Strata Rules!

We recently received an extensive list of patio dos and don'ts in an email sent by our strata. Yes, sometimes it feels like your individuality is taken away when you are not allowed to hang your macrame seashell wind chimes out on your patio, but be thankful.

Why? Let me tell you about a neighbor I shared a patio with a while back. It was one of those little second floor patios barely big enough for 2 chairs and a hibachi divided with a "divider"; some see-through metal lattice work about waist high. My neighbor had a thing for cats, and I'm not going to feel bad about saying "a cat thing" like it might be a contagious disease. It was a cat thing. You rarely hear of people with a "dog thing" probably because it's harder to hoard dogs, although, I think the dog people may be catching up to the cat people. Anyway, the reason I'm going into so much detail about the cat thing is this:

On my neighbor's patio there were 3 slightly moldy, multi-level carpeted cat trees slightly, about 20 different pots with plants are various stages of deadness, a drying rack with leopard print undies and tank tops most of them seemingly purchased way too long ago, pictures of cats cut out from old calendars taped onto the window, a collection of damp stuffed Garfields along the windowsill, a mop, a broom, an old chair and an ashtray shaped like a cat face.

Needless to say, I never sat on my patio. I never used my hibachi, never kicked back with a nice cup of coffee to contemplate the view. Oh, yes, and you might say: "Oh, just look the other way!" Okay, I'd like to see you try. One morning, as I opened the door to let fresh air, I noticed, a new cat sticker on the divider. It said " I love cats" and scribbled in pen below it: "not people."

So I was glad to see the Strata patio rules. Now I sit on my patio and if I happen to look across the way, I get to enjoy lovely plants and clean patio furniture. Ah,,,,, much better!