose with torrential rains a few minutes later.  

As we watched the beautiful rain (rain is beautiful now that moved from the dreary, gray skies rainy Pacific Northwest and live in a desert state), we saw our neighborhood Mama elk with her two babies enjoying the cool wet rain.

But suddenly, Mama elk spied our garbage can out on the street….

And she aggressively attacked it….trying repeatedly to knock it over.  We yelled at her and frantically rang our dinner bell—until finally she rounded up her babies and disdainfully walked away.  

It’s very clear that we have a Compliance Officer in Pine.  Yes, Mama elk, we got your “warning.”  We will obey your rules, and not put our garbage can out early again.  A knocked over can is a much more severe punishment than a fine or “other sanctions!”