My Version of the Nosy/Whiny Neighbor

Vaughn McMillan

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Our next-neighbor to the south is a woman who I'll call Sue. She lives there with her adopted teenage daughter. Sue is one of those people who complains about everything, and to make her even more enjoyable, she has a whiny voice to go with her sour attitude. It's been apparent since we moved here 8 years ago that Sue doesn't approve of us. (I doubt she approves of anything in the world, to be honest.) She complains to other neighbors about our yard, our vehicles, our bird feeders, etc. The first few years after we moved here, LOML and I were both making an effort to be good neighbors (I've even done a few handyman things at her house for her), but these days we just try to ignore her. Sue is one of those people who is afraid of everything. (She wears a mask when driving in her car alone or when walking around the block, if that tells you anything.) Sue hasn't had much to say to me ever since she slammed her car into the back of my Ranger pickup that was parked on the street a few years ago. I'm sure she blames me for the fact that it was parked on the street. (Parked legally, I might add.) I surely had nothing to do with the fact that she was speeding and not watching where she was driving. 🙄 (She claims she sneezed, but I suspect she was on her phone.)

When we moved here, there was a fig tree growing in our back yard, between our house and Sue's. LOML and I are not fans of figs, but Sue and her daughter like them, and for the first few years we lived here they would ask every summer if they could have some figs, and we were glad to have them come over and pick as many as they wanted. Well, two years ago the tree pretty much died. The main trunk had no new growth, no leaves, no fruit, no nothing. The only sign of life was the dozens of suckers growing from the roots near the trunk. I could tell from the old stumps around the base of the tree that it had been cut completely back in the past, and had obviously grown new trunks that began producing fruit again. So last winter, I cut all the suckers off and removed nearly all of the old trunk, hoping it would start developing into a viable tree again.

I didn't pay much attention to the tree over the summer, but by this fall, it was just a forest of suckers again, with no growth at all from the old stump. So last Sunday I decided to trim back all the suckers again, leaving just a few in hopes one of them would eventually turn into a tree. In the process of doing this, I tossed one of the trimmed suckers over the fence into our front yard. It landed crooked, and the thick end of the sucker (maybe 1" in diameter) ended up tapping the stucco on the side of Sue's house. Not hit...tapped. But I knew it would have made a noise inside Sue's house, so it was no surprise to see her cautiously poke her head around the corner of her house to investigate a couple of minutes later.

Before she even saw me, I spoke up to let her know I was there, and it was me who had caused the noise she'd heard. I explained that the tree had died, and that I was trying to get it going again so it would produce fruit. In her typical disapproving, whiny tone, she pointed out that the previous owners of our house did a good job of nurturing the tree. I finally said "Well, it is what it is, Sue" and she scoffed and walked back into her house.

Mid-afternoon yesterday, I was again in our back yard, attaching some steel brackets to the cinder block wall between our two back yards. (We have a grape trellis that was sagging and it needed to be attached to the wall.) I was using a 12v impact driver to drive the first of four screws, and right on cue, Sue came trotting out to her back yard to investigate the noise. I again made my presence known, and she asked "Are you using tools out here? I thought I heard a power saw." I showed her my little impact driver and said "Yes, that was me." Obviously annoyed, she asked "Well, how long are you going to be doing that?" I said "About five minutes. I'm driving four screws." Before she could respond I added "I'd be happy to do it at another time if want...say...late at night. Of course it would have to be after midnight, but I'll gladly do it then if you'd prefer." As she rolled her eyes and stormed back into her house, I said "Really, Sue. I'm serious." (And I really was serious.) 🤣

LOML and I don't really care what Sue thinks of us, and at this point I'm very tempted to set up a couple thousand watts of PA speakers in my back yard (pointed at her house, of course) and start blasting a mix of death metal and vulgar hip-hop rap music. It'd just be the neighborly thing to do. :rofl:
 
Don't get me started about the neighbor on our street whose dog barked incessantly all day while they were at work and most of the time in the evening until they put it in the garage overnight. :fetch:
 
I (and we) have been so lucky with NDN's. When I lived in silly-cone valley during the dot.coms my neighbor worked on cars. He came over to ask me if his air tool noise bothered me. I told him not if a router and a shop vac didn't bother him. When I returned to SoCal suburbia my neighbor on one side was a DIY fiend and the neighbor on the other (along with his wife) were near deaf if you weren't 2 feet in front of them . . . nirvana.

In our current (and hopefully last) home we have great neighbors on both sides. I should qualify that there are only 7 houses counting both sides of the street. There is one fly in the ointment but, she is a known quantity. The rest of us try to tolerate her, help her out here and there but she is not my cup of tea.

The fact that my shop makes less noise than the roosters down the way makes me immune. The neighbor on one side was some sort of rock star wanna be (like me) in his youth and breaks out the Marshall stack for an afternoon blast every so often. We have RC planes and cars, off road bikes, horses, goats, dogs, pigs, off-road 4X's, you name it. THIS is why I bought here. This is why I live here. People who live in this area want to be able to do as they please and respect others rights to do the same.

Happy, happy, Joy, joy. (y)
 
I think you should invite the band over for some Band Practice...lol
We rehearse in the living room, and if you're outside the house you can't hear it. Plus, we always end before 10:00 PM, per local ordinance. Maybe we should move rehearsal to the back patio. :D But then again, what we play is a lot more enjoyable to listen to than death metal and hardcore hip-hop, so I'm still thinking that might be the better route, lol.
Where's Rob (John Wayne) Keeble when you need him.
I think about Rob's neighbor troubles often when I have to deal with Sue. ;)
 
Sound like a pain.

