...
Several months of keeping it bottled up was my downfall. And the kid who popped my top was just a victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time...just like my neighbors parents who were out of my view at the time. Had I known they were there, there's not a doubt in my mind I would've remained quiet. The sad part though is that they had to be victimized by my outburst that was really directed at my neighbor himself. A few days after my outburst he approached me in an apologetic sort of way. He asked what happened and informed me his parents heard what I said. I apologized for the outburst and asked what about the agreement...you gave me your word? Him...that was 3 years ago. >edited to add<...When I mentioned the damage from his visitors vehicles he asked why I didn't say something to him. Say what? why should I have too? You already knew it was going to happen without the fence and even told me you saw it a few times. Why didn't YOU say something to your visitors?...
TC
The house we lived in back in the city was in an older neighborhood and the house were being turned into rentals. The houses on both sides went rental as well as one across the street and I think one or two behind us. There were all sorts of problems with the rental houses.
The one across the street at one time had a serious drink/drug user but he was mostly quiet but at one point a renter was doing mail fraud with Rolex watches from that house. One of the houses next door had a serious drunk living there and we had quite a few problems with him until he found a decent girl friend and she straightened him up. The house on the other side was even worse. When we moved in this house was owned by a couple who really kept the place in great shape. Best yard in the neighborhood and great neighbors. They sold and moved.
I saw the buyer to be when he first looked at the house and I knew it was going to be a rental. :thumbdown:
Two brothers moved into the house, one of whom was an EMT. I hoped things would go well. I was wrong. The houses all had single car garages with a single lane driveway. Since people have at least two cars now a days, everyone extended the driveway off to the side. The problem was that the problem house was at a T intersection and the brothers liked to go mudd'n. They each had a mudd'n truck/jeep and a get around town car which means they had four cars. There was just enough room for their four cars. Then they bought a totaled Samurai and parked it in the side yard. Partially under a tarp. For years. This really made the parking issue worse. Along the way they sublet a room to a drug dealer. How the three of them got along and thought moving in together was a good idea is beyond me. :confused3:
With three renters the number of cars went to six so they had to start parking in the street. In spite of the law, they would park in the intersection which made things interesting driving wise but we could live with that situation....
What blew things up was the girlfriends. They would show up on the weekend, usually on Thursday, and there could be as many as *** 9 *** cars at the house PLUS visitors to the dealer. Now these dip sticks would park in front of our mail box AND our driveway. Sometimes we could not get into our driveway and many times the mail would not be delivered.
These unthinking dip sticks could park in FRONT of our house without a problem or several other houses but that would mean they would have to take a few extra steps....
We tried to be nice but I don't do well with Stupid and Rude. After a few times of asking them to not block our mail box and driveway, i.e, stating the obvious, we just called the police to get them ticketed.
This sorta helped but not much.
Of course, with the drug deals going on, there was that much more traffic to the house....
One day, I went to where we now live, to burn a great big pile of brush a wood. I would wait until after a rain to do a burn to be safe but this time the pile was so wet I was barely able to get it started and it took half a day to get the pile going. Long story short, I had to spend the night watching the fire. The wifey brought me some food, more clothes, sleeping bag and a sleeping pad. It was a long, cold, damp night but I get 'r done. :laughing::laughing::laughing: In the morning, I buried the burn pile and went home. All I wanted was a long HOT shower, a decent HOT breakfast, and a soft, WARM bed for a nap. I got home at around 0800 and could not get into my driveway.....
I am a patient man. The car blocking the driveway was the drug dealers girl friend's. I knocked on their door. No answer. I knocked for quite some time until someone got their a...s out of bed. I asked politely for them to move their car so I could get in my driveway. I got a look from him but he went to get the keys. Mr. Druggie took his time getting the keys.
I could live with that, I know a thing or two about what I call dog dominance games. He eventually came out and was getting into his girl friends car when he said something to me. Now I am patient, and I have long fuse, but said patience and fuse was gone after a cold, damp night sleeping on the ground. I don't remember what he said but he was trying to intimidate me. That dog don't hunt and normally I would just laugh but not this time. I let off a string of words that made the air turn BLUE as I started walking towards him. At that point, he realized his BS was not working, he hopped into the car and drove off like a bat out of hades. :laughing::laughing::laughing: Now I was NOT gong to BEAT his useless, lazy, BS'n, drug deal'n a...s but he did not know that. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I am sure I looked real interesting after working around a fire for almost 24 hours, sleeping on the ground in the wet mud. I know I SMELLED of sweat, mud, and smoke. I would guess I looked worse than I smelled.
He was a bit bigger than me, by an inch or two, and he figured he could scare me off. He figured wrong. I was in no $%^&*() mood for his $%^&* that early in the morning. Enough was enough. We had been polite beyond all reason but there was no way he was going to say whatever he said to me without getting a piece of my mind. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I am really glad it was early in the morning because usually people were out and about including kids. I would guess my language violated city ordinances. :laughing::laughing::laughing: I also have a voice that can be LOUD. The neighbors might have heard the words that early in the morning.
Did this stop the problems? No, but he never gave me lip again.
A neighbor was a ranking officer in the city fire department. He and we started making phone calls to the city and I suspect he may have called the owner of the house. I think someone did eventually. The drug dealer moved out one day and the police where there shortly there after. One of the brothers asked me if we had seen anyone at the house that day and I said, yeah, the drug dealer. Turns out at least one of the brothers had put a dead bolt on his bedroom door to keep other people out of his room.
Here is a clue. If you have to put a deadbolt on your bedroom door to keep room mates out of your room, you need new room mates.
The dead bolted bedroom door had been kicked in and the brother lost an SKS, stereo equipment and other stuff worth quite a bit of money.
About this time everything got cleaned up and the brothers left shortly there after.
Sometimes you just gotta say what needs to be said.
Later,
Dan
