Madame DeFarge

In the novel A Tale of Two Cities, the character of Madame DeFarge sits in a chair all day and knits.

This is what my crazy neighbor has been doing these days. Sitting in the kitchen and knitting god knows what. She stays in the same place, inconveniently in front of the sink and next to the dishwasher and knits for hours on end. Now granted, it is better than running down the hall, slamming doors and cussing up a blue streak but it doesn't help when I want to cook or use the dishwasher. She doesn't respond when you speak to her and what seems to work best is to avoid her and wait until she is out of the kitchen before you use it.

Except she doesn't leave!

Well, she left for a few minutes yesterday. When I went outside to take out the garbage, there she was, engaged in a conversation with two City of Seattle cops. They stopped talking when I walked by but I did manage to hear a couple of snippets:

Cop: "....a neighborly dispute"
Crazy neighbor "there was NOTHING neighborly about it"

Hmmm. Who called the cops on whom and what was the dispute? I half expected them to come knocking on my door. Maybe they figured out that SHE was the problem?

Sigh.