Back Yard Loveland

     “Where’s the hospital?” we asked.

     “Right over there,” Carol gestured over her shoulder towards the casement windows by the gas fireplace.  We looked.  Fence, shed, trees, neighbor’s house, his hot tub spa and a small piece of his backyard.  Hmmm.  How do you hide a hospital? 

     We knew there was a hospital somewhere in the neighborhood because we drove right by it on our way to look at the house.  By the time we turned three times and entered the cul-de-sac, we were a bit disoriented.  Where is it from the house?  Right over there.

      Noise was a concern.  Do you hear the ambulance sirens at night?

      Apparently not.  We have never really noticed them.  Maybe they turn their sirens off when they get close to the hospital.

      What we do notice are the helicopters.  It’s hard to miss when a chopper hovers and lowers itself a hundred yards or so from our back yard. 

     At first, when we heard the chopper approaching, we would go to the window and look to try to see where it was going to land.   Did it land on the hospital roof?  No, we can see the hospital roof sometimes.  It didn’t land there.     

     It was August when first we looked at the house.  We never really checked the hospital out.  We liked the house.  The neighborhood seemed pleasant and quiet.  We moved in in October. 

     Then one late October day, when we had lived there for a couple of weeks, the Goodwife exclaimed, “Steven, there’s a parking lot!  Right over there.”

     After deciding her alarm was not because the house was on fire, I went to the window to look out.  Sure enough, there was a parking lot, a big one, and a huge building complex to go with it.  What Aladdin genie had overnight moved a hospital across the alley from our backyard?

    

     Having lived in this house for over a year, we have been around the block a time or two.  Surrounding the hospital complex, including the parking lot, is a nice walkway.  Trees, many of which have small signs identifying their species, border the walk.  Some signs include a donor of the plant and a dedication to a deceased person.

     Our backyard runs into two neighbors’ backyards.  The neighbors’ backyards abut the hospital’s walkway with its pleasant plantings.  If I could scale two fences, I could be in the hospital parking lot in a matter of seconds. 

     To avoid trespassing, we have to walk about five blocks to get to the hospital parking lot. Crossing the parking lot, we pass the helipad just a short distance south of the emergency room entrance.

  I have visited the hospital a number of times, to see a newly arrived citizen, to have blood tests done, to donate my monthly magazine.  It is quite convenient.

    One drawback:  When the Goodwife accompanies me, she always visits the gift shop.  Usually, she finds something that would be just perfect for someone, sometimes herself.    

     In the category of, “Oh wad some Power the giftie gie us/ To see oursels as ithers see us”, here is what our house looks like from the hospital walkway.

      When Spring works its magic, the genie will return to take away the hospital and the parking lot.