Got “Flipped” Off! - *UPDATE*

Well, surprise surprise!

Original post - “Got “Flipped” Off!”

Will wonders never cease?

Last night about 6:30ish there was a knock at the front door.

I opened the door and was surprised to see my neighbor Merle standing there. She drove up with some fresh cucumbers she had grown in her garden but also, and shockingly, with my missing Amazon package in hand!

The package was delivered to her porch, as shown by the picture the Amazon drive took when he dropped it off.  However, Merle claimed she never saw the package when confronted about its delivery, which I found VERY suspect at the time. Truth be told, I didn’t believe her and was disappointed that a nana would be deceitful. 

She told me the person who mows her lawn noticed the package, just off her porch, almost under it and that there was a cat sitting in it. Seems the wind blew it off…

It certainly showed that it had been out in the elements, after all it’s been weeks. The package had not been opened and the item was intact.  Again, my apologies for believing she had lied about the package.

It was nice of her to return it personally, and the fresh cucumbers was extra nice too.

Being Lazy Doesn't Pay...

The same windstorm we had throughout the day yesterday claimed the neighbors pool, flipped it right over!

Now, understand that my neighbors appear to be very lazy and most definitely not the outdoorsy type, nor big on doing typical lawn care, yard maintenance nor pool maintenance.

The pool survived last winter, which surprised me. This past fall it appeared that they drained the pool but did not winterize it and certainly opted to NOT even bother to cover it for some reason, so I'm not surprised it ended up like this.

It's unfortunate really but comical at the same time. 

You know the ole saying, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"...

Is It Me?! It's Gotta Be Me.

Okay, admittedly I've become a grumpy 😠 old man 🧓, and I am perfectly fine with it too, I've put my time in!  I find myself bothered and complaining about SO many things recently.  For example, the idiots who speed up and down my street, aggressive drivers, the knuckleheads with deafening mufflers and bafflers, delivery vehicles and landscape vehicles that double park, selfish dog owners who don't pickup after their dogs and those that doo (hehehe) but leave the bagged turds behind, lazy people who don't return their shopping carts, most cell phone users and on and on and on!

I'm sure many of you can relate and perhaps might even have similar frustrations, and to those that do WELCOME!

I believe I was belly aching to my brother not too long ago about the FedEx delivery guy who I watched trudge through my shrubs so he could walk straight from his truck curbside to my front steps to deliver my package, instead of walking the driveway and up the walkway, AND then stopping to pee 🍆 on a tree in my front yard before driving off.  I kid you not!  If I recall I said something during the conversation about "it must be just me" and without missing a beat my brother said, "yup!"!  So there's that...

Anyway, all the above was a segue to the following incident that has me incensed and would luv to get your take on it and how you'd all handle\react to it -

So, the snow ❄

 we had before Christmas 🎄 makes for perfect sledding 🛷 conditions, ah to be a kid again.

My neighbors kids, boy 10ish and girl 7ish, are taking full advantage of the snow ❄, out having fun, frolicking and sledding 🛷. What's been bothering me, and I've been biting my tongue and trying to ignore, is that the kids are sledding 🛷 down and into my fence!

My concerns are two fold; one, I don't want to see them get hurt and two, I don't want my 'stuff' to get damaged.  Both seem very reasonable to me.

The kids are using a snow ❄ tube and sledding 🛷 down their lawn\hill, which is short and then slamming into my fence; literally slamming into the wire fence!

I've been biting my tongue and trying my best to ignore this but it lingers, as I just cannot understand how their parents would allow this.

Anyway, a couple days ago, the boy had three friends over and boys will be boys. They were sledding 🛷 but wrestling and jockeying for the tube, which prevent them from getting too far down hill, until three kids piled onto the tube, flew down the hill and really slammed into the fence, which bent the fence post; the one with the bird house mounted on it, to a 45 degree and also broken some of the fencing.

Well, that set me off and all I needed...

