It’s here! Our first CASE of wine from Hemispheres Wine Guild. The box was ripped opened, a cursory glance made at the selection, and a bottle uncorked (proper cork and all).

Thing is, riff-raff has been stomping through our neighbours yard like crazy these last few days, and I had to don my Neighbourhood Vigilante hat and face this problem head on.

I would live in no other neighbourhood in Edmonton except for Old Strathcona. With that, however, comes the artsy, the fartsy, the money, the lack of money, and everything else in between. Michael and I accept this as part of our community, and its this diversity that we love so much. However, when a neighbour is performing fire rituals at 12:30 a.m. and the fire pit is 3 ft from our fence, and the smoke billowing in our room, strong enough to set off a smoke alarm, something has to be done. When homeless street people access the place as a “free” place to stay and drink beer and shout profanities that even make me cringe at 3:00 a.m., something has to be done.

Would the police help? Not so much. Although they are familiar with this house of which I speak, I have called several times, and the weary cop on the other end of the phone has, understandably, more important priority issues to deal with.

So, tonight, I girded my loins, took a a few hearty gulps of the first bottle of wine out of the box from Hemispheres wines, and before I knew what I, or Michael knew what I was doing, strode over to the neighbours to have a talk with the home owner. It was civil. Promises were made to clear out the riff raff. I went home, took another gulp of wine, and hope this is the beginning of some peaceful nights on our street.