-
-
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
Croquet champion!
You are now reading the blog of the Croquet Champion of the Indigo Household. Impressive hey?
We bought a croquet set yesterday, and then set it up within the confines of our fenced in backyard. I won all three games, kicking my husband’s butt each and every time. He claims that he let me win the first game, whatever.
So the PITA neighbor came by yesterday to air things out over the anonymous letter, which the association vp talked to him about on Friday night. He starts out by asking if he can come inside and sit down, uh sure, and then took about 5 minutes to get to the point of his visit: the anonymous letter. In those 5 minutes he said that ‘he’s come to the conclusion that he and I have clashing personalities’. What they heck is that all about? I just sat there and let himself dig a great big hole. I’m not even sure if he realized that he totally insulted me. He said that he didn’t send the letter, and it’s really had him worked up and upset that we thought he sent it. I went over the reasons why we think he sent it, with the number one reason being that all my other abutting neighbors are out of town. In the end, I’m really not sure what was accomplished other than that he said he didn’t send it, and we told him that if he said he didn’t then we believe him (sidenote: I’m not entirely sure I believe him). I added that if he didn’t send it, then it was some busybody neighbor who didn’t have any business in the matter and that really pisses me off. He didn’t have a comment on that, other than just talking in circles. On his way out the door he went on and on about how upset he’s been since the vp came over yesterday, but then he had to tell himself to put himself in our shoes and stop to think about how upset we’ve been, etc…. And then he was really worried that we wouldn’t let Zoe come over and play on his swingset anymore, and she’s just the sweetest little girl (which she is BTW), blah blah blah. I’ve decided that he is a man who just talks, talks, talks, but never really gets to the point, nor does he finish a thought or a sentence. Oy.
I’m off to finish my homework. I’ve got a powerpoint presentation to do on Tuesday night for my class. I should do a powerpoint on the timeline of my fence and the abutting neighbors and then let my MBA class tell me who they think the guilty party is. LOL! That would be a riot!
Anonymous letter in the mail
Okay, so I got home last night and there is a letter in my mailbox addressed to “New Homeowner, 12345 The Street Where You Live, Menomonee Falls, WI blah blah blah”. There was no return address and the post mark was Milwaukee, July 31st.
Interesting.
I opened it up and it was a copy of my subdivisions newsletter, which I had already received earlier in the month. Highlighted and circled are the following sentences:
As examples, ACC approval is required for all fences and sheds.
(this beginning part wasn’t highlighted) Fully completed ACC approval requests should be mailed to the ACC and (highlight begins) to each and every abutting neighbor, at least 30 days prior to beginning your project.
Let’s take into account the whereabouts of my abutting neighbors, shall we?
Neighbor #1 is on vacation for two weeks in Michigan, leaving last week Thursday. They gave me full approval for the fence, helped me find my lot line, helped me tell the fence post guys where to put the posts last week Wednesday, and gave me supplies to fix my sprinkler system due to the digging of holes by the fence post guys. Is it likely that they came home on Monday just to mail me an anonymous letter? Chances are pretty low.
Neighbor #2 is also on vacation, leaving last week Friday and returning today. I was entrusted to come over and water their tomato plants while they were gone. They, having a fence also, told me that it was my land and that I could do with it what I wanted. They didn’t care if I built a fence, and asked if I wanted to attach my fence to theirs. What are the chances that they sent the letter? Again, pretty low.
Neighbor #3 is home, and works in Milwaukee. He’s been very passive aggressive with my fence, telling me that I had his ‘full support’, yet can’t quite ‘picture what it’ll look like’. I’ve walked my lot with this guy, showed him pictures, postponed having the fence put in so that his view (of my backyard) wouldn’t be obstructed during his little party last Friday night. I made sure that the fence was inside my lot line, which is evidenced by the fact that the posts went through my sprinkler pipes. Through the process of elimination, he’s the butthead that sent the anonymous letter.
Now what to do about it?
Well, the president of the neighborhood association has been out of town (which also eliminates him from the list of suspects, and he already sent me a copy of this newsletter when he mass-mailed it to everyone), he told me prior that I could order my fence, and that he didn’t see a problem with it.
The vice president of the neighborhood association called the writer of the letter a ‘chicken shit’ and said that I’ve got full approval for my fence.
I think this is all about control, and I want to scream at him something along the lines of: ‘What the f***???? Who sends anonymous letters to their neighbors????? Grow up.’
Buried treasure
Life in the suburbs, what a difference it is from city life. I’ve met my neighbors, and they are all very neighborly in their own kind of way. My neighbor directly next door is a little bit of a PITA, but I can deal with him.
So my new home came with buried treasure. Treasure?? Yes, treasure. I’m the proud owner of an in-ground sprinkler system, and the best part is that I’ve figured out how to use it. 
In the wee hours of the night the sprinkler fairy turns them on, one zone at a time, and by the time I awake, my lawn has had a it’s morning drink.