"When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from the chair to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,

Tore open the shutters, and threw up the sash.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear."

I yelled at them, told them the fence wasn't a backstop and to STOP slamming into it, then pointed out that they damaged the post! GRRR I was SO pissed 😡!

They didn't say a word and soon thereafter disappeared into the house.

Again, I know snow ❄ is a fun time for kids and sledding 🛷 is too, and even though they have a slopped side yard, it's just NOT a good one for sledding 🛷 since there is a fence and line of trees and shrubs along the property line.

This isn't the best angle to see truly how bent over this fence post is -

Robert Frost was onto something when he said, "Good fences make good neighbors", but I don't think he took sledding 🛷 kids into account when he wrote this.

*** UPDATE ***

Now that the snow has all melted, I took a better angle picture this morning, so you'd get a better look at the damage.  You really gotta hit the post pretty hard to bend it like that 😡 -

Holiday Neighborly Celebrations

My friends\neighbors invited me to their family Thanksgiving celebration a few weeks ago and as much as I tried to decline they were not having any of it.  I didn't want to impose and be a bother, as they were having a house full but in hindsight I am happy I went.  I had a very nice time, met many of the family that I had only heard stories about.  The meal was delicious, I left stuffed AND with a doggie bag of goodies.

So, when I got the call this past Saturday that their family Christmas party was Sunday and that I should arrive around 2ish, I didn't dare try to bow out.  Once again I had a great time, watched some football, joked and laughed a lot and drank and ate my fill!

Much to my surprise I was also included in their Christmas gift swap!  There were 22 of us in all, so there was a lot of swapping taking place.  The original gift I opened was taken, as was the one I was swapped with but ironically when it was all said and done, I walked away with my original gift, a plug-in the wall heated throw blanket!  Almost no need to turn the thermostat up past 60 now...

I am beyond blessed and am VERY fortunate to have such wonderful friends\neighbors!  I don't know where I would be without their support and caring. I'm not sure if they truly know how thankful I am to have them in my life and just how appreciative I am for EVERYTHING that they've done and do for me!

Note: The picture above is of my neighbors family room.

#Blessed

And They're Gone!

As touted, the town hired Waste Management crew were here mid-morning on Monday to pick up and remove all 45+ bags of leaves I had at the ready for them.

I was happy to see there were no rips or tears or spillage as they were loaded into the back of the truck and that they're all gone, PHEW!

While I have you let me ask you a question - 

What are your thoughts on neighborly leaf clean up?

Now keep in mind that I'm a bit anal generally speaking and have a wee bit of OCD too but I tirelessly raked and raked and raked and bagged and bagged and bagged, not too mention all the leaves that I also sucked up into my mower and emptied in the back corner of my lot.   So, what are your thoughts on your neighbors leaf clean up responsibilities?

The neighbors on either side of me are clearly NOT outside yard working people and seem just fine with letting even the basic upkeep go undone, which is an entirely different rant of mine.  For example, why would anyone purchase a home for $700k and then neglect basic outside upkeep?  I'll never understand this but I digress.

It's frustrating to have neighbors who do not rake up the leaves in their yard.  It's not just a poor reflection on them, in my opinion, but ultimately their laziness affects me, and the other abutting diligent neighbors, since the winds will inevitably redistribute "their" leaves onto our upkept properties.

When I see my good neighbors across the street busting their arses to rake and bag the leaves, it motivates me to want to do the same. I want to be courteous to them and their efforts, so that "my" leaves don't end up blowing into their yards.

However, sadly and frustratingly, both the neighbors on each side of me are fine leaving "their" leaves unraked.

Again, your thoughts?

Better Than DoorDash And Uber Eats!

I'm not sure how I got so lucky but I am blessed with the best neighbor and friends, who also happens to be an excellent cook!

Changing Of The Guards

My next door neighbors have moved out.  Packed up, truck loaded and I watched them drive off at 5:30AM Friday morning, they're gone.  Not gonna lie, I am already missing the "Hi Steve" from the little, alas.  Onward and upwards, I wish them well!

