Neighborly Update

I think it is time to give an update on my new neighbor situation.

The past has been difficult for us with neighbors.  The last set were quite possibly the loudest people on the face of this earth, or any other earth that might exist as well.

So, when the new neighbors moved in, I was a little worried due to our bad luck with neighbors in general.
In fact, I wouldn't say that my first impressions were totally fantastic, but you know the old sayings about impressions and assuming, and sometimes you should actually pay attention to their meanings.

The first thing I got to see about these neighbors would be their cars.  I want to try to describe their cars to you, but it may be difficult.  Bear with me.
I believe the car that I see parked in the garage is an old school, probably late '70s, Chevy Caprice.  Think really old school cop car.  It has a multi toned purple metallic paint job.  Its very pretty and glittery in the light.  The wheels on it are huge.  We aren't talking normal huge here, either.  I believe them to be 28s or 30s, if you know tires sizes.  If you don't, they are seriously as tall as my nearly 4 year old daughter.  Really.  They are.  I mean, those wheels are at least one and a half times the size of the wheels on my full size truck.  The rims are also massive.  They are a really nice chrome, with a great design that leaves lots of room between the spokes, with holes big enough for the same nearly 4 year old to climb in between.  I don't know that there is another way to describe the wheels on that thing, than ridiculous, perhaps redonkulous, but that would be it.  Lest anyone wonder, yes, it does have a sound system in it.  I had seen this thing rolling through the complex before it moved next door, and I can assure you that it can bump.  I can also tell you that they like some seriously straight up gangsta rap with lyrics that might make even me, who appreciates the fine art of a well placed f-bomb, blush.  And something I just learned yesterday, by peering into their garage as closely as I could without making a total fool of myself, is that the car also has some bright blue neon or led lights inside.  Its very pretty.  All this made me a bit wary.
Their other car, in case you were also wondering if this particular ride was their Sunday car, is a big old Cadillac hoopty.  For those who don't know what a hoopty is, its is generally a massive boat like car in very poor condition.  I consider this a hoopty since no less than three major openings on the car, the trunk, hood, and a door, are all covered in bondo right now.  This car may be on its way to slowly being pimped out to be much more like the one in the garage, hence the bondo stage, but I'm not sure because I think asking might cross a line.  Anyway, the music situation alone made me a little scared.  I don't need all that all up in my house at any hour.
 
With serious fear of jinxing myself, and while knocking on wood, I have to tell you that I have been more than a little pleasantly surprised.  Thus far, all is quiet on the neighborly front.  I hear them probably as much as they hear us, maybe even less since The Girls are always outside when home.  I think all of their kids are little, and they probably sleep in, where as we are up at the butt crack of dawn to get ready.  We probably wake them up, though not intentionally.

So far, I have only heard their music twice.  Once, I heard some music while moving in, from inside the house, but I haven't heard that again.  The other time wasn't bad at all.  I went outside, and into the garage, and I could hear some of that same music they are generally bumping, but the volume was so low, and most of the components that create the actual bumping in the car turned off, that they may as well have been playing some Barry Manilow, if Barry Manilow if Barry Manilow had grown up in the hood and should wash his mouth out with soap.  Seriously, though, it was nothing.

I like them.  They keep to themselves.  They move their trash cans away from the garage doors as soon as it is gone.  They don't bug us, and we don't bug them.  I couldn't ask for more.
I just hope it stays this way.  I mean, I certainly wouldn't mind being friends with them, but, I'm pretty content with just the quiet neighbor situation for once.

They are Out of Here!

Our house is always chaotic in its own way.  The Girls are usually fighting.  I'm usually trying to either referee or hide if that isn't working.  There is a ton of yelling, and pleading.  The TVs are always on.
Even with all that, we aren't the loud ones around here.  I've blogged about it many times before, my neighbors are the loudest people on earth.

The past few days,though, have been really nice.  I thought the neighbors went out of town.  Actually, for a couple of days, I thought they were drugging their children.  Around 9pm or so, the house would get really quiet.  I mean super quiet.  We were all able to get to sleep with no problems.  It was amazing.

