I've had some interesting neighbors in my time. We had the leader of a hispanic motorcycle gang two doors down. You know, the smell of gonga on your front porch after listening to 200 motorcycles drive by at midnight just doesn't seem as opportunistic as it used to. I've had a lady who left their dogs out in the snow and didn't seem to care and was offended when one of the dogs had a seizure and was irritated we try to help the dog. And I've had some neighbors give insightful lessons of the use of expletives to each other while throwing a hammer at their car. But the latest neighbor issue is driving me crazy.
Ricardo seems to think I'm obsessing over this. But every day that I walk out of my house, I see this:
I've done everything I can to alleviate this violation of my eyeballs in my quaint neighborhood. But to no avail. I'm hoping my emails and reports to the city have not fallen on deaf ears/eyes. Because after I filled out the little tattle-telling report, I emailed them these pictures. I mean, really, this is ridiculous.
Maybe I'm still bitter from three years ago when I had the audacity to try to introduce myself to this woman. She showed complete disinterest in me, my kids, or my minivan.
She bought the house for 2/3 the market value because the people before her split up, and the wife decided, "I'll show you and your credit, mister" and she walked away from the house. She probably did show him. But we all suffered when the house sold for less than it's value. Our neighborly hopes that the house sold to some great caring people who finally got a break were shattered. The new owner is young, single, and has a few roommates. Apparently she doesn't appreciate kids, socializing, or even making eye contact and waving, well heck, she doesn't like neighbors, it turns out. She also can't be bothered with things like parking in her own drive way, or yard work. One of my other neighbors has begged her to let him help her in her back yard. For three years, y'all. Mais non.
After a year of not talking to us, we (the other neighbors and me) decided maybe she was going to flip the house. Which would be great, because she'd up the value and fix the place up. Three years, she's only made it worse.
You can imagine each of our glee as we discovered she called over some friends to re-build her back deck. It required cutting the weeds trees down and mowing. But it got done. She cleaned up her backyard. And then proceeded to put all that cleaning out business, you guessed it, into the front yard. Which would be fine. Except, I think she thought if she just put it out in the front yard, the yard waste truck would pick it up.
I'm not sure what bothers me most, the dumpster, the brush that looks better than the landscaping, or the trash cans. Or maybe that the dumpster and trash cans are empty, but the yard is full...of trash.
I think you can see why the yard waste people probably laughed hysterically and then drove on by. It's been there for three weeks. THREE WEEKS! The pile has settled to about a 6' high, 15' wide, and 10' deep pile. It's going to be great for Halloween. I guess she went to bizarre depths to keep kids from knocking on her door for candy. Large tree limbs are sticking out on to her sidewalk. It's her liability.
She hasn't walked out yet and asked, "Hi what do you think of my pile of crap in my front yard and the empty dumpster and my shitty landscaping, and my affliction with letting my roommates park in my driveway?" She hasn't asked me any of that yet, so I've just told everyone else how I feel about it. I feel better. Don't you?
That's how I roll.
Song of the Day: Voodoo by Adam Sandler
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