Respectful, Responsible and Considerate Neighbors...We should all try it.

Writer's Workshop #3... Neighbors.

Living in the center of 3 trailers as given me plenty of experience of various types of neighbors. I have good neighbors on one side and have had a slew of bad neighbors on the other side, that is who I will be talking about.

We have been blessed with good neighbors that are quite similar to us.
Quiet...no loud parties, no loud music, no fighting.
Considerate...I let out a scream and they are right there to see if I'm okay or like the day I ran out of gas and they took me to go get some or the day they stopped by and gave us a pecan pie (man I wish I could cook, I would love to return the kindness).
Polite...Always says Hi, talks to us across the fence but not all up in your business
Watchful...we can always count on them to watch over the place when we are gone.
They are the perfect neighbors for us.


But now to the other side.
This trailer has seen many types come and go.

A large family... lots of noise, music, fighting, drinking, honking horns, car door slamming, children squealing, teenagers sneaking out, trashy yard, a foul smell coming from their trailer (later to be identified as trash, diapers and cockroaches(the little nasty ones)).

A small family... clean, quiet, but not too friendly.

A couple...Not so clean, the lady was NEVER friendly but the guy was overly friendly, quiet but with cars coming and going all through the night, left owing the landlord lots of money and left the place trashed up.

Another small family...Unfriendly, never even cracked a smile or a wave of hello, lots of fighting, not responsible pet owners, trash all over the yard and also left owing lots of money.

Single mom with one child...Clean, quiet, but not a responsible pet owner and again another unfriendly neighbor. The only issues I had with her was when her boyfriend would come over she would send the boy outside, sometimes well into the wee hours of the night. And another one who left the inside a mess plus owing money.

Another small family... Polite but not friendly, loud music, fighting. They always had trash in the yard and got locked out for owing money.

The latest resident an single mother of two was very friendly but she had people coming and going all the time, all day and all night with music blaring, car doors slamming, just in general a whole lot of noise. Definitely NOT a responsible pet owner! (left the gate opened with a loose mastiff in their yard, that chewed up my chihuahuas when I took them for a walk on the road) She at least admitted she owed money and moved but once again left the place a mess.

I have always wondered why folks move into a place that has been cleaned and fixed up but when they move out they leave it a mess, trashed up and needing lots of repairs. I would be embarrassed to leave a place that wasn't at least close to the way I got it.

If you borrowed a chainsaw and messed up the blade, would you give it back like that or would you replace the blade first? I would soooo replace the blade!

I think we (society) have become so wrapped up in our own little universes, wants and desires, that we forget that we are not the only people our actions affect, especially when living close to our neighbors.

Being a respectful, considerate neighbor takes some of these questions or thoughts:

Is our music disturbing our neighbors?
Can the neighbors hear us fighting?
Are my children being respectful of our neighbors property? (I have had sooo many toys thrown in my yard, after awhile it gets annoying)
Is my yard an eyesore? (so many times I just keep my curtains closed cause I don't want to see the mess next door)
If I am going to throw a party this weekend, maybe I should let the neighbors know so they can be prepared or make plans to be gone.
My neighbor gets up at 4 in the morning to go to work, so maybe having a loud party in the middle of the week isn't such a good idea.
Is my pet and yard secure?
Is your pet safe from harm (getting run over or attacked) and safe from harming others who are not on your property? (Passerby's should not have to be worried that your dog is going to be loose and attack them)
A Hi, smile or wave wouldn't hurt, being nice to your neighbors CAN be a good thing.

The list could go on and on but I am tired and ready for my nap. Thankfully I don't have any loud neighbors at this time to keep me from getting a nap.

I just wish everyone who has neighbors close by would stop and think of how their lives affect their neighbors lives.

Shocked, Mad and Baffled

How to make a mends with an evil dog...become the soul provider of food and water!

Yes another rant about my neighbors! They have thoroughly made me mad!

As you know from last post the neighbors received their eviction notice last Sunday. My office window faces their trailer and I have become the neighborhood watch person. The landlord asked me to keep an eye on the place, cause he had a confrontation with the woman and is fearing retaliation in the form of property damage. I'm also to report to him of when they show up to move out all their stuff.

