Dawn
Anyone that uses a weedeater while buff naked, even in total privacy, has to be certifiable, or just plain masochistic. Flying debris, such as pebbles can really hurt a person. My DS got a piece of weedeater string deeply embedded in his shin while weedeating in shorts.

different nic, same:
Barbara

What a bonehead!

Y'all,

It does make you wonder if he is all there mentally, doesn't it? I cannot believe for one second that he thought no one could see him since he did not have a privacy fence or solid shrubbery.

It just makes you ask "What was he thinking?"

Dawn

There was a lady in Carter County that they got calls on all of the time. She loved to take her clothes off. The neighbors were always calling to say she was working in her yard. I don't think she even knew it was unacceptable.

I get crazy when people tell me they garden barefoot and in shorts! They must have way tamer yards and gardens that I do!

Also I have thrown the odd rock through barn windows...don't want one of those to hit me either.

Takes all kinds............

Glenda

At least he isn't living next door to any of us!

Glenda, I agree his property must be tamer than ours because I don't even wear sandals or open-toed shoes. If I do, a scorpion will find me within 5 minutes of my walking outside the door. I know his neighborhood well from having lived pretty close to it when we lived in Fort Worth, and the homes there near the lake have been there since about the 1940s or 1950s, so they are pretty tame and have beautiful manicured lawns with tall shade trees, with an occasional veggie garden in the spots that are still sunny. They definitely aren't semi-wild like my place here in rural OK.

Dawn

The man is board-certified nuts....or has begun to loose his facilities. DH has told me of a woman that lives a few miles from us that had the habit of mowing topless a few years back. I don't know if she still does because he said women that looked like her should fully clothes even if they were in a wrestling ring. Said it gave him nightmares! LOL!

Sometimes shoes aren't even enough protection! I got teased once several years ago when the weedeater went up my shin. No, I wasn't trying a new method of shaving.

Paula

You could tell this man KNEW what he was doing when he ran and put some shorts on when he saw the officer coming. I think he's a potential pervert and/or exhibitionist.
I don't trust people like that. There are no less than 31 registered sex offenders in my area, one of which lives just a half mile away. I worry about the kids in the area, because I believe once a sex offender/always a sex offender.At least the policeman had the gumption to check and see if he had any sort of record such as this agains him.

Barb

I strongly doubt he's a pervert or exhibitionist in the sense that he's getting a sexual response from what he's doing. Some people genuinely enjoy being naked and out of doors. That's why there's nudist colonies (or "naturist resorts"). If he were a pervert or exhibitionist, then he'd be doing something other than yard work.

You can get tagged as a sex offender for all sorts of stupid stuff. A friend of my husband's is a sex offender because his cousin gave him a DVD to burn a copy of as part of a deal with the police. He was eating lunch with us in Norman (he lives south of Tulsa, so this was a drive for him) and his wife called us because there was a listing in the paper saying he'd been arrested. It was news to him. He got home later that day and called the cops to find out what was going on and they came by and arrested him then! Apparently they'd come by the day before when no one was home. Though why they'd "pre-release" arrest records is a mystery to me.

Anyway, they searched his house and computer and found exactly one piece of porn of any kind, which was the DVD his cousin had given him. He tells us about the other people in his counseling classes. They range from violent predators to the ridiculously charged like himself. I'm not bothered by them getting the real predators, but they catch so many people who aren't and stain the rest of their life with the label.

There was an old man with emphisema in his class, found guilty of peeing in his own backyard. There was a university professor there for some months before he overturned his conviction on appeal. His crime was receiving pornographic solicitation emails (you know, spam) on university property. He was also fired (though he was rehired after the appeal, but you know that's going to follow him for the rest of his work life). There was a guy who was 17 at the time of offense, which was having consensual sex with his 16 year old girlfriend. But now, for the rest of his life, he's listed as a rapist. If he moves in down the street from you, the police are supposed to let you know that you live near a sex offender. He can't buy a house near a school and whatever other restrictions they've put on sex offenders these days.

Seeing the justice system trample all over the lives of people I would have considered innocent makes me somewhat sensitive to the issue of sex offenses.

Oklahoma laws for sexual offences are very strict and some people are guilty of them by simply doing stupid stuff that they may not even consider sexual. The problem is that there are so many sexual crimes committed that it would just make you sick if you knew, especially against children.

gamebird - I think I would need more information on that 17/16 age thing. My guess would be that she was either under 16 (in which case she is a child), maybe he was over 18 (in which case he is an adult) or there was a larger age gap than you are being told. If she was under 16 there is no such thing as consensual sex as I understand it. I am not an attorney however.

