Meeting Nick The Ukranian

Photo By John Hoff

I don't remember how long Nick has lived in that same house on Lyndale Ave. N. He mentioned some crazy number of years. Was it...

...sixty years? Fifty? Forty?

It was impressive, in any case. Nick has lived at 2951 Lyndale Ave. N. forever. He has apparently been around longer than the Polish lady, and that is quite a feat. (Interestingly, he doesn't appear to KNOW the Polish lady)

I met Nick while my real estate agent Juley Viger and I were looking at a house not too far away from Nick's place. Juley saw Nick's dog limping along the sidewalk and said, "Oh, my god, is that a stray dog?"

It was anything but a stray, though it had the same haggard, head-down-low look of, for example, the feral dogs which wander the streets of El Paso, Texas. (Never have I seen such a city for feral dogs as El Paso)

Nick has had the dog forever, and it shows. The dog limps along and, according to Nick, can't get up the low set of steps from the sidewalk, and so must walk all the way around. (Which is what it was doing when Juley spotted it) Yuppies would have put the dog down a decade ago. Nick apparently throws nothing away while it still has some life in it, including shoes and window shades. He also didn't see the point of tearing down a church building--a few decades ago, I guess--only to put up another church. What was wrong with the old church building? Nick feels strongly about the way the people of the world are killing each other over differences in religion. As for himself, he has asked God to take him a long time ago...but God won't. God keeps making him live.

Nick said a few days ago, his back door was broken into. It took the police hours to come and make a report. Nick admires City Council Member Don Samuels, but fears those who should listen to Samuels don't. Nick wasn't aware Samuels wasn't his council member. I had to inform Nick that Diane Hofestede was his council person.

I told myself I would have to hang around more with Nick, and introduce him to Peter. In fact, in early August I had made an effort to invite Nick to National Night Out, but he hadn't answered his door...and I think the dog is too feeble to bark.