Strega Singing and Four Paws Acupuncture

A crazy friend of my husband sang at this hip bar/restaurant in Salem, MA, last night. This guy is NOT a singer by trade and does not have a band. He works in the computer chip industry. What he did is he PAID this band to play as his back-up band, so that he could be a singer for the night. Hmmm. An odd thing to do, no? Yes. It is very odd. But then, again, we live in Salem, and it really takes all kinds here in this city. We really have an interesting thing going in this town. Let's see...I'll give you a little taste.

Up the street is the crazy cat lady who never, ever, EVER opens up her curtains. She has approximately 7,852 bowls of cat food food in her yard at all times. There may be a few cats who eat out of them, but mostly it's the skunks, rats, mice, opossums, raccoons and any other critter you can possibly imagine!

Next door to us is a very strange couple. She was a mail-order bride from the Middle-East and they now have twin boys. They are very possibly vampires, as it is very rare to ever see them leave the house during the day, and the lights are on at all hours of the night. Their yard is just weed weed weeds. They do not have one little place for the kids to play outside, even though they could have a nice, little fenced-in area in the back of their house. Odd.

Across the street is a couple who have lived together on and off for 300 years. He is a vet and retired biker-dude. He is fond of a certain medicinal herb and his Budweiser. If you ask him how he's doing, as he's sitting on the top step of their stoop, he will respond "It looks like it's gonna get drunk out tonight!" We adore him! He is our neighborhood watch-person and scares off people that fiddle with my flower boxes or that park illegally!

Down the street is the quintessential spinster. Never married, lived with her sister up until her sister's passing last year. She knows every single political thing going on in the state of MA and will corner you given any opening about why you did not attend this meeting or that one. She is an avid gardener with the hugest, sprawling garden that she still maintains by herself to this day. She is 81 going on 30!

Next to that is the sweetest, kindest woman and her husband. She is our doggie-acupuncturist, the owner of Four Paws Acupuncture. She is wonderful. A dog-whisperer of a different kind. I truly believe she gave us at least another 5 months with our beloved dog Lady, and now she is treating our boy, Koty, with laser and acupuncture:

I love this neighborhood!