I want to know if I have a registered sex offender in my neighborhood so that I can be cautious with children that visit my home. If I check the list and find one close then I try to look at the crime they were charged with. I feel we have a right to know if they are near us. Of course, there are those that were convicted prior to the enactment of the law, and those that haven't been caught yet. Add those to the ones on the list and you see how safe you are. Right??

I think on those websites that show us the sexual offenders in our neighborhoods, they ought to say exactly what they did. I found a guy on our list who lived just one block away. He had a son a little younger than DGS, and DGS had been going to their house to play games with the kid. I was pretty upset so I went to the police department with a print-out and I said, "Tell me what this guy did to get on the list." Turns out he was 18, drunk, and got caught urinating in a parking lot.

But seriously, this old man is naked in his back yard and he lives near a park? He ought to be arrested just for being stupid. There are some people who say, "I can do anything I want as long as I'm on my property!" Well, that just ain't so, when what you do encroaches on the rights of those who live, work, or play around you.

We live on the back of a park and we are very careful what we do or say out in our back yard. We kind of keep an eye on things that happen and DH once saw a little boy about to urinate under the play equipment. He was where the little boy could not see him. Like the voice of God, he boomed out, "Don't pee there!" The little boy, shocked and surprised, said, "Where should I go, then?" and DH replied, "Go to the public restroom that's next to the basketball goal. You can see the pop machine in front, from here." Well, the little boy looked around, saw the pop machine and headed off in that direction. DH was chuckling about that all day. I once went and chewed out a boy of about ten years old who was throwing rocks at his little sister by the handfuls. Their stupid mother was sitting in one of the park benches talking on her cell phone while her youngest was being pelted with rocks and was crying. He saw me walking towards them and he did not stop until I spoke to him. He had this look across his eyes that kind of dared me to do anything about what he was doing. I asked him if his mother or father was with him and the little sister got down and ran to her mother. I followed and told this woman what her son had been doing. She confronted him and he looked at his sister, and his sister shrugged and held up her hands as if to say, "I don't know what this woman is talking about." It was then that I realized this was probably how this little girl had to live, with parents who would not protect her from a bullying brother. I didn't want to even think of what she was going to have to deal with in her future years.

We often hear kids crying in the park. Sometimes all that's necessary is for us to go to our gate and look in their direction. Sometimes I'll call out, "Are you OK? Do you need help?" Usually that makes somebody run.

LOL, I can relate to the woman who needed to wear clothes even if she was a wrestler. I have a neighbor like that. She wears muu-muus, and bends over outside. Our neighbor across the street, who gets the full view, says she has no underwear on. A complaint was lodged but since no one else saw it, nothing was done. If it had been me, the cops would've given me a stern talking-to at the very least. But this woman is always threatening to sue the City and they just apparently don't want to take her on if they can't prove they are justified in it. The rules for her are different than they are for everyone else, which is evidenced by the number of animals that they have, the condition of their dwelling and lawn, and the fact that they have completely covered the sidewalk with gravel so that they can park their cars over it. I think if the guy that pee'd in the parking lot is a sex offender, the least the City should do is send a lady cop over there and ask to see if he has underwear on under that muu-muu. (Even if she does, it's still going to be unpleasant seeing her bent over.)

I'm with gamebird. They have the lists so messed up with harmless "criminals, folks who got caught in the stupidity of the system, that I don't ever give those lists any mind. Maybe I should but I'm far from alone in my thinking and actions so, for many of us, the lists do more harm than good.

On a lighter note, I very often garden in my undies but I live in the boonies. One of these days, I'll get a snakebite in a sensitive spot and you can all read (and laugh) about me in the paper. :-p No way would I ever weedeat in anything other than jeans, though! Ouch.

Diane

Diane,

I agree. There are a lot of young men in Oklahoma (and elsewhere, I am sure) who got in trouble for having sex with a female who was just a couple of years younger than them and are now tagged as 'sex offenders'. There also are a lot of people who got in trouble for urinating in public (generally while drunk) and are now stuck with that label too. BUT, there are a lot of creeps out there. If any of y'all haven't searched the sex offender registry to see how many registered sex offenders are in your zip code, you might be in for a rude awakening.

Diane, I've never gardened in my undies, but I have gardened in my pajamas. (Nice modest pajamas with long flannel pants!) Guess which day the mail carrier had a package for me? On pajama morning of course. I stood there in waist-high zinnias and said "Oh, just leave the package on the porch please." Inside, though, I was silently adding "And please don't tell anyone I was pulling weeds in my pajamas!"

Dawn

But that's just it, Dawn. I have checked the lists and I can't take them seriously. If they'd just employ a bit of common sense and edit their lists to take out the stupid things, we would know -- and be able to believe -- who and where the real dangers are.