Should be a super easy job, right? NOT! They left on the first, came back on the second, so I called. 10 minutes later I look out the window and their gone. Two hours later they are back..so I call. This time I watch like a peeping Tom, they unload empty boxes and leave again. They don't come back for two days!

In those two days I have been feeding and watering their dogs. These stupid heartless people, left their two dogs out in the heat with no provisions. The evil dog Nikki can handle the outside, but the little red long haired, house pampered chihuahua, has been crying and scratching at the door to be let in, the whole two days!

The landlord put a notice on the gate that on the fifth he will be putting a lock on the gate and that they needed to be totally gone by then. I keep expecting them to show up and get the dogs and load up all their stuff. Oddly enough this hasn't happened. They did show up yesterday morning for 5 minutes but didn't do anything, not even feed the dogs. They again showed up and unloaded the little pull trailer by dumping its contents on the ground and taking the EMPTY trailer away.

It is midnight Sunday morning the day of locking the gate and they haven't even tried to move out their stuff. They aren't living there, just their dogs are.

My heart is in turmoil for these dogs. Yes Nikki and I don't get along, but gezz I ache at the heartlessness of what these people are doing to them. AND on top of all that the landlord says that if the dogs are still there when he locks the place up, he is going to call the pound, the killing pound!

I must say that there are still people out there that still manage to shock me. I mean leaving the dogs behind, that doesn't shock me as much as the fact that they aren't even trying to retrieve their stuff! They are a large family with many children and yet not one has grabbed a bag of clothes or filled a box, that is shocking to me.

Looks like they will be leaving everything behind, dogs too! A big giant mess for the landlord to deal with. Maybe I will get off this subject eventually, please excuse my rantings.

I'm just so shocked, mad and baffled by this behavior.

Landlords

When hubby and I lived on the other side of town for 17 yrs, we was blessed with a wonderful landlord who was also our friend. He had a heart of gold and would do anything he could for ya. He was very lineate with his tenants and at times to a fault. He had some that were just users and fast talkers, they would somehow manage to go months sweet talking their way out of paying rent month after month. Eventually it forced him to get legal on there ass's but he always hated doing it.

He would say..I know what it is like to have hard times and everyone needs a break sometimes. US (us and other friends) would tell him..That is great and all but you can't let these people walk all over you, destroy your property in the process and leave you to deal with unpaid bills.

He was a small time landlord that owned a few trailers, he was retired and thought that this would be a good way to make a small living. He used that rent money to pay his own way and pay on the land, taxes, insurance, ect ect.. He always seemed to find the worst of the worst in fly by night tenants and always suffered for it in the end. If it hadn't been for the few good long term tenants that he had, he would have folded way back when.

Hubby and I once debated the idea of having a tenant in our trailer while we was over the road for them 3 years. Our landlord quickly discouraged it! He said "The hassle of it is overwhelming and the results iffy. You never know how someone is going to treat you, no matter how good you treat them." I was so grateful for his advice. Our trailer may have not been much, but the idea that someone could trash your place out and leave ya hanging was what killed the idea for me.

When we moved over here and with a new landlord, I was worried as to what kind of guy he was. You know, hardcore or nice. Well thankfully he turned out to be super nice and I do consider us to be friends. He brings us fruit and vegetables from his garden and he always compliments me on how well I keep the yard. (thank you brother!) It is nothing more than what I would expect from a tenant, to care about the place you live and to have reverence for the landlord that allows you to live there. I try all I can to not make him regret that decision, even if it means paying brother to come and do the yard for me.

Well the poor man has been going over to the bad neighbors trailer every weekend and yes the busy body in me wondered why. Were they paying by the week or was he struggling to get the rent? I got my answer this morning.

He sat on my porch (as he does every month and talks) and said..you wont have to worry about that dog anymore! Apparently they have been taking advantage of his kindness and are three months behind on their rent, with the ever standing promise that he will get it the next week and so on and so on. Plus an ever growing water and trash bill, that has now exceeded four hundred dollars!

