Category: Neighborhood

Help Thy Neighbor

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The weekend before last we spotted a loose pitbull mix running around the neighborhood. Joe tried to temp her with some dog treats so he could get a look at her collar but she wouldn’t come close enough. About ten minutes later a guy drove past looking for the dog and we learned her name was Peyton. We pointed the guy in the direction we had last seen her and he took off while we started on our evening walk.

We hadn’t gotten far when we spotted her out back near our own patio. That’s when it occurred to us that we could use my sister in law’s dog, Bella, as bait. It worked pretty good except Peyton was so full of energy and bouncing around that Joe still couldn’t get a grip on her collar. Then my SIL had an idea and brought out a bowl of water. The dog couldn’t resist and while she was furiously lapping up every drop my SIL casually grabbed her collar and then we clipped Bella’s leash on it.

Surprisingly, once Peyton had been “captured” she calmed down considerably and we were able to start walking her to her owner’s house (luckily I had the foresight to ask him where he lived). We hadn’t gotten far, however, when he slowly came driving by still looking for his dog. When he spotted us with her he was so happy and thankful. It felt good to help him out. Shortly thereafter the guy’s wife pulled up while we were further along on our walk and thanked us for finding her dog.

This past Thursday I was walking Bella after work when a lady in multiple braces (on her legs and forearms) was slowly making her way down her driveway. When she spotted me she asked if I could go down to the mailbox and retrieve her mail for her since she had just gotten home from the hospital after having surgery and was having difficulty walking. I was happy to help her out and she was incredibly grateful.

I guess it was just one of those good deed weeks. I hope Karma is keeping track because I really would like to win the lottery so I can quit working and start volunteering instead. Yes, I realize I can do both but I don’t have the energy thanks to how stressful my day job has become. Plus I’d rather not have to worry about money and just do what I want every day. Doesn’t everyone?

Storms & Air Conditioning

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The above photo explains the last day and a half after a pretty brutal storm ripped through the area. While we were lucky to not have lost our power we were without cable, (home) phone service, and internet from Monday morning until yesterday around 5 pm. It was brutal. ;)

Tree Branch Falls During Storm

We fared better than our neighbor, however. This looks worse than it really was as I do not think their car suffered more than some scratches, but the gutters over their garage were dented. We also just learned their house is up for short sale which terrifies me as who knows what kind of people will move in next. We could get lucky and they’ll be quieter, pet-free, and non-smokers, or they could be the complete opposite and make us miss our current neighbors. I wish we could afford to buy the place ourselves and rent it out so we could control who we end up living next to since we’re going to be here for at least a few more years until the home prices recover.

Speaking of being without things, our air conditioning died on June 10th. Due to the high volume of requests we couldn’t get anyone to even look at it until June 20th because we had decided to bite the bullet and have the entire system, including the furnace, replaced. We knew there was a freon leak in the air conditioner which we had paid to be refilled at least twice (once each season if my memory serves me correctly) so we knew it was time to do something more permanent since the furnace was getting old as well.

New Air Conditioner

At a coworker’s suggestion we went with ABT Electronics. Joe took the day off on Friday the the 22nd for them to do the install. When I got home from work I noticed it was running pretty loudly – a very noticeable and annoying humming was coming from the furnace. In addition to that the air stopped working shortly after it shut off and then was turned back on. We were not pleased. After many phone calls and being talked down to we finally got someone out on that Saturday to take a look and they found the cause of the air ceasing to work was a loosely connected wire in the outside unit. Fixing the noise wasn’t so easy. Try as he might, including using metal tape to seal all the joints in the ducts, he could not make the noise go away (although he did quiet it somewhat). As he was an installer we had an actual technician come out later that night and right away he knew the issue was the motor. He said he had seen the same issue in a few other units. Apparently there’s a fault in them and he said he’d have to order the parts from the manufacturer. Therefore we have to deal with the noise for a few more weeks but at least there’s some relief in sight, or so I hope. I’m starting to get a bit used to the noise but will still be happier once it’s been eradicated.

I fought the law…

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…and I won!

We got a parking ticket while at a 4th of July party not too far from home. I wrote the below dispute and a week later they waived the ticket! Yes, I’m very proud of myself.

(I meant to write about this sooner but forgot).

Don’t talk to me

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Joe informed me that once, quite a few months back, our next door neighbor remarked to him that we all had a “dysfunctional neighbor relationship”. Good thing I hadn’t heard that, or I might have went off on the guy.