I bought my house in 2000 and in the 23-years that I've been here, this house next door will now have it's 5th family living in it.  Quitters all of em!

Now I have to break-in and train new owners again, oh the humanity!

I'm starting to think perhaps it's me.

I Say NO Way!

I'm not a gambling man but I would put money, that the odds are pretty high, that my neighbors pool doesn't survive the upcoming winter, NO way!

As you can see it's already leaning and rickety. I'm not knocking the pool, it seemed to serve them well this summer and the kids enjoyed for sure, but it's an out-of-the-box pool with flimsy PVC tubing.  Certainly not designed to last for many season, especially a New England winter to boot.  

So, I say slim chances this is still standing after our first big, heavy snow storm, nope!

And you?!?!

You've Gotta Start Them Young!

Reason number 112 for having chickens...

Our neighbor and his 2-year old son.

Adorable at how he's sitting and enjoying our chickens.

This one pulls on your heart strings!

Inconsiderate Neighbors

Seems the leash law we have here in Franklin doesn't apply to every and all dog owners, apparently there are exceptions, UGH!

Ever since our rear abutting neighbor clear cut most of the trees in his backyard this past spring, there's no longer any buffer or obstacles to prevent these dogs from wandering over.

The good news is they don't or haven't bothered with the chickens...yet, however, the come over and pee and crap all over the lawn back there.  The black lab takes craps that look like cow patties, YES that BIG, and her pee burns the lawn almost instantly.  Cleaning neighbors dog crap from my lawn pisses me off, even more so when I need to clean it out of my lawn tractor tires.

I just don't get it!  I just don't get how people can be so ignorant! How they could care less of others, so long as they get what they want.

Here is one example of a half dozen of these burn spots -

I strung two old rolls of 5' tall wire fencing along the back property line, maybe 50' long.  Threw in a couple metal fence posts to keep vertical and it seems to deter them from ambling over easily.  Hoping this will suffice for now.  I need to give some thought to a more permanent solution come spring.

Lazyness or Inconsideration or Something Else?!

It's one thing to have some trash fall out of your barrels during the transfer to the truck now that the process is automated.  However, it's entirely different when the trash is left there, along with the barrels, curbside for two days.

Friggin neighbors!

What Leash Law?!?!

Apparently, the town's leash law doesn't apply to all dog owners.  No sir, some dog owners just don't care.  They're selfish and inconsiderate.

Lazy Dipstick!

On a conference call this morning, so I'm tied to my chair and listening in.  I'm also watching my neighbor shovel his driveway.  Well, actually tidy up the snow that has blown back into his driveway following the original clean up.

So, the Friday morning free local newspaper lay at the end of their driveway this AM, as it typically does.  They seldom pick it up.  Typically, it sits out there in all kinds of conditions until Monday morning.  Monday morning is trash day for us and this is when it's finally picked up and discarded.

Over time, I've seen them walk right past it - going to fetch the mail, off for a neighborhood walk, doing lawn maintenance, etc. It baffles me why they can't be bothered to pick it up each week and take care of it.  It's unsightly!  Here's an idea, how about they call and have the delivery stopped - they never read it!

This morning was NO different.  He simply scooped it up with his snow shovel and tossed it onto the snowbank!

What a LAZY piece of shit!

Ah, The Joy's Of Summer!

 

Roaring Fire - check!

Cold Coors Light - check!

Great Friends - check!

Wonderful Night - check!

Bounce Bounce No More...

The high winds we had several weeks ago got a hold of the neighbors trampoline and bounced it around some. It doesn't look too good does it? Surprisingly, it survived the hurricane that passed through last year, so it's odd that the smaller wind storm had it's way with it this time around. However, that being said and from what I could tell, the neighbors didn't do a thing to prevent this from happening. If it was mine I would have dismantled it and stored out of harms way or at the least I would have secured it to something solid.