Love Thy Neighbors

I live in a neighborhood of middle class, middle sized families. The neighbors on either side are older, retired and there are families with school aged children across the street. For some reason, they are all very friendly only when walking by. They will  wave and say Hello but there is only one family that will invite us in and that is only because their day home provider happens to be my best friend. There no kids playing outside on our street.  What happened to street hockey and bike riding? I remember a time that neighbors would
have block parties and sit out on the drive together to drink beer. Or is it just me? Maybe I am the neighbor that no one likes, they all wish I would move cause the property values are dropping because I live there.

When my baby was born, the neighbors to the south of us happened to be getting out of their vehicle as I was and came over to ask about the baby.  They know me a bit better than the others because they shopped at the pharmacy I worked at. I like these neighbors. They are the kind that would watch your house for you just cause they knew you were out of town.  I invited them in to see the baby but they graciously declined.  I got the impression that to enter my house was the number one thing they have vowed to avoid at all costs.

What would cause them to react this way? Maybe it is because my yard is in such a state this year. The lawn gets mowed when we can finally push my 17 year old son out to the lawn mower and coerce him to turn it on and push it. The garden did not get planted due to the fact that I was 8 months pregnant at planting time and didn't want to face a summer of tending it with a newborn. The trees did not get pruned and we have a REALLY tall birch that is dying right between our driveways that we talked about removing this summer but  never did. It keeps dropping full on branches on their driveway during storms.

My house on the other hand I can say is guest worthy at almost anytime of the day. A by product of my OCD cleaning schedule. Perhaps it is because I took the awful frosted look Mack Tack off the half bath window because it made me feel like I lived in an RV only to discover the tree didn't really hide the window from their dish washing view. I still can't decide what to put in that window so I just don't turn on the lights when I use that toilet.  We also have no curtains in our den, which has full floor to ceiling wall to wall windows facing their house. I have to admit, the hubs an I have made out a bit in that room..... And of course I breastfeed in front of my computer several times a day. Well, if they didn't want to see, then they shouldn't be looking right? Lol I have to admit, I have seen him trying very hard to avert his eyes while I am in the den. Poor guy.

Ok so maybe it is time for some new trees on that side of the house.

The neighbors on the other side of us can see only one of our windows, the dining room one. These neighbors are NOT friendly. It can't be because my kitchen table is messy. He came out the day I finally got a few moments between being a soother and baby carrier. I wanted to tackle the weeds that were taking over my poor peonies in my front garden. It was august and the first time I had been out there all summer. His comment was "I see you are FINALLY getting rid of that eye sore! You know the people who lived here before would have cleaned that out a long time ago!"

My reply of "yeah, the people we used to live next to would have been good neighbors and helped me clean it out knowing I had just given birth and was still recovering from that, instead of yelling at me for not doing it" probably was a little snarky and deserved the "do you think you could clean your dog run out too? It smells bad and I like to enjoy sitting on my back step!"

Whoops! Yeah it does smell bad! Lol

 I have noticed that he raked his lawn right up to the property line and not a smidge over. The leaves were all from our tree of course and I wouldn't be surprised if he actually just raked them all onto my lawn. We never did get it cleaned up before the snow. Oh well, fertilizer right? We have to rake it in the spring anyways. He also will snow blow his walk up to his property line as well. Geez! It is only another 5 feet to the driveway, couldn't you just....? Aeh! I deserve it I suppose.

Maybe next year I can win back their favor. I will renovate my yard to have plastic tress and fake grass, like in Thneedville. Cover my windows and bake them cookies.... Ok at least say hello! When I see them outside.