I’m extremely lucky to live where I live. In more normal times, I’m two blocks from a station on the Metro line that runs to my job, have plenty of grocery stores, drug stores, etc., live near beautiful parks, and am not far to fantastic trails and urban wilderness. During this…challenging…time, I am per order of the Hon. Ralph Northam, meant to stay as close to home as much as possible. In other words, walking down to Roosevelt Island or through Lubber Run park is probably not what the elected leader of the Commonwealth had in mind. That said, I do live in a rather beautiful (if you like older homes) and certainly walkable neighborhood. This will be fine.

Except…the number of Ring cameras in my neighborhood seems to grow daily. Especially at night when their pale blue eyes burn the brightest.

You know, Ring? The doorbells that do all sorts of fantastically creepy shite and Ring handles the mountains of data they generate in a thoughtful and caring way.

Nevermind the facial recognition. We’re living in the future! If the future was the early 1990s when video door bells first became a thing.

But I mention all of this because tonight, I noticed how I’d started reflexively dodging their gazes: “look left here, walk 20 feet, then look right, then you’re clear for a house.” Walking up one block near my own, I counted 7 on a standard block of maybe 12 houses? I guess I’ll avoid Norwood from now on. Or at least until the inevitable Spring power outage.

edit 2020-03-31 00:30

And how could I forget that for my first year of living here, I walked by a neighbor’s apartment door who had a similar thing that fit in her peephole that took a photo whenever it detected motion in the hallway.