Then, I thought they must have gone out of town.  They had a smaller Uhaul trailer in their garage for a couple of days.  It wasn't a moving truck.  So, I, with my very pregnant brain, never even thought that they might be moving.

Turns out, they did.

There is a lock box on their door.  My husband noticed it this morning.  I was so excited, I kissed him for being the bearer of great news.

Those days where it would get quiet at night, they must have been going over to their new house.

They probably moved into a five bedroom house, because they actually had 4 kids stuffed into the old one.  Hopefully, they got a house that wasn't attached to any one else.  That would be great for all.

Regardless, I wish good luck to their new neighbors.  I hope it works out well for all.  As for me, I'm just hoping for a new family that won't smoke pot in the back yard, and will at least respect the quiet hour at 11:00pm.  While it would be nice to have people move in that we could become great friends with, I'm keeping my expectations low, and hoping not to be disappointed.

I May Have Been Wrong

I recently wrote about my new neighbors.

I may have gotten something wrong.  I can't say for sure, but its definitely under review.

In that blog post, I wrote that there was no "puff, puff, give" going on with them.  Well, apparently, there is with someone, just not in the garage.  Its in the backyard.

After school on Friday, I gave the girls a Popsicle, and told them they could eat it outside.  Score for me.  They go chill out side and don't make a mess in here.  I opened the blinds and a window so that I could see and hear them.   A few minutes later I decided to join them.  I walk out, and it nearly knocked me over.

Now, I am no pot aficionado, but having gone to a few concerts back in the day, I'm pretty sure I know it when I smell it.  I think that was it.  Our garages are not attached, and you have to walk through the yard to get to them.  I walked past The Girls, into the garage, and started sniffing.   I couldn't smell it at all.  That meant someone was actually sitting in their backyard, enjoying a little chronic, and hoping no one would notice.  I was shocked.  I mean, had I had the presence of thought in the moment, I would have run,or at least waddled quickly, upstairs to either of the girls' bedrooms to look out the windows.  I could probably have seen who it was, if they were still hanging out there.
Instead, in a very passive aggressive manor, I just started talking out loud about how rude it was, and more importantly, how strong the order was.  I mean, they must be total idiots to think no one would either notice or care.  I did both!

I'm pissed.  I don't appreciate pot smoking right next to my children's toys.  I really don't appreciate the potential contact high.  We don't smoke pot, and I don't plan on starting now.  I absolutely don't want to smell it, or have my girls smell it.  I really take offense the the fact that they would break the law right there under my nose.  Not only that, but I already eat enough in this pregnancy, being on a "See food" diet and all.  I don't need anyone making that any worse.  I get a little worked up about somethings, if you can't tell.  Probably the reason that all Bob Marley music makes me really mad, but that is for another post.

So, here we are, in a new house, with new neighbors, but what's old is new again.  Just like the first set of neighbors we had when we moved here, someone is smoking up right next to us.  I'm not sure how I get so lucky all the time.  Maybe I just notice it more than most people since it makes me crazy.  I'm not really totally sure which neighbors did it either, and I hope I never find out.  If you are going to break the law, just keep it to your selves, please, people.  I don't need to be a part of that.

New Neighbor Woes

Having moved recently, I have decided that I have a love hate relationship with our new location.  I love our new house.  It is just so much better than the old one.  I really do.  It just suits us better.

There is a down side.  I can't handle our new neighbors.  While they don't have any "puff, puff, give" going on in the garage, that I know of, like some of our previous neighbors did, after just a couple of weeks of living here, we already have issues.