The poor guy is just miffed at how people can treat people like that and not care what it is doing to him and his lovely wife? Not just financially but emotionally too. It's just so sad.

The next step is to see how much damage they did to the trailer. I'm just sure it is trashed out and awful. If their outside is trashy then most likely the inside will be worse. I feel sorry for the man, as to how much money has been lost and how much he is going to have to dish out for repairs before he can rent it out again.

Just the thought of all them starving roaches over there looking for a new home, has me digging in my piggy bank for the money to bomb!! Ants...I can sorta deal with, roaches...NO FRIGGING WAY!!!!!!

Once There Was Four

Once there was four, but now there are only three and was soon to be just two.

I have (good) neighbors to the left of me and (bad) neighbors to the right and their dogs reflect their owners. The good neighbors have outdoor cats and this is one of their litters.

This little sweet heart of a girl captured my heart right off. She was curious and playful, not shy at all.

She was just getting to where she had mastered the art of climbing a tree and loved to come over and visit, till momma meowed for her to come home.

She loved to play peek-a-boo with just about anything that she thought was hiding her.

Then came along the menace to society. Nikki is her name and she loves to terrorize the neighborhood. Seriously folks, I can't even get to the mailbox if she is anywhere around. Well today at noon, she crossed the line from just a terror to a kitten killer.
I tried to save her, but she died in my arms.
The Animal Control was called.
An hour later, I got the chance to rescue one of the black kittens. A few seconds more and he would have joined his sister.
Animal Control finally arrived, talked to me and I clearly told him which dog but he only took her accomplice.

This was her accomplice! A stray/drop-off that decided to become buds with Nikki two weeks ago. AND the only one to pay the price of jail time.

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Needless to say I am outrage over the whole situation!
I would rant but I'm even too upset to do that.

Randomness

Went to bed at 2:45am and got woke up at 7am. The freaking fracking neighbors honking into my ear. She was apparently trying to tell her daughter to hurry the blank up!
Yes I know most of you have heard me grip about the honking and I regret putting you through it again.
But seriously, HOW is it she doesn't grasp the knowledge that that horn could possible wake up her neighbor!!!! OMG, I am soo cranky this morning!
I'll move on...

In other news at the Welchland:

Last night while peaceably watching V (yes hubby has gotten me hooked), Taco went to jump up on the couch and jumped right on Chaquita. She was under the covers sound asleep and as soon as it happened, she came unglued and come charging out from those covers and attacked Taco. Taco screamed and I jumped up and tried to break it up. Once in their prospective corners, Taco was still screaming. I picked him up and rushed him to the kitchen and proceed to investigate. Yup, she had bitten his lip and he was bleeding. It wasn't bad and it stopped bleeding within minutes, but every time Taco was even remotely in her line of sight he whimpered and tucked his head into my armpit!
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Yesterday I went to the thrift store. Mostly to get away from the possibly chance of eating through my day (I'm trying folks), but also cause I just need to get out of the house.

Here are some of the items I found at the thrift store:





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On my way back from the thrift store, I was going down a gravel road and in the distance I could see there was someone on the side of the road. I thought it was this old guy that rides his bike all the time, but no it turned out to be a daddy with his son in a stroller. That was a pleasant surprise. I immediately slowed way down, as to let the dust settle and to not possible throw gravel at them. The man just looked and looked at me with a frown on his face. This puzzled me very much.

Have we become a society that disregards our fellow people soo much that when a common courtesy is done, they find it to be strange behavior?
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I rode my bike for all of five minutes yesterday morning. I wanted to at least do more than that, but I'm going to have to build myself up to it. Very Very out of shape!
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I guess that is it for today, my mind is drawing a blank right now and I need to get to the lawn mowing.

Yall have a great day!

Brownie and Dash

Dash (Better view enlarged)


Brownie


Brownie and Dash (on the side is Wacko)

These are all my good neighbors dogs. Dash has female radar way bigger than himself! Fortunately, Last year they got him a female. I didn't bother to ask why a weenie dog (I forget what the breeds real name is), but Dash was very happy and here is the result:


Nine of the cutest little puppies!