The first owners of my home put the sprinklers in and used it religiously. The second owners never turned them on, and quite honestly, I can’t figure out why other than the cost of water on the quarterly water bill. I plan to use them, not religiously, but at least a few times a week so that my lawn stays green and lush. Owner #2 was a bit of a dumb dumb from what I can tell and not only did he not water his lawn, he also only mowed once a month and scalped the grass down to nothing in the process. It looked awful. Burned, brown, and crunchy.
However there is a sad part to my story, and it’s that I’m having a fence installed in my back yard, and yesterday when they were putting in the posts they accidentally hit a sprinkler pipe. Eek! My neighbors tell me that it’s not a big deal to fix. We just need to dig a trench about 12″ down and about 4′ in a semi-circle and then attach a new pipe. My Hubby is going to take care of it this weekend. In the meantime Zone 5 is ‘officially down’.
I did my best to alert the fence company where the sprinkler pipe was, and they did their best to work around it, but accidents do happen and I was made aware of this prior to signing the contract.
Anyhow, the fence will be completed on Monday or Tuesday, and my PITA neighbor specifically asked me to wait to put the pickets up until after July 28th because he’s having family in town for his mom’s 65th birthday. I totally didn’t understand why he wanted me to wait, especially since the fence would be complete by 4 p.m., and his party doesn’t begin until later in the day. His lot is on the corner, and his backyard faces my side yard. Our lots are pretty large, to me anyways, at 3/8 of an acre, so it’s not like he’d be right on top of my new fence. When I pressed him for why he didn’t want the fence up (48″ high red cedar picket) for the party he said, “I don’t want to ruin the view for my guests.” I made it perfectly clear that there would be big wooden fence posts sticking out of the ground every 6′ feet, and he was fine with that, but just didn’t want the fence up.
I still don’t get it. My yard looks like crap with only fence posts around the perimeter. Of course my lawn looks great, but that doesn’t really constitute a ‘view’.
Would you have appeased your neighbor and waited to have the fence completed?
Up and running
We are all moved in to our new house, 90% unpacked, 75% put away, and 10% pictures hanging on the walls. The hanging of the pictures always takes a while for me to do. I don’t want to make a bad choice of where to put a nail, so I usually wait it out for a few weeks.
The fence people are coming today to give us a quote to have the backyard fenced in. For a couple of my neighbors I think this will come as a relief, especially the one who thinks my Boxer and my Ridgeback are really Pit Bulls in disguise. She confessed to me last night that she saw my Boxer (who was leashed up to my deck) from across two yards and immediately swooped up her son and ran inside the house. I should tell you that Maisy would have had to jump over her 4′ high picket fence to get to her, something that I’m pretty sure she could do, but lets not feed the frenzy.
Hubby reassembled the treadmilll last night, but it’s facing away from the tv, so I have no desire to use it until he turns it around. Although, I could turn on a scary movie behind me and then pretend I was being chased. What do you think?
Tonight is wine club!!!! Yay! Yay! Yay! The wine tonight is French reds, and I’m looking forward to relaxing night with the my friends. I’ll get up a full report on the wines tomorrow or Sunday.
It’s the Wimbledon finals this weekend. My predictions for the finals are Amelie Mauresmo def. Justin Henin-Hardenne. For the men it’s all up the air because Rafael Nadal is playing Marcos Baghdatis in the semi’s, and I want them both to win. 
Crumb. I don’t care for Roger Federer, so I’m going to root for Jonas Bjorkman.
Neat freak
I’m a neat freak, but only on some things. For instance, I don’t mind if the desk is messy and in disarray, but I need to have the toys picked up, and the house vacuumed. It’s an urge that I have, it’s as if the walls are closing in on me, and I might not make it out alive … unless I vacuum the house, and pick up the toys. They don’t even have to be put away, but they need to be out of the way. In a corner somewhere is fine by me.
We live in a house in the city. There’s about 15′ between my house and my neighbor’s, and when I’m in the dining room, I can see straight into my neighbor’s bedroom window. That is, if he has his blinds up. On this particular night, his blinds were up, and his dresser drawers were wide open and the clothes were hanging out!!! Remember I just told you how sometimes the urge comes over me? Well, the urge was coming over me big time. I knew that I couldn’t go over to his house, ring the doorbell, and say: ‘Hey, uh, could you do me a favor and tuck your clothes into your dresser drawers, and then slide them shut? And do it before I lose my freakin’ mind over here???’ I was feeling a little Monica-like, from Friends, when she had to go over to Ross’ messy girlfriend’s house and clean it. Remember that episode? That was me. Except I didn’t want to be outed as some neurotic neat freak, so I stayed in my house and tried to forget it.
Thank God he has a girlfriend now, and the blinds stay shut about 99% of the time.
That’s not nearly as bad as last night, when Zoe dumped her popcorn in the car. It was all over her, and the backseat. Gah!
-
-
Subscribe
