Love Thy Neighbor...

Have I told you lately that my neighbor hates me? (Cue my mom rolling her eyes thinking "who [explicitive] cares?!" I usually do not care if somebody does not like me because that person generally has a reason not to. In this case, I'm not really sure what happened. (Note: he hated us long before I posted what a crappy job he did on his Christmas decorations).

I first noticed that my neighbor hated me when I had just gotten done mowing the lawn. I had the leaf blower out and was making my way down the driveway to get the grass clippings off the driveway. (This was a huge accomplishment considering I was about 21 weeks pregnant at the time). I had not gotten to the shared sidewalk yet between our houses. The sidewalk was going to be cleaned of the approximately five grass blades that had gotten on his side. But before I could even get to those five grass blades off his portion of the sidewalk (and legally a sidewalk is a public easement which brings about a whole other issue of why he should not be so crazy about those grass blades) he had his blower out and moved them off his portion of the sidewalk. It was weird. It was uncomfortable. And I can assure you, he was not trying to "help" the pregnant lady out with the task.

I really think I am a friendly neighbor. I mean, when he parks his rusted out 1990s truck right in front of my house (and mailbox) every single day (and does not move it for weeks at a time) I do not grab his kid's sidewalk chalk and mark the tires so I can call the city to tow it in a few days. And when he plays catch with his kids and they trample through my daylillies, I do not remind him that he could switch position in the yard with his kids and have his kids trample over his own flowers instead.

Well, again, I was reminded just how much these neighbors hate me (by the way, if you are thinking about my neighbors who asked me to power wash the backside of my fence I should note that these are different neighbors). My mom was in the fenced part of my backyard (you know- the portion where my yard meets up with his) and found THREE footballs in my backyard. Clearly all three of these balls belong to him because its right where he always plays catch with his kid (see above). And NOT ONCE has he or his kids come and asked me for these balls!!!! He apparently keeps buying more balls instead of knocking on my door and asking me to retrieve the ball. Does he hate me so much he would rather spend $10 on a new ball instead of asking me to retrieve his out of my yard? Apparently, yes.

And just to show you how big of person I am... when I go to return those balls to him this week  year, I am not going to leave a note that says "Just ask me to retrieve the ball next time so you can spend your money on some landscaping instead of more footballs!"