I know, I know! Elect me Queen of Earth and I will fix all that ails the planet. LOL

It also bothers me that there's lists of people who committed sexual crimes for me to peruse, but no list of people who robbed, murdered, car-jacked, assaulted, abused their children or abused their spouse. Wouldn't I like to know if I've moved into a neighborhood with a violent house-breaker in it? Or that the threatening, obnoxious man two houses down killed someone years ago or has a history of assaulting those who hack him off?

Sex crimes are nasty, no doubt about that, and they touch something visceral in us all. But other crimes aren't nice either and are more likely to affect me.

The title of the thread is "How Not To Do Your Yard Work". I just wanna know how not to HAVE to do my housework, (not nude or any other way. If y'all ever figure that one out, please let me know.
Rather be gardening,
Barb

Say Barb, You have to do housework in the summer as well as the rest of the year, but you can delay it awhile. But if you look at your kitchen floor and have to decide if you should sweep and mop it, or plant it, then it probably can't be ignored any longer.

My girls would always spray their hair in one spot in the bathroom. I told them I didn't mind the floor being a little sticky, but when it pulled my socks off, I had to draw the line and make them clean it.

You just have to have a sense of humor about summer housework (and don't invite company). When you get up, put your vacuum out and plug it in. If the uninvited company comes anyway, they will just think they caught you in the middle of your housework. It's just lots more fun to garden. LOL

Carol,

Those are terrific suggestions. I was ROTFLMAO.

I see you subscribe to my theory that gardeners MUST let housecleaning slide in the spring, summer and fall months because the garden is a priority.

Actually, you can let the housework slide in winter too because you need to be outside working on soil improvement.

I hate rainy days because I am forced to stay inside....and, if stuck inside, you might as well clean the house.

Seriously, my complaint is that a freshly-cleaned house doesn't stay clean long. I remember there was some female comedian in the 1960s or 1970s--might have been Phyllis Diller--who used to wisecrack that "I hate cleaning the house. You clean it, and then before you know it, a year has gone by and you have to clean it all over again."

I have a cross-stitched sampler hanging in my kitchen, and it says "I'd Rather Be In The Garden". It's the truth!

Dawn

I had a sampler that said, "If you come to see me, come anytime. If you came to see my house, make an appointment."

On day my neighbor asked me to come help her install a new computer, then got terribly embarrassed because their was a tiny dust bunny under her old computer tower. My dust bunnies will be big enough to hop out the door soon.

I was talking with a friend the other day and she said they would like to invite more people over for dinner but they were really trying to watch their budget. I had to laugh, because I like the company, I like to cook, but it means I have to clean house before they come, so I don't have dinner parties either. Seriously, it is clutter I hate, and I have too many things. As soon as all the building and re-arranging is over, I am getting rid of a lot of stuff. Stuff gets in your way.

LOL, I can relate!

My sisters were all "clean freaks". They looked down their noses at me almost all my life because I was more casual about things. So did my MIL. She and several of her DD's came one time and picked up my DD to take her somewhere and DD told me later that they really roasted my housekeeping talents in the car. I guess they forgot that "Little Pitchers have Big Ears". I just told DD that some people have clean houses and some people have manners.

I notice, more and more, that people are getting more casual about letting others see their messy houses. If I have dropped in on someone and they make a comment about their "mess", I always say, "I have messes too, this makes me feel right at home!" LOL I don't apologize for a messy house anymore. I like my kitchen and bathrooms to be clean and most mornings I remember to make my bed. But I admit to a lot of clutter. DH vacuums about every other day because he's the one that keeps letting the dog in to follow him around when the weather outside is perfectly fine for a dog to be out in. So I figure that's the price he pays. I have hardwood floors and tile floors and no carpet and that's a good thing because the dog sheds so much. When I had my cat, DH always told me it was the cat shedding, and not the dog. Well, we had to have the cat put to sleep several months ago and our floors need to be vaccuumed every bit as often now as when she was alive. I just hate having fur in the house, and I am constantly calling the dog and letting him outside. Then DH goes out to smoke (too often) and the dog comes back in with him. Somehow that fur even gets in my shoes. I went to a podiatrist and he wanted to talk to me about what kind of shoe I was wearing. He jerked the insole out of my shoe to show me how thick it was and he said, "Oh. You have a dog." I admit I was kinda embarrassed at that.

And, yeah, my stuff gets in my way. I'm having a yard sale next weekend and that will help a bit but a lot of it is garden and cooking necessities so I just have to put up with it.

I have learned much about yard work since moving here. First I learned that if you get poison ivy shots each year you have come a long ways to not getting it, and if you do it is very mild.

I learned not to wear shorts when I was bitten where the sun doesn't shine.