For starters, I can't handle her parking.  I know that may not make a lot of sense, but we park on of our cars on the street in front of the house, and so do they.  Well, she tries to, but she sucks at it.  She sucks worse than I do at parallel parking, and that says a lot.  It really wouldn't matter how bad she is, if it wasn't for the fact that she always takes up two spaces when she can.  She sees it as one easy spot for her, instead of the two spots it should be.  It drive me up the frigging wall.  That little bit of space out there is a precious commodity.  You try to preserve and respect it as much as possible for all the people on the street.  Its just the polite thing to do.  She, apparently, never got that memo or doesn't give a rat's hiney.  Also, when I can't quite get into a space or need help, I ask My Husband, who is seriously the best parallel parker in the whole wide world, to come out and spot me.  I have even ask him to help coach me and let me practice so that I can get better.  After all, he is the parking king.  Her husband doesn't so much help her as stand on the porch and yell "Your not doing that right!" when she can't even hear him.  It's fantastic.  I would dare say our entire street hold this grievance against them, even though they don't live next to them.

My biggest problem with them at the moment, though is that they are probably the loudest people I have ever heard in my life.  We live in a town home, and are attached to them by one wall; one miserable, stupid wall.  I can not fathom how they make as much noise as they do.  Seriously.  They could start up a drum circle over there and I think it would only serve to muddle the yelling, and not actually increase their volume level at all.

They have at least three kids, a baby, a toddler, and a tween.  I know the baby cries.  That I can forgive, easily.  The toddler, though, I'm thinking is allowed to run amok at all hours. I think I've figured out that her bedroom must be adjacent to ours, and most likely, her bed is up against the wall that joins our homes, and our bedrooms more specifically.  I also think she either jumps and falls in her bed and onto the wall all night, or actually lays there and kicks the crap out of the wall.  It seriously sounds like kicking.

When we are downstairs, the adjoining wall is up against their staircase.  All day long you hear what sounds like an elephant heard running up and down.  The other night, I actually fantasized about cutting a hole in the wall, right where their stair case is, and reaching through to grab the next person running on the stairs.  A few things kept from actually doing it, like possible criminal charges and being kicked out of my own home.  The biggest thing that made just a drew was trying to figure out how to make sure I got them going up, and not down.  After all, it wouldn't be to hurt them, just to scare them a little and make them stop.

I just can't take it.

My Husband has already gone over there at about 10:00pm one night.  They answered and he told them rather bluntly that it sounded like someone was kicking our wall.  The man of that house didn't seem shocked, surprised, or even upset.  He just said ok, and went back in, but the noise did stop!  That tells me it is some sort of behavioural issue they are completely overlooking normally.  I mean, if in one minute you can make it stop, and we would have heard if there had been yelling at the child, or anything else, then you could make it stop all the time if you chose too.  Not cool.

I don't let my kids behave like that.  In fact, if we are in any area of the home that I know they can probably hear us in, because we can hear them, I make my girls keep their voices down at night or in the early morning.  I try to make them understand that we should show respect for our neighbors and those around us.  Its becoming a problem for me, though, because I don't really want to make them be nice anymore.  I want to teach my girls the right thing, but some days when we get up at the crack of dawn and our neighbors are still sleeping, I seriously would like to send them into the bathroom and tell them the first one to finish got an ice cream, and just let the screaming fights ensue.  IT would be nice.  I'm not like that, though.  I'll continue to teach the girls to behave, and not let mine run amok just to spite the neighbors.  I may, however, get a very loud new sound system and hope they enjoy Nirvana.  At 6:00am.

I hope that things get a little better now that he has gone over there once, because I'm not sure how things will be if I have to go over there.  I don't want to, but I will if I need to.  I don't imagine it will be pretty, either.  I already have an internal filter on the fritz.  I'm pregnant.  I'm tired.  I'm super grouchy.  I'm also a natural red head.  All in all, I would say that makes me a ticking time bomb.

Somehow, be it force or not, we will figure this all out.  Maybe I'll get lucky and they will get orders elsewhere, soon.  That would be fantastic.  Unless the next set of neighbors ends up being worse which would about be my luck.

Bad Boys, Bad Boys...

Have I mentioned that I live in the hood part of my neighborhood?

