Basement Business Part Two

Today Julie offered me a case of water. Out of the blue. "Do you like bottled water?" she asked through my kitchen window while I was cleaning the kitchen. I'd mentioned that our neighborhood is somewhat close quarters, but I didn't expect her to pull up my adirondack chair to my kitchen window so she could talk to me. It was a bit surprising. "Do you like bottled water?" she asked...

"Sure" I said. Why wouldn't I? "I got a few cases today and I thought you might like one" she replied. It's a nice gesture, but who buys extra bottled water just to give to their neighbors? "It's in my basement" she said. And there was the catch. She's still trying to get me into her basement. I'm not paranoid, but I have to say that it's odd that she keeps trying to get me down there. I haven't heard any screams from down there, so I don't know why I'm so afraid, but honestly, at this point there's no way I'm going down there. Not after she started trying so hard to get me there. "We only drink the flavored kind" I said, trying to find a way out of it. "Oh, OK" she replied. "Maybe next time."

If she comes back to tell me that she bought a few cases of flavored water and it's in her basement I don't know what I'm going to do, though. I guess that's when I switch to tap water for the flouride or something. In the mean time, I'm not going anywhere near her and I'm going to put my adirondack chair back under the tree where it belongs. And perhaps close my windows.

The good neighbor.

Balls, Lights, and The New Guy.

A new couple moved in a few doors down from me. They seem like pretty nice people so we’ll have to see how they fit in with the rest of the crowd. I chatted them up a few weeks ago, welcoming them to the neighborhood, and taking them a little trinket as a housewarming gift. They were very appreciative, very nice, and very normal. I think we’ll get along pretty well. We’ve already had dinner since then and had a great time.

When I moved to the neighborhood a few years ago I didn’t receive as nice a welcome. My neighbors from across the street actually did welcome us nicely, but they quickly moved after that and then Tanya moved in. But my first memory of a new neighbor is during one of my first dinners here when I found Julie staring in my kitchen window at me making dinner. No recognition or greeting, just watching me cut chicken or something. I waved She stared. Her young son came up behind her and he too just stared at me. He then started throwing a tennis ball against the side of my house so that it bounced back into my yard, a practice he has kept up ever since then, even with my frequent requests to stop. She is not help on the matter, either. He has even asked me to retrieve the ball when it hits the fence upon return and comes to rest on my brick breezeway.

The odd thing is that the stares continued. It was about 3 or 4 weeks before I had an opportunity to introduce myself, and it was as though she had never seen me before. I never asked about the stares, but our eyes had even made contact on numerous occasions and I had even waved, but still…. No spark. I never pressed the issue, but they continue to watch me in the kitchen when they can. Last summer they even installed a floodlight on their garage, coincidentally pointing directly into my kitchen windows. I kid you not. I just don’t understand why they want to blind me during my dinner prep, but I can only assume that it is so that they can watch me a little better. I’m not sure if a BB or pellet can break one of those outdoor floodlights, but I’m really tempted to buy one of those guns to try it out. What better way to treat your new neighbor, right?

The good neighbor.

Running

Ted is a runner. My father is a runner so the activity is nothing unusual to me, however it’s his choice of times that always throws me. It’s never in the morning or after work, but usually in the middle of the night. I’m a light sleeper, a breeze wakes me and keeps me up, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen him out running at 3:00am. And he keeps what seems to be a normal working schedule.

Did I mention that he’s a smoker? I think I did, but I don’t think I mentioned that he takes time out of his busy running schedule to break for a smoke. He then resumes running. Stop for another smoke… Run some more. I’ve actually asked him about this and have always gotten a shrug in response. I don’t want to ask too much since he also tosses his cigarette butts into a large planter on his porch that contains nothing but cigarette butts. And that kind of scares me. You should see the runoff when it rains since it’s never emptied. I don’t want that planter, or its contents, to end up on my lawn one night at 3:05.

The good neighbor

Storm Damage

We had a storm yesterday that was one of the shortest and wildest I've seen in 10 years easily. I couldn't believe the wind, and the top portion of one of the tallest trees on my property is now hanging by a thread over my porch. But that's not the story. What is the story is Ted.

He had a bunch of tree branches fall on his property. Big ones. I did too. So did many of my neighbors. Last night, at about 9:30 as I was looking out my window at the downed power lines being repaired, I saw Ted dragging the branches from his yard over to Tamara's yard. It was painfully obvious what he had done due to the drag marks in the grass on his yard and her's. But he then took the branches from my front yard and dragged them into her yard as well.

I don't know what kind of mind does this, but it's not the mind that begs for forgiveness when it's busted, and I know that from experience. I don't know if she said anything to him today, I haven't heard any commotion, but at least it's a few less branches that I have to deal with now. It's on him... And her...

The good neighbor

The Tale of The Tree

About 8 months ago I had a dead tree removed from my yard. All went well and that was that. A few weeks ago my neighbor Tanya asked me who I used and for their number. I had noticed that she too had a dead tree in her front yard that, god forbid, might actually fall on her house in a bad storm. I was wondering when she might take it down, but I don’t know her that well and never wanted to get into it with her. She’s an adult, and can make her own decisions, right? A few days later I saw the same service over at her house talking to her. Word of mouth is great.

I went away on vacation for a week and got back just the other day. When I returned, the obviously dead tree was still there. But the tree guys obviously came because the huge, perfectly healthy maple tree near her driveway had been removed for some reason (‘it was in an inconvenient place’ another neighbor told me a few days later). The guys must have mentioned it to her because they talked to me about another tree on my property that will have to go at some point. When her dead tree falls, though, it’s not going to be fun. But I guess it’s not inconvenient.

The Good Neighbor

Basement Business

Julie told me yesterday, out of the blue, that I was welcome to hang out in her basement any time I wanted. That was pretty much the sum of our conversation. I'm not sure why I would want to, or what the heck may be down there that might interest me, but I can say for damn sure that I won't be finding out any time soon. It could be where she stores her dried fish, but if that's the case, there isn't much room for anything else.

Don't most neighbors simply ask if you want to come over for dinner or a barbecue? Why she would offer her basement as a hang out I'll never know.

The Good Neighbor

The Fish

I like fish. I like to eat fish, I like to catch fish, and I like to see cool looking fish swimming around the ocean or an aquarium. What I don't like is seeing dead, eviscerated fish hanging criss-crossed all over the yard drying in the sun. My family and I had moved into our new house not a few months before when, one day, I looked out my back window and there they were. Julie*, one of my neighbors, had decided to dry hundreds (I'm guessing) of pretty large fish in her backyard. And mine. At least, a portion of the wires were hanging off some of the trees in my yard. And no doubt she had to jump the fence to get them there too. I was very friendly with all my neighbors when I moved here. Perhaps overly so, I now wonder. And I am on good terms with Julie and her husband. I think. And I like a close community. But not that close.

I didn't question them, I just left them there, drying, and after about a week they disappeared. I never asked about them and I haven't seen them since. The fish I mean. I've seen her, as her kids keep pulling the slats off my fence and taking them wherever they like to hide all their other goodies. She has to keep apologizing. For the fence. But I have never heard any explanation about the fish. And it was just too weird for me at the time to ask about them, and I think I never will. Though I still wonder if there is a cord of dead fish somewhere in her house to this day.

The Good Neighbor

* Obviously not her real name.