This little girl captured my heart right off! Camera shy?


This little boy too! Brown head with white stripe, too cute!


Thankfully they are all spoken for! Whew, dodged a bullet!!

False Fronts

I believe you have all seen the pics of my yard in horrible need of mowing. With that in mind, it is safe to say I am not the best yard keeper by any means. My grass gets unruly and my flowerbeds have been taken over by the weeds.

I do have some things out there that I fully intend to address as soon as it quits raining.

Like..
Two stacks of cement slabs (for a walkway), that haven't made it to the ground yet.
Some odds and ends of empty flower pots.
A mirror that hubby had leaning against the fence and the wind knocked it over and broke it. I have yet to clean it up.
Yes, I'm a little lazy for not having done these things.

Here is my issue...
I was mowing the grass on the third day of no rain. The lawnmower didn't like the idea cause the grass was still pretty wet. Oh well, it had to be done before I go crazy! I couldn't stand it any longer, not with the threat of more rain in the forecast!

As I was mowing, I was noticing little pieces of trash in the back yard. I'm hoping it was just the wind and not thrown over the fence on purpose. A few pieces, but enough for me to take real good notice of my neighbors yard.

These people haven't lived here but four months and their yard has trash all over the place! I'm not talking a few scrap pieces of paper. No, this is like someone dumped out several bags of household trash in their yard and spread it out all over the place.

My neighbor pulls into their driveway, goes in the house and comes back with some cleaning supplies. Obviously, she's not going to use that stuff on the yard.

On my next round, I notice that she is sitting on the ground cleaning the....
RIMS OF HER CAR!!

Seriously?! I was dumb founded!

Why on earth would it be so important for folks to see you driving around in a super clean car, in the middle of the rainy and muddy season?

Look at me in my super clean car, pumping my bad ass tunes for everyone to hear, so they will look at me! I am falsely advertising myself but as long as they don't go to my house, they will never know.

I just don't get it.

Why do people feel the need to put on a false front?

Trying to convince other people in public that they are one thing, but really at home they are the total opposite.

Another example of false fronts...
A family walks into the church on Sunday and present themselves as a perfect family.
When they get back home, it is total different story.

I can be guilty of putting on a false front. If I know I got company coming, I clean like a mad woman. All the little stuff I ignore most of the time. Like..cleaning the A/C or taking apart the fan. All of that is mostly for allergy control, considering most of my family have asthma.

Any ideas on why people do this, instead of being true to themselves?
Or
Share an example of a false front you have experienced or done.

Poseyville

Once upon a time, I met the hubs and he was living with a friend. This friend was living in a trailer that his mother owned. This trailer was on a piece of property that was owned by a very friendly but scrooge type character. We will call him Posey and his land was called Poseyville. Poseyville only had 12 spaces for trailers or campers.



Hubs takes me down this long (1 mile) dirt road that is canopied by trees, that curves and goes over a little tiny bridge. The scene opens up before my eyes and I was suddenly a little scared. It looked like I had been taken to a hippie village, first clue...a very old black and white school bus, being used to live in.

I eventually got over this feeling, after meeting some of the neighbors. Hubs and friend make an agreement and traded hubs car for the trailer. Hubs and I had and lived in this trailer for 17 years, friend had car 2 years. It really was a great deal, considering the lot rent was only $75! I feel in love with the area and it's privacy and all the neighbors. This is the area, I met my bestest friend.

Posey, yes he was a scrooge when it came to money,



but nobody could have had a more friendly landlord. He would lend you money to help you out, but of course there was interest and collateral. Posey had all kinds of businesses that he had part of and property out the yahoo. At one time he was worth a lot of money, but always lived on the low key of things. He got real sick and was unable to keep up the maintenance of his trailers and people started leaving. We were the only renters of land only. In 04' this lovely man died, leaving all of his and his fathers worldly goods to his daughter. We will call her "The Wasteful Wench".



The Wasteful Wench lived up on the corner (where the yellow lines come together) in another trailer park that Posey had bought en for her. She assured all the remaining residents that things would remain just as they were. At this time there was only four renters left.

