It’s not uncommon for every neighborhood to have one resident jerk. In my last neighborhood the resident jerk thought I had mowed six inches onto his property and complained about it. I should have threatened to trim his bushes too. It turned out said jerk was mistaken about where the property line actually was, but it didn’t really matter. For him complaining was a way of life. He use to call and complain about neighborhood kids playing in our yard. Not my kids, not his yard - and he complained. As I got to know the rest of the neighborhood I soon learned he was despised by all.
When you get to know your new neighbors, odds are good you will learn who the resident jerk is and odds are that your feelings towards that person are shared.
You will most likely know who it is shortly. Probably an older man/woman or couple between 50-70 within 4-5 houses of you on either side of the street. They probably spend a lot of time outside on the weekend taking care of their yard and/or cars and have some little dog they treat like a child. If that describes your entire neighborhood you’re likely to be in for a tough time of it.
Living well is the best revenge. Have a doperfest at your house and invite the neighborhood. You should have lots of barbecued polish sausages and chicken, german potato salad and fresh coleslaw. Corn on the cob, fresh cut garden tomatoes, corn bread and collard greens, fresh brewed ice tea, watermelon and banana bread.
Invite me uh… us over and we’ll make friends with everyone. We’re like Furbies with clothes. Problem solved.
I fully intend to have a Dopefest/Fathomfest here once we have the house set up (right now we’re all boxes) but I’m afraid the only food we’ll be providing will be vegetarian. It will probably be pot-luck though, so anyone else is free to bring whatever. Except fish. That makes the house stink for days
Grrrrrr! Just reading about that makes me pissed off for you. It’s people like that who discourage individuality. IMHO, you must be a very interesting person if you’ve evoked such a response from the normals after only a month.
I agree with most of the people who have already posted - it’s most likely one single jerk in the neighborhood, and that can be easily overcome by making yourself known as kindly and pleasant neighbors to everyone else. Making the jerk isolated is very important to the health of the entire neighborhood.
I have to disagree with astro’s assessment, though, of it being an older person or couple, etc. because that is stereotyping too. I used to live in a neighborhood full of people just as astro describes, and they were all very sweet, liked us and our two big dogs. They also liked the few neighbors with passels of little kids too. We lived there for 12 years and only got crap from one weird guy who lived in a house he’d surrounded with huge bushes and who had posted NO TRESPASSING signs on his property (and this was in a densely populated area where a yard was about a 1/4 acre). There was a telephone pole near - not ON - his property and one day when my husband was walking the dogs and one of them peed on it, he flew out of his house and was yelling at my husband about it. Definitely a nutjob there.
If you have animals, I suggest you make sure your resident nutjob does not live next to or behind you. Friends of ours had a beautiful and very well-behaved dog of theirs poisoned by their nutjob next door neighbor. They moved, and sued, but that doesn’t change what happened. I’m glad it didn’t happen to us, or I’d be visiting the husband in jail now. And I’m not joking.
Hi Opal!
Whoever posted that note is a jerk. Somebody has to be very insecure to resort to personal attacks. I agree with trying to make friends with your neighbors-most of them are probably nice people.
Opal, the person who left you that note is a sad, sad person. Imagine being so bereft of a life that not only do you take the time to examine the new neighbors as they move in, you conclude they are somehow unacceptable, and you take the time to leave that note. How incredibly pathetic is that? What kind of teeny-tiny existence would you have to be having to behave that way?
The only reason I’d be crying if I were you is not because I’d CARE what such a pitiful excuse of a person thinks…I mean really!.. but simply because I’d be bummed out that I had bought my new house in a neigborhood that contained such a sad and pathetic case who had already decided to make me their target. What a hassle!
Certainly you shouldn’t take it to heart on any level whatsoever!
OpalCat, you’ve got to take some consolation from knowing that, whoever left you that note, their picture is in the dictionary next to the entry for “loser”.
I suppose it’s not even a little bit constructive of me to say that this brings to mind the old “flaming-paper-bag-full-of-dog-poop-on-the-doorstep-then-ring-the-doorbell-and-run-away” trick. I mean, once you’ve figured out which of your new neighbors has been behind this garbage.
Hi Opal! Congrats on the new house. Sorry about the asshole, but I’m sure he/she/it won’t be a big problem for you. Everything I have learned about you from this board tells me that you are the kind of person anyone would be proud to have for a neighbor. I know that once your neighbors get to know you, this jerk’s opinion will quickly cease to matter.
Well that’s not very nice. However, it sounds to be only one prick in the neighborhood. Rather sad that there are people like that, but they exist.
Once you live in the neighborhood a while you will probably have a good idea of whom perpetrator is.
Similarly, when some of my family moved into a new house, a few of the old folk (read: dead wood) in the neighborhood stuck there noses up. Particularly, one old lady that lived in the rear adjacent property. Anyway, to make a long story short, someone in the family thought it would be funny to place a large dildo on her doorstep.
Don’t just fuck 'em with friendliness, KILL ‘em with kindness. Have a Pot Luck Block Party. Beat any fuckin’ welcome wagon to the punch. Tell them it’s a salad and veggies dinner, no meat. Be creative ! Cook your fave veggie dish or salad, and come and meet the new folks.
Either they will show up and try to confront, or be the only ones on the block who don’t. Either way, you may ferret them out and meet the COOL people who live on your block.
Good luck. Me, I go for a nice hand made fruit salad. Is that okay??? It’ll be varied, and colorful. Served ice cold, too. I’ve got a 19-piece melon baller set, in .025984 mm increments. Just the thing to ball your melons with God. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.
You will make friends, Opal, because of who you are. Screw the Silas Marner’s of the 'hood.
Oh, for pete’s sake, people just crack me up. I mean it’s soooo ironic that someone would put on airs about how high class their neighborhood is…by writing an anonymous hate note. That really shows some class, huh? Look what neighborhood you have moved into…indeed!
The best thing to do with the note is to put it in the trash where it belongs. You’ll know who wrote the note soon enough…difficult people make their presence known very quickly. And then you can start another thread and we can all plan your revenge. (Bwa ha ha.)
God. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.