Neighbor

We love our neighbors. We are dear friends with all of them except the one right next door.

We have had a huge amount of problems with them from the moment they moved in years ago, which I won’t detail but will just say that they both have been arrested many times and have multiple DUIs. They raised two kids, the son escaped and married into a great family but there are rumors about the daughter, which I hope are not true.

Michael has known some people who had issues with alcohol. He said to deal with our neighbors; we pretty much must ignore them and their bad behavior. Ignore when they pour bleach onto our shrubs to kill them, when they wake us by crushing lots of cans outside our bedroom at midnight, when they tie tampons to one of our bushes, toss lit cigarette butts on the dry mulch along the fence in our yard, throw clods of mud onto the side of our house, toss small vodka and beer bottles onto our lawn and oh so much more.

Michael told me what he learned is that people who are alcoholics try to blame everyone else for their bad behavior. If we were to say something or retaliate, they would then feel justified in and would continue to ramp up their bad behavior.

They are usually fine for a while until they get emboldened and then they do something stupid. We know that it is a cycle.

The police are often at their home. One neighbor called Child Protective Services when their kids were younger. Another called the police every time they were outside smoking and screaming at 2:00AM. This happened a lot. It still happens but not as much.

The only time we had to call the police was when he came to our house wanting to talk about a new fence late one evening. We were in the middle of a movie; he was totally drunk so Michael told him that we would get together on the weekend to talk. He went nuts. He was winding up for a fight. As Michael was raised in the projects, he knows that you watch their eyes, stay close so they can’t swing at you, and try to back them up with your body. He then threatened to kill Michael. We called the police incase we were found dead in our bed. We did not press charges. Did I mention that he is a hunter and has guns? Swell.

What has always bothered me is that neither of them will face real consequences of their drunk driving until they hurt or kill someone. When are five DUIs going to be enough to revoke a driver’s license for life?

So, with that as a background, I just heard him working in his garden. He has a gas mower, a gas leaf blower and a gas edger. They are extremely loud. Also, the fumes from these power tools kill my lungs so as soon as we hear them start up, we run to shut all the windows and doors in the house.

When he is finished, we can look out onto the street where he has blown all of his garden trash, also into our yard and the yard just across the street from him.

Everyone notices. He thinks he is being cute and cleaver. We say nothing. We clean it up.

From outward appearances, they appear so normal. There is always a flag flying and cutesy things in their yard to celebrate any and all holidays. What is sadly amusing is with their horribly destructive lifestyle and with the pollution and noise that the garden tool spew, they own a Prius.

They think they are being politically correct and saving the planet.