Here’s the thing – I don’t talk to people I do not like. End of story. If you rub me the wrong way or wrong me, you might as well avoid me because I’m not going to waste my time pretending to be your friend, or even your acquaintance. Colleagues are excluded from this since I can’t just opt not to speak to someone I have to work with, although I will keep my interaction with them to a bare minimum. I don’t see the point in pretending to like someone you don’t. I have better things to do with my time. Therefore, I’m not friendly to someone unless it’s genuine.

So why don’t I like my neighbors? Oh may I count the ways? Let’s start with the fact that at the very writing of this entry they have three newspapers piling up in the driveway and a bent up wreath still on their door even though they’ve been home every day and walked past both the newspapers and the wreath (which should have been taken down no later than January 25th per our association’s rules). And let’s add to that they own a dog who barks at nothing when they let him out to pee at 10:30 every night when we’re already in bed trying to sleep. In addition, he barks furiously every time we come home. If I wanted a dog to greet me daily I’d get my own, thanks. Except my dog would be quiet and well behaved because I’d invest in obedience training!

In addition to the aforementioned grievances, instead of bringing the trash bins inside once they’re empty, the wife moves them from the end of the driveway to in front of the garage door where they sit from Thursday afternoon until Sunday or Monday even though the rules state they should be taken inside with 24 hours of trash collection. They also walk right past those advertisements people leave on the doors and leave them there for days, they slam their door constantly which is on a shared wall and shakes our whole place, and they wait until 9:30 pm to start watching a movie with the bass turned up which we can literally feel on our side of the wall (and which they know we can hear/feel since Joe has talked to them about it more than once before).

Gee, I wonder why I don’t say hi to them. Perhaps if they weren’t so inconsiderate of others and actually took some pride in how their unit looked I could find it in my heart to acknowledge their existence, but that’s not likely to happen. They are lucky I just act like they’re not there instead of giving them dirty looks because honestly I feel disgust when I look at them. Perhaps that makes me petty, but I can’t help it – I really do not like those people.

People & Their Pets

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Sometimes I don’t understand people.

A few weeks ago a lady from one of the townhomes across our courtyard was outside looking around calling, “kitty kitty kitty”. It wasn’t until she went back inside that I saw a cat come out from under a huge pine tree. I slowly approached the cat and he seemed friendly enough, but he didn’t have a collar on so I had nothing to grab and I didn’t want to try picking him up and chance freaking him out, so I left him and approached the woman’s patio door. It was open, but as I peered inside her home, I couldn’t see anyone, so I walked around to her front door (also open) and peered through the screen, but again, no one was in sight.

I rang the doorbell. After a minute or so, she came downstairs with a baby in her arm. I asked her if she lost her cat and she replied, “is he fat?” Well, I didn’t think so, but I described him to her and mentioned his lack of collar, to which she replied, “yea, he always takes them off” and just stood there. I asked her if she wanted me to show her where he was. Finally she came outside and followed me to the tree where he was still sitting, chewing on some grass. As soon as he saw her he ran back to the home and then she thanked me as an afterthought as I started walking back to my place.

This woman also owns an older dog who is very well-behaved. In fact, up until two weeks ago I had never heard him bark. She doesn’t leash him when she lets him outside to do his business and he doesn’t stray away from their patio, but the one day she let him out and forgot about him and eventually he got impatient and starting barking through their screen door to be let back in. After 5-10 minutes of him barking, her husband came outside to let him in.

Two days ago while eating dinner we spotted a small grey dog running around the courtyard but there weren’t any people in sight. He ran off toward the street but reappeared a few minutes later. I went out on the patio and he came running over, barking furiously at me, but keeping his distance. I noted he had a harness on – the type you’d clip a leash to – but no collar.

Eventually he began to calm down, so of course that’s when our next door neighbor decides to let her dog out, which prompts this strange dog to go into a frenzy and start barking in the other dog’s face. The neighbor’s dog barks at everything under the sun but for some reason didn’t bark at the little dog with the Napoleon complex. What I found bizarre is that our neighbor watched this for a moment, then turned around and went back inside, leaving her tied up dog to fend for himself. How did she know that the strange dog wasn’t going to bite her dog? Stupid.

Eventually some guy with a toddler started walking our way across the courtyard, but when he spotted the grey dog, he picked up the toddler and started walking back the way he came. The dog spotted him, however, ran past him, and they disappeared behind some trees. I still don’t know whether that guy was the dog’s owner or not. If so, he didn’t seem too terribly concerned about the whereabouts of his dog.

I don’t understand such behavior. Perhaps it’s because I can’t have the cat I’ve always wanted that I cannot relate to the indifference some of these people have to their pets running off. I’d be worried sick if my dog or cat got out of my sight while outside. It doesn’t take long to run into the street and get squished by a passing car. I saw it happen to a little baby squirrel on the way into work today, in fact. :(