On today’s laundry list of reasons why I hate running in my neighborhood (cough cough running in general), here are a few things that occurred during my run today that left me grumbling as I sloshed through my 3 mile a.m run.  Yes yes, I’m definitely getting old…hold on those damn kids are on my lawn again ::shakes fist::

1. Mothballs

Why on earth do people continuously insist on putting mothballs in their yard? With the teeny tiny postage stamp lots of land found in suburban Florida, you can smell it from a block over and woe to the runner (or walker, child, or dog) that is going past and gets smacked with a face full of fumes. They are poisonous to wildlife and people and could be dangerous in a setting that has kids running around…like oh, I don’t know….a neighborhood perhaps? Not to mention they seep into the groundwater. One word people, naphthalene.  I’d be willing to give a pass if it was just a mindset from an older generation, but most of the times these are people around my age demographic that not only have pets but kids as well. The stupid, it burns.

2. Kids (some of them anyway)

Don’t get me wrong, I have two wonderful girls that I adore. However, they are 1 and 2 so everything they do is still adorable and hilarious. The bung hole that left a giant rubber spider in the middle of the sidewalk…not so adorable. It was realistic enough that I practically ollied into the air trying to avoid it and almost popped my knee out of its socket. Of course my husband who is a reformed little bung hole himself thought this was hilarious. I probably would have laughed too (I never said I wasn’t a little bung hole myself) but I was too angry that I nearly hurt myself because of a joke. Running sucks in the summer enough without neighborhood kids trying to put in my traction, I can hurt myself very well on my own thank you very much. I hope my girlie shriek woke up the entire house.

3. Dogs

Poop on sidewalk…gross