Pardon Me While I Vent

This is going to be one of the few posts I write without photographs, which are to a large degree, far superior to my writing so they act as a crutch.  Flying solo this time.

In general, I'm a glass half full guy and I give people the benefit of the doubt (at least initially). I respect  opinions even when they differ from my own and to that end, rarely talk politics or religion because I see little point in going out of my way to bump heads with others...unless they are just flat wrong or I'm in a rare mood;)

I live on a flag lot, which means we have a house behind ours and in this case, share a driveway with the rear home.  Yesterday (Saturday) I was standing in the shared driveway with the home owner to the rear and our landlords, both of whom are very agreeable, respectful, friendly & tidy people.  Our rent includes a gardener so the yard is always in impeccable shape, never an eye sore. 

Saturday around here falls right after garbage day in this particular case, the owners to the rear had not yet hauled their cans back down the driveway.  Under normal circumstances those cans would have been removed by Friday evening but the husband (pediatric cardiologist and not present) had just dislocated his shoulder and was in a sling.  With two young daughters to tend to, the cans were neglected an atypical 24 hours.

On this particular flag lot, the home owners to the rear have no street frontage exposure so their cans by necessity must sit to the side of the driveway and in this case, on a patch of bare ground in front of another rental house next door.  These homes were all built in the late forties and early fifties so this practice has been going on for a considerable amount of time.

Up walks a woman whom I've never seen before gunning for the for who ever left the garbage cans on her property.  Turns out she's the landlord who lives elsewhere...hopefully far away.  It went something like this, "I don't appreciate people leaving their trash all over my property."  I think we were all caught off guard by the voracity of the attack because it came without warning and already included a rather nasty tone.  The home owner apologized and explained that the cans needed to sit to one side of the driveway to which the woman exclaimed, "Friday is trash day right?" staring down her counterpart. The homeowner then responded with another apology explaining that they were delayed in retrieving the cans because of her husband's injury, the point she was trying to make was this case had extenuating circumstances and not typical of their behavior as neighbors.  I then fully expected the woman to realize that no one was intentionally trying to sully her property, that it was a rare occurrence and the issue to dissipate.  Wrong, she instantly shot back with, "I don't see anything wrong with your arm."  There was some additional one sided nastiness but you get the point.

Being that by nature, I would take the position of acquiescing to someone so aggressive doesn't mean my threshold for doing so is deep.  She started to lose me with the comment about garbage day being Friday but lost me for good when she saw nothing wrong with my neighbor's arm. 

So what changed following the exchange?  My outward behavior won't change, more than likely our neighbors to the rear will be more sensitive but otherwise it will be business as usual.  But we all now know that the neighboring home owner has a deep mean streak and really not worthy of any consideration outside of normal interpersonal exchanges.  I hope she needs a favor some day, one of those normal pleasantries commonly expected between neighbors...but alas regretfully, I'll probably never get the opportunity to enjoy that empowerment.

As a side note, she gets one free pass if it turns out she was on Prednisone, the most vile stuff I have ever had the displeasure of being introduced. 

Thanks for listening to me vent.

Comments

[Angella]

Oy.

Stories like this make me glad that my closest neighbor is three acres away ;)

[Pamela M. Kramer]

WOW! - That's an amazing response. "There's nothing wrong with your arm." Some people need to remember their manners.

[Naomi]

The one nice thing about living in the middle of Kansas is our lots are large so our neighbor contact is not about yours/mine. I miss my cute apartment in Seattle but not so much sharing the driveway.