I’ve often wondered, while plugging away at a computer under the fluorescent lights of doom, how businesses can be successful and only stay open during the daylight hours. I’ve always thought that most of us consumers are chained inside buildings at work or school from first light until the sun has set. But just while listening at my window this past week, I’ve determined that, strangely, about half of our neighbors are also home during the day.

There’s the hospital resident who lives next door to us, so it’s understandable that I’d actually see her red jeep in the driveway more often during the week than not. I think she might have bought a puppy, too, but maybe that rapscallion that ran into the backyard twice was just a friend’s. I also learned that Loki, our tiger cat, enjoys leaving snake heads on her porch. Luckily, I managed to find that out before she did.

The neighbor on our right seems to be moving out of his house. There’s been several different pick-up trucks by and various bits of furniture or shelving has been loaded up with the aid of his friends. Today, he has a couple of workmen looking at the place and complimenting him on being a good home owner.

The neighbor to his right is in and out all day but usually wearing business attire so maybe he just has a job that allows for work time at home or requires odd hours. His wife is usually gone all day.

At the next house down is a stay-at-home Mom. I’m embarrassed to report that I thought she was just rotund when I talked to her a year ago to ask if she’d seen our then lost Verdandi, who had been stuck in a tree for a week. Now that she heads out on the path with a stroller every day, I think I got that one wrong. Oops.

That’s five people home in just five houses, counting myself. There is definitely another stay-at-home mom down the street and who’s to say what’s going on in the houses that don’t deliver chatter to my window or deck. I’m not trying to become the neighborhood gossip, I swear, I just find it intriguing that so many people live their lives without what we think of as a typical job and it makes me wonder-what is a normal life in our culture? If the daily grind is really only the case for some of us, then why is it so prevalent in film and press? More likely, it’s not as prevalent as I think but I probably just fell into the trap over the years of thinking that everyone else is just like me, when in fact, being at home during the day is the norm for many people, not just those over and under a certain age.

Now what can I use to make myself feel special?