I went out to draw with 2 of 4 and had a lovely productive session. There's nothing though that can ruin a good mood like a nagging neighbour.
I had seen her early on while shopping in the grocery store. I avoided her at every turn until I ended up having to wait at the meat counter. All 5 staff were very busy not working and unfortunately....let's call her "Joan" (cause that's her actual name) sauntered up beside me. D'Oh!
"Hi Joan, how are you and your family doing?" I asked politely with a smile.
"Fine thank you, I noticed your hedge bounced back up." she said without even a breather between words. I have been avoiding this woman for well over a year now and the first thing she says when speaking with me...IN OVER A YEAR....is this!
"Uh ya, Mr. P. went and shoveled the top of it off and it straightend up again." I replied.
"Well I was going to come and talk to him about it because it was leaning and we couldn't park our cars properly (they have 2 cars and 5 parking spots) because it's in the way and it looks awful too." she glared at me.
"I believe the reason it was leaning might possibly be because you keep snowblowing the snow from your laneway onto the top of it which causes it to bend towards your property." I say realizing she's not swift enough to realize the weight is all coming from their side.
"Huh, well, it's probably Don's company that's doing it because we hired his guy to come and do our laneway so it's not us doing it." I almost slapped my forehead when she said this. Now it is an unrelated neighours fault because she hired the same company to do their laneway.
"That's okay. Makes no difference. In the Spring the whole hedge is coming out right to the very back of the property." I pass this revalation onto her for the first time.
"Oh good!" she says excitedly
"I mean the WHOLE hedge right to the back you know....." I say again.
"You'd be suprised at how much extra room you'll have!" She says smiling back at me.
What she hasn't put together yet is as the owner of a pool she will be forced by law to put in a proper fence of a specific height at a substantial cost no less. Since we aren't the owners of a pool it is completely up to her family to have it put in within a certain period of time once the hedge is out.
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We've been after them numerous times to fix a small existing fence that keeps sprouting holes with poor results. We've had their dogs coming into our yard through holes, ours go to theirs and we were terrified when the kids were young they'd get through over to their pool through one of these holes. They haven't fixed it properly in 20 years.
I walked away muttering something in front of my daughter that I shouldn't have. I told Mr. P. of this whole encouter when I got home and he told me not to "let her rent my brain space." When I mentioned what I had called her in front of Two of Four he said,
"Now if Jesus had been there, what would he have done:?!"
I replied,
"I don't know, but he probably wouldn't have called her bitch!!!"
Bluesky
1 day ago
9 comments:
haha, loved the last line. Uhhhggg neighbors, we have some to our left who were irritated that we had four loud sons growing up (well who wouldn't be) and haven't talked to use since they use to live at home her with us...that would be a long time, many years. In fact she turns away from us when we drive down our driveway, if she is out where she can see us.
That will be a kick when your neighbor has to get that fence up some day..ha.
lol, you can't win with some people. I once got told off by their daughter for our cat spraying their barbeque cover and back deck. We don't own a cat. They didn't bother to ask first.
I loved Mr. P.'s line about not letting her rent your brain space!
I sympathise with you though...some neighbours are most annoying. The new ones that moved in beside us before Christmas seem to love having huge family fights very late at night with lots of colourful language and my son can hear them clearly from his bedroom. He hates it.
I would love to be a fly on the wall when the authorities inform your neighbour about putting in a pool fence that meets regulations. Here, a hedge would not have been allowed as a sole barrier for a pool...a childproof fence would have been a necessity alongside the hedge. The council laws here are very strict when it comes to pools.
Sandy, I often wonder if the neighbours appreciate the loud music that comes from this house most days. I have three adult sons who LOVE to have their music blaring from their rooms...all at the same time! I can barely stand it myself at times. LOL To my sons' credit, their music is nice to listen to and not the heavy metal, head stuff....though it may sound like the latter when all three sons are playing different songs at the same time.
Well you know what goes around, comes around, and she will get her comeupance. There is more I could say, but it wouldn't be printable. Hang in there and enjoy the summer
Thanks all!
Serena, the laws regarding fences around pools is quite strict here too and have been made stricter in the last couple of years but we've been too neighbourly in not calling the by law officers. Once we take the hedge out they have ten days to put up a proper fence and we've given them plenty of warning. I didn't mention we weren't putting a fence up but I'm sure she'll stop me in the front one day when it dawns on her that I never mentioned replacing what was there.
Grandma C, I love the word comeupance!
Around here by law each neighbor has to pay for half the fence and it's upkeep. One section faces towards your house the next section towards theirs. Then depending upon what section the wind blows down then the owner of that section has to pay to replace it. When we put up a tall block wall on the back portion and on the left side we had to split the cost in half. So far the wind has not blown any of it down and praise the lord that it does not. But the neighbor on the right refused to pay their half for a block wall fence and so we cannot put one up. Then because their sections extends about 15 feet longer for their yard they wanted us to pay for half of that too. We said there was no way because that was their fence that covered their back yard and not our backyard. We ended with "F" you's and told her that the city will tell her and they did, but then she still refused and we just said good riddens and still have sections blown down from those damn Santa Anas. Oh good fences do make for good neighbors. Such a true statement.
God bless.
Serena, even though the music is nice, there might be a few who are waiting to snub you some day, ha! Mine had loud trucks, loud friends, and we lived at the end of a quiet private road. I really can't blame them. I didn't know when I moved here when my kids were all under the age of 10, that they would grow up to be punks as teenagers.
I would snub me too, ha.
well you never know. he might have had a few bad days in a row and had to deal with one too many pushy people and jesus just flipped one day :p
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