Venting. Because Sometimes, That's What Blogs Are For.

Can I just tell you how angry I am at our next door neighbors?

Actually, Mr. Rogers would roll over in his grave if he knew I'd used his favorite friendly term of endearment to refer to the ignorant, hateful savages next door.

These people.

First of all. They have obnoxious dogs that used to bark at EVERYTHING THAT MOVED. AND LOTS OF THINGS THAT DIDN'T. They were constantly yelling at the dogs to shut up or come inside (they were NOT obedient on any front.)

Our other neighbor John, was also having a problem with the dogs barking at him through the fence whenever he was outside reading. So he bought a bag of treats, went over to the house, introduced himself and asked if he could also meet the dogs, give them a treat and let them sniff him in hopes that maybe they wouldn't freak out as much when they sensed he was outside.

The answer was a very unfriendly no and a door shut in his face.

The dogs (Elvis and Oreo, a rott and a border collie) also used to get in growling, snarling fights whenever Gotham came outside to go to the bathroom. Gotham rarely even sniffed in their direction, and NEVER barked. Dude Who Owns The House (who I will NOT physically describe because I can't do it without being ugly) had the NERVE to stick his rotund head over my fence and and tell me that we were gonna "have to do something because I'm not gonna be goin over and breaking up my dogs every time yours is outside."

(Because apparently it's my problem that you haven't trained your dogs to listen to you.)

I politely informed him that Gotham is an inside dog and only comes outside to do his business.

"Well, I'm gonna have to call Bob (our landlord) or something because I'm not gonna be breaking these dogs up all the time."

I told him to go right ahead. He never did.

And the dogs don't get into fights anymore either. Because a few months later, it turns out the the rott, which was ridiculously overweight, had diabetes. They didn't know about it and the dog suddenly went into a diabetic coma and died.

Second Incident: Last week, Todd accidentally parked in the wrong spot after picking me up from work late one night. Savage Neighbor Dude called the police to come out and had a $75 ticket placed on our car for parking in his handicapped spot. Granted it was our mistake, but it was a complete accident. And they claim they didn't know the car was ours, even though it's been parked right next to theirs for 8 months. Also, I'm sure you can obtain one for a number of reasons, but we still can't figure out who in that house the handicapped sign applies to.

Third Incident: The brick wall that we share with their yard is leaking from the outside in. It's flooding our kitchen and our downstairs neighbor's bedroom. Today, we got this email from our landlord.

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We have been in talks with Andre Tuckpointing trying to get the south wall tuckpointed and sealed. Unfortunately, we are getting a lot of kickback from the neighbor. We are spending our time trying to smooth things over in order to get the wall fixed. As it stands, the tuckpointers need to enter the neighbors yard in order to complete the tuckpointing and the neighbor is refusing to let them enter at this time. We have discussed with the tuckpointers another option of possibly temporarily repairing the wall from the inside but they said the tenants would have to move out for at least 4 days so that is not an option. Lastly, we have decided to have a tarp installed on the south wall to keep the rain from penetrating the wall and entering into the apartments. Unfortunately, they were unable to get it installed before this massive rain. As soon as the rain lets up they will get to the apartments to get it installed. It is a first item on their list.

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To top it all off, these people have a huge Confederate Flag on a giant pole in the middle of their yard.

And I'm done.

Except to say that suddenly, the handicapped sign makes sense.