My wife and I bought our first house with a yard about a year ago. I’ve spend all summer trying to turn the long-neglected yard into something nice. Hundreds of hours of work and lots of money. One last step was ripping out and re-seeding what passed for a lawn in the front. Very expensive and delayed for months, it’d been driving me insane. It finally gets seeded and I put up little orange warning lines to keep kids from walking over it.

I’m sitting on the front porch reading the news. In a terrible mood. Annoyed by some kids walking on it already. A new group comes by, like probably 12-13 year olds, boys and girls. One of the boys walks directly over the orange line and steps right on the topsoil and seed. I lose my s***, fling open the door, rush out and yell “What the f***?! Do you not see the orange tape?!”

Thankfully, they pretty much ignored me. And since that point I’ve been feeling really guilty about it. I’m 43 years old! Why would I care so much about a goddamn lawn, and why would I swear at children? What did I think would happen when I bought a house next to a school?

I feel so guilty and just s***** about it. So petty, so mean, such a lack of self-awareness. Over a goddamn bit of grass. Pathetic. I acted more like a s***** kid than those kids did.