After a few years of living in blind security, rumors started to fly about The Wasteful Wench. Rumor had it that she was selling off all of her fathers land and businesses. Panic ensued through out the community, community being what was left of the renters and even through out her own trailer park.

The Wasteful Wench and her hubby was living the high life, buying cars, going on cruises and trips to Vegas. But yet still continuing to show and complain about financial troubles. She sold the whole corner up the road, to a fast food chain. In doing that she closed down a tire shop, beauty saloon, bar and her own trailer park. My bestest friend was living in her trailer park at the time and they received a piece of paper in the mail, telling them to vacate the sold property in 30 days.

Rumor also had it that it was going to happen to us, we were the only renters left. (I had talked to her the month before, worried cause I knew our $75 wasn't even covering the taxes and she never mentioned anything.) I called her, to find out for sure. She told me..the property is not up for sale YET, it WAS still a possibility. She reassured me that if it was to go up on the market, she would let me know. She highly doubted that it would sell, due to the fact that it is in a flood zone. This pacified me for about a month! Until I got a knock on the door, by two men wanting to have a look around.



From that moment on, I was on a mission to get out of there as soon as possible. Just finding a new place took me six months and the move another month. If we had waited till we got notice, we would have ended up on the streets or living with someone. We had 17 yrs worth of HUBS stuff! I knew it would not be possible to move it all with in a month.

Ever since the move 1 1/2 years ago, we have mourned over the loss of our little sanctuary. Hubs was convinced that we jumped the gun and could have held out there for a few more years. For me that was just not a healthy way to go, sitting around for that notice and then having to scramble to go somewhere. The uncertainty of it all would have drove me crazy!

Yesterday hubs comes home and tells me that the property did sell and they plowed the whole place down and turned it into a pasture for horses.

I totally feel validated in my paranoia! Hubs verbally said...I was right!

The Wasteful Wench...is totally broke and living with her mother! She managed to sell all that her father and grandfather had built (their whole lives) and flew through all that money in five years!

I am glad we managed to get out of there in time, but man I sure do miss the serenity of Poseyville.

Stop the Honking!!

The trailer behind us has been empty for a few months. Two days after Thanksgiving, a family of 5 or 6 moved in.

Everyday this family and I guess their Friends or family, have been driving me crazy.

People pull into their driveway and sit in their cars and honk. I have never liked this practice and it is making me screaming mad. Not to mention, my dogs will bark every time! Even worse, is that I am expecting a package from the mail lady and she will honk cause I have a gate. So, every time I hear a honk I have to check to see if it is for me.

I find this behavior rude to the neighborhood and to the person the honk is for. If I was to get honked at from my driveway...from some one other than the mail lady... you can bet your bottom dollar, that person would get yelled at for being so friggin lazy and RUDE!

Sorry Mom! It reminds me of when my mother would start honking as she was getting in front of my house, all the kids would quickly pile out (cause it looked like she didn't even stop) and my mom would drive away. Grrr, I would get sooo mad! It felt like a rudeness directed at me. No asking if I could watch them or even if I had time to watch them. Just drop them off and run, with just a friggin honk as a warning! That is probably why I don't like it so much.

It also reminds me of a scene in my mind, of a young girl going out on a date and the boy sits in his car and honks. The father refuses to let the girl go, till the boy comes to get the girl proper like. I know that if I had ever dated someone with a car, my dad would have never allowed a honking boyfriend!

Maybe if I put this up in my yard

They would get the idea!

What ever happened to the days when people actually cared about their neighbors?

When I was a kid, I do recall my parents telling us to keep it down cause we might be disturbing the neighbors and they might get mad.

These new people don't seem to care about disturbing us at all.

From sitting here at the computer in my kitchen/office, I can hear...Music blarring, doors slamming, pounding, yelling and even running in the house...till nearly midnight!

My hubby is usually asleep by at least 9pm. One of these days he's going to get woken up by them and grumpy bear is going to get angry!

Along with the honking at LEAST twice a day, I think I am going to be the one to crazy and lose it, way before he does!

The only thing they can hear from my house, is my dogs barking at all the noise they are making!