I live in a little town. Everyone knows everyone else. The only problem I have is that the guy next door has something akin to a Zamboni, only it’s a lawnmower. A HUGE, LOUD mower. He has God-forsaken headlights on the thing. He puts those lights to good use by starting it up and cutting the grass 2 or 3 times a week. Before or right around 6am. He seems to really enjoy riding in circles outside our bedroom window, on his side of the fence, of course. Still. The thing is LOUD. The damn pictures shake and the windows rattle when he does this. It’s unreal. He’s been here for several years, after moving down here from New York City. I guess he didn’t have much grass there, and now, since he has a big yard, he likes to mow it. A lot.
Other than that, I have no complaints. My neighbors are great! Even the Zamboni-like lawnmower guy is nice. I just wish he’d get over the early grass mowing thing…
I have one major butthead, three neighbors I consider mildly annoying and one former neighbor the whole neighborhood was glad to see move.
The major butthead feels it is his place to stick his nose in other folks business. If he doesn’t like something in your yard he will leave post it notes on your mail box. I have had arguments with him over whether I can spray the dogs next door with a garden hose after they have spent the 2 previous hours barking at nothing. I have found ignoring the ass has worked the best.
The mildly annoying include the guy with the little barking dogs next door. He sometimes works late and he would leave the dogs outside. They constantly bark at nothing. A couple of visits from the county animal control and threat of fines have fixed that problem. MA #2 lives across the street. He has at least 20 vehicles, most are inoperable. Every few months he has to shuffle them around so the county won’t ticket him for having junk cars. He claims he is going to restore them all. Yeah, right. MA #3 is a hermit that lives on his short wave radio. The outside of his house looks like a jungle, the yard is never mowed and his roof is covered with 3 inches of moss. He has a couple big antenna towers in the back yard. He has been busted by the FCC on a number of occasions for license violations, most for too much output power. One time he was overriding every tv, radio, and cordless phone in a half mile radius.
The former neighbor ran an auto repair shop out of his garage. His yard, the street in front of his house and anyplace else he could put them became littered with vehicles in various states of disrepair. His 3 kids would wander the neighborhood asking for things to eat claiming there was nothing to eat at home. His 12 year old daughter was terrorizing other kids in the area. A couple of neighbors had to get restraining orders to keep her away from their children. He was caught a number of times tapping into others phone junction boxes (they have easily accessible test jacks) to make phone calls, many long distance. The police were frequent visitors on weekends due to drunken fights. A letter writing campaign to the owner of the house got the guy and his family evicted, he retaliated by breaking the windshields of those he thought were out to get him.
My neighbors don’t bother me at all. Probably they hate me… I do not spend a large amount of effort on keeping my lawn.
My Mom has one neighbor who seems to delight in making as much noise as possible. Loud cars, loud 4 wheel drive vehicles and visitors each night around nine who come and blow their horn as they arrive. Loud music on weekends. Loud enough to rattle the windows across the street in Mom’s house.
That’s when you call the police and have them ticketed. Do it until they stop. Or you can send a note to their house asking them to please not block your driveway. If that doesn’t stop, then call the police and have them ticketed, etc. They’re preventing the use and enjoyment of your property.
You know, my current neighbor is so pretty, she could take a crap on my floor and I’d think it was really nice of her. Luckily, she doesn’t. Very quiet person. Definite step up from the previous tenants who lived there, who were crackwhores, of the screaming-dope-smoking-fighting-at-2-in-the-morning-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-illegal-pet-keeping-smelly-skanky-never-cleaning-or-bathing variety. Seriously, one time they opened their windows, presumably to air out their apartment and my apartment instantly smelled like rot. YUCK.
My grandmother used to have this drunken bachelor living up the street from her (he died years ago) who, according to my mother, used to walk down the street pissing on himself after an all-night bender.
When my father was growing up, they had this family living in their neighborhood that were a real bunch of hicks. There’s this old dirt road off my grandparents street, and at one time, the last house back there was nothing but an old shack, complete with outhouse and chicken coup. They used to let the chickens roost on the kitchen table. They were filthy, foul and spent most of their time drunk. Once they came banging on my grandparents’ door at 3 am for some reason, three sheets to the wind, wearing nothing but the night breeze.
Have an obsessive-compulsive disorder with respect to lawn care, leading them to mow the lawn about 4 times a week, leading them to mow about 20 feet into my lawn, because I only mow mine once per week, and it may somehow contaminate theirs.
The place I’m renting is the front part of a three house unit. I’ve got the front part and another guy (who I’ve met, but that’s about it) has the attached part behind me. (There are common walls but no doors and at least 6 feet of space seperating the two. The third unit is the property owners’ for when they’re in town, so it’s generally empty.) The only problem I have with the guy is that he has a tendency to leave the gates to the backyard open. Neither of us have a dog back there or anything, so it’s mostly just a problem with me.
And I’m being a sort of bad neighbor–the city provides those big rolling trash bins so that all they have to do is get the truck to pick up the bin and dump it into the top of the truck. I often forget to take the bin to the curb and I’ve gone out to head to school the next morning seeing that he hauled mine out for me along with his. I need some way to thank him for that, as well as remembering to take care of my own trash bin. At least so far I have made sure to haul them both back to where they belong when they are empty, but I really should thank him somehow.
Really, it’s the “mow 20 feet into my lawn” part that bothers me. It’s the hypocrisy of being so sensitive and protective about your property and its care, but just fucking presuming that you have some right to do what you want with mine. It really bugs me; it’s incredibly arrogant and selfish in its own way.
I would have little to no problem (it would bother me a bit, but I’d chalk it up to annoying but done with a white heart) with a neighbor who was a friendly, “Hey neighbor, I was mowing my lawn and I thought I’d make it easier on you and get a bit of yours,” type.
I would have little problem with a zealous, “My lawn is incredibly important, you stay off it, and I stay off yours,” type.
It’s the “My lawn is incredibly important, you stay off it, I’ll trample all over yours,” type that really pisses me off. It’s not the actual act, it’s the symbolism.
We’re on the bottom floor. The neighbor above us has several grandchildren. Grandchildren that like to run on their heels on her squeaky hardwood floors (most of the condos in my building have the original hardwood floors, which is from 1914). Oh, and they like to scream while running. They arrive at her place at 6 a.m. on weekdays and weekends and immediately start running and shrieking. And they stay ALL DAY. Their cycle is a little like this -
6:00 a.m. - run and shriek
7:30 a.m. - quiet
9:00 a.m. - run and shriek, then arrange all the furniture in the kitchen and dining room, maybe run and scream a little more
10 a.m. - quiet
…and so on.
The little snots are moving the furniture around again as I type this.