Since ridding our yard of mosquitoes, through, I have been able to wear sleeveless shirts, but I don't do that if I am pulling up poison ivy, which has almost become a memory in my yard. I also learned to bathe after doing gardening when around tall plants due to chiggers.

OK, in the interest of full disclosure--so to speak--I will admit that I've never done gardening unclothed(night gowns don't count, do they? like when you go out to get the newspaper & stop to pull a weed & go in an hour later) but I have on occasion been walking past the washing machine while cleaning & tossed in the clothes I was wearing. Had to make a mad dash once when teen-age kids came in unexpectedly. I made it to the bedroom in time but they found out of course and have never let me live it down. Now you guys bring it up again. Sort of.

Patty.

That's how I got caught in the garden in my pajamas. I just went out to look at it from outside the fence for a second and saw a weed. I opened the gate, went inside and pulled that weed....and then another. A half-hour later when the mail carrier arrived with the package, there I was in my pajamas in the garden pulling weeds.

Being outside in the garden in your nightgown (or in nothing at all) doesn't count if no one sees you. LOL I have had fire ants start climbing up the insides of my pants legs and I've had to run into the house stripping off clothing as I ran....but no one (thankfully!) was home to witness the spectacle.

I suspect your kids will never, ever let you forget the washing machine incident. You know, though, that since you are their mom and have known them forever, you undoubtedly have a lot of embarassing incidents you could hold over their heads too. : )

Dawn

I think the 71 year old man who gardened nude may indeed be losing his mind. I think sex offender lists should not include men peeing outside. Have you ever been around a man with prostate trouble? I also don't think teenagers having sex with someone a few years younger are sex offenders. I don't condone that activity, but it is normal bad behavior not perversion. The lists that label someone for life should be real perverts. I think including minor offenses or normal inappropriate behavior lessens the effectiveness of the label. I do the same as you. I go out in my nightgown in the morning to take out trash or check on something and I stay out until past noon. When I order something and the mailman brings the package, he sometimes catches me in odd outfits. Or I run like mad in the house when I see him coming up the drive instead of going out to get my package. I have a long driveway and seldom have company so I usually get away with it. I never garden nude but I'm often barefoot.

Since I lived in Greece for two and a half years it became normal for me to see guys out by the road. A lot of the time it was taxi drivers and they would stop where there was a large concrete barrier next to the road, like on a bridge. The would just turn their back to the traffic and go for it. At first I wondered what all those little wet semicircles on every bridge were from, but I soon found out.

Then there were those times at the beach when four people each held a beach towel up creating a square portable fitting room for the ladies getting into their swim suits. I was amazed everytime.

I wish there was a way to purnish the guilty and embarass the stupid rather than grouping them all together as sex offenders. Greater offences are committed by public figures everyday and blasted across the air waves and the web. Society just accepts those offences because they are important or famous people, but a man can urinate in a public place and be a sex offender for life. Where is the justice in that?

Phylis Diller also said, "Cleaning your house while the kids are still growing, is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." That and a wall hanging I saw once that said "Dust Potects Furniture" were my housecleaning mottos.

Now that all the kids are grown and out of the house and I have two empty bedrooms, I keep the one with the double bed "spiffed up" neat, clean, organized, and ready for overnight guests and I leave the door open so when I walk down the hall I cn glance in and say, "That looks nice." The other room has a twin bed, the computer, my painting equipment, (Painting is what I would rather do in the winter than housework) plus odds and ends of stuff. It has in short become the "junk room" and when company comes the door gets shut.

I learned something from this thread. I had no idea that peeing outside was a sex crime. My DH and I are criminals. Because when we are at the back side of the property cutting firewood and have to go...we go. But I guess not, because nobody sees us out here in the boonies on our own property.

Dorothy,

I remember Phyllis Diller saying that one too! She's a very funny woman. I like the 'dust protects furniture' motto too.

I think that most people who get arrested for urinating in pubic are doing it in full view of the general public--like while standing in a parking lot outside a nightclub, for example. That's what happened to a guy who moved in with his son-in-law/daughter who lived fairly close to us....he was classified as a sex offender because he pee'd in a nightclub parking lot.

I think you're safe doing it on your own property as long as you're not standing right beside a heavily traveled road. LOL

Dawn

Years ago we had a neighbor, an old batchelor with a drinking problem. More than once he was seen standing beside his pickup on the lightly traveled country road a couple miles from his house, relieving himself. Never occurred to me that he was a sex offender: I thought he was just an old drunk.

Soonergrandmom the 17/16 thing happens. I had a friend in college who was the 16 year old in one of those cases and she felt so bad about it. The two were still friends when I knew them but obviously they were both over 18 by then. I agree in being safe and cautious...I have young kids of my own...but stupid things do happen to people too. I like to err on the side of caution, but it's always in the back of my mind that it could have been something dumb too.