Actually, I live in military housing, and not to the credit of the military, the police are here all the time. I swear there isn't a day that goes by without at least some form of vehicle with lights and a siren are rolling through my subdivision.

My husband just did a loud "Oh! Hey!"

"What?"

"Cops!"

I look toward the front of the house, and you can see red and blue lights coming in from outside though the small windows above our door. They are really close. In fact, after opening the door (him, not me. I'm less brazen and I look through the blinds) we see that they are right in front of the house.

Surprisingly enough, they aren't here on a domestic call, or a noise complaint, which is generally the case. They actually pulled someone over right in front of my house!!

Not sure who the driver is. I couldn't look long enough to tell without the police being able to see me. I did notice the police all up in the driver's window. My guess, on this national holiday night, is that someone just got pulled over for DUI. I wouldn't be surprised. Which makes me sad.

As long as it isn't one of the neighbors that I have come to really like here. Though, I like them because they wouldn't do that kind of crap.

You know, if it is a DUI thing, that would really piss me off. Especially right in front of my house! There are way too many kids around here for anyone to be pulling crap like that. We may not have an official neighborhood watch, but believe me, we have a neighborhood watch. (Of which, you might have guessed by the blinds thing that I would be considered a member.) I'll have to speak to the other members, aka moms on my street, at school drop of tomorrow am and see if anyone knows the deal.

Should there be someone who was dumb enough to drive drunk down our street who lives on this street, there will be words. We don't play like that in this part of the hood.

When is scary too much?

My daughter and I were walking with a group of friends on Halloween around the hood. We somehow ended up on the other side of our subdivision (I think that somehow was the kids following the blinking lights from one shiny house to another with out slowing enough for us to catch or stop them).

As we were walking across one street, I heard this crazy noise. It sounded like metal being drug behind a car. Like, maybe a piece of a car was dragging. It got louder and louder.

Then, I saw him.

There was some guy dressed up as what had to be the best/scariest Michael Myers ever outside of a movie house. The man looked scary. To me. A grown woman who likes vampires and used to be goth. He was scary. Anyway, he was dragging a shovel behind him. He walked down the road, not the sidewalk, dragging it, looking straight ahead, like he didn't even notice the people going by. Then, when he got close enough to a group, he would suddenly jump and scream at them. I am telling you that man was freaky.

When he did that to our group, one of the moms jumped about 3 feet backwards and nearly peed on herself. Three of the girls started crying. One got over it. One had to stay with her dad after that. One couldn't stop crying. Scary. He jumped at another group and a little girl literally threw her bucket of candy at him and ran. (As an aside, I was proud of her. If this had been a horror movie, she would have made it because she actually did the right thing!) She didn't get far before an adult made her stop. The man in the mask did take it off, and go over and help her pick it all up. He waited until he got a little further away before from that girl before he put the shovel back down, and started all over again.

As my daughter and I walked toward our house, I heard people start screaming behind us, before I heard the shovel. She heard it and took off. She wanted to get home before he could get near us again. Now, She knew he was fake. She knew it was a man. I think she enjoyed the drama more than she was really scared when she ran home.

In hindsight, some of what was transpiring around him was funny. The mom that nearly peed on herself. That was funny. The little girl who threw her candy, could have been funny, if she hadn't been so scared. Though, she probably would laugh if anyone had caught that on camera and they had won 10,000, but I digress.

The thing is, he was genuinely scaring people. Is that wrong, though? Isn't that what Halloween is about? At what point in time do you cross the line from being an enthusiast to an asshole?

I'm not sure if this guy crossed the line. I think he walked it. If he hadn't helped the little girl pick up her candy, he would have been way over it. Provided there are no nightmares, for me or my daughter, that arise from his escapade, I will forgive him.

I think this may be one of those things that live with her, in a good, memorable way. I hope she never forgets what an exciting night she spent with friends, getting candy, running, screaming like crazy and running from a madman in a mask, with a shovel. I hope that in years to come, she tells her own kids the story, and that they won't get nightmares from it either.