We have only one neighbors house we can see, and usually only in the winter. That house sits empty most of the year and gets used for a hunting cabin, about this time of year.

I did have one of my neighbors come by and asked to shoot a few armadillos the other day, which I had no issue with. He saw them driving by and they had been tearing up his pasture and yard.
 
So nice to have few neighbors and for them to be good neighbors. The only complaining neighbors I have are the four legged type that belong between two hamburger buns or grilled medium rare on the barbecue. I am beginning to take for granted the almost complete lack of man-made noise. I was outside doing something a couple of weeks ago when I stopped and looked around realizing I could not hear anything other than sound of the wind. This morning with about a foot and a half of snow on the ground it is really quiet.
 
My worst neighbors are Canadian Geese. I live on the North end of a peninsula in a lake, with water on most of the 3 sides of my property. Keeping them away from the house, shrubbery, and sidewalks has been difficult, but I recently found a solution. They don't like green laser dots. I don't shine it at them, just on the ground near and around them. Red lasers aren't very effective, but green really upsets them. A few moments shining the green laser out the house window, near and circling them with it, and they head for the lake in a hurry. This works well and keeps them away for about a week, but they come sneaking back. When not on my lawn, I've seen them on the neighbor's lawns down the street from me. Before the green laser method I had an owl decoy on the top of the park bench down near the point. It worked for about a year, but they finally figured out that the owl wasn't real.

When I had the Alaskan Malamute, I never had geese problems, because she kept them away really well. But we have decided not to have any more animals at our age. She was the most opinionated dog that I've ever known. She had a definite opinion of everything and let us know about it, but kept the geese and any other critters away really well. Even kept the fishermen far offshore.

Charley
 
Sound like a pain.

We have only one neighbors house we can see, and usually only in the winter. That house sits empty most of the year and gets used for a hunting cabin, about this time of year.

I did have one of my neighbors come by and asked to shoot a few armadillos the other day, which I had no issue with. He saw them driving by and they had been tearing up his pasture and yard.

The armadillos were driving by?????? :eek: Were they doing donuts in his yard and pasture?:cool:
 
I like people, but not neighbors. Fortunately, my closets is a couple hundreds yards away separated by trees. I can shoot in my yard. And believe sincerely in the old adage, "If you can't pee in your front yard, your neighbors are too close". Mine are too close. At least in the daytime. :rofl:
 
Our next-neighbor to the south is a woman who I'll call Sue. She lives there with her adopted teenage daughter. Sue is one of those people who complains about everything, and to make her even more enjoyable, she has a whiny voice to go with her sour attitude. It's been apparent since we moved here 8 years ago that Sue doesn't approve of us. (I doubt she approves of anything in the world, to be honest.) She complains to other neighbors about our yard, our vehicles, our bird feeders, etc. The first few years after we moved here, LOML and I were both making an effort to be good neighbors (I've even done a few handyman things at her house for her), but these days we just try to ignore her. Sue is one of those people who is afraid of everything. (She wears a mask when driving in her car alone or when walking around the block, if that tells you anything.) Sue hasn't had much to say to me ever since she slammed her car into the back of my Ranger pickup that was parked on the street a few years ago. I'm sure she blames me for the fact that it was parked on the street. (Parked legally, I might add.) I surely had nothing to do with the fact that she was speeding and not watching where she was driving. 🙄 (She claims she sneezed, but I suspect she was on her phone.)

When we moved here, there was a fig tree growing in our back yard, between our house and Sue's. LOML and I are not fans of figs, but Sue and her daughter like them, and for the first few years we lived here they would ask every summer if they could have some figs, and we were glad to have them come over and pick as many as they wanted. Well, two years ago the tree pretty much died. The main trunk had no new growth, no leaves, no fruit, no nothing. The only sign of life was the dozens of suckers growing from the roots near the trunk. I could tell from the old stumps around the base of the tree that it had been cut completely back in the past, and had obviously grown new trunks that began producing fruit again. So last winter, I cut all the suckers off and removed nearly all of the old trunk, hoping it would start developing into a viable tree again.

I didn't pay much attention to the tree over the summer, but by this fall, it was just a forest of suckers again, with no growth at all from the old stump. So last Sunday I decided to trim back all the suckers again, leaving just a few in hopes one of them would eventually turn into a tree. In the process of doing this, I tossed one of the trimmed suckers over the fence into our front yard. It landed crooked, and the thick end of the sucker (maybe 1" in diameter) ended up tapping the stucco on the side of Sue's house. Not hit...tapped. But I knew it would have made a noise inside Sue's house, so it was no surprise to see her cautiously poke her head around the corner of her house to investigate a couple of minutes later.

Before she even saw me, I spoke up to let her know I was there, and it was me who had caused the noise she'd heard. I explained that the tree had died, and that I was trying to get it going again so it would produce fruit. In her typical disapproving, whiny tone, she pointed out that the previous owners of our house did a good job of nurturing the tree. I finally said "Well, it is what it is, Sue" and she scoffed and walked back into her house.

Mid-afternoon yesterday, I was again in our back yard, attaching some steel brackets to the cinder block wall between our two back yards. (We have a grape trellis that was sagging and it needed to be attached to the wall.) I was using a 12v impact driver to drive the first of four screws, and right on cue, Sue came trotting out to her back yard to investigate the noise. I again made my presence known, and she asked "Are you using tools out here? I thought I heard a power saw." I showed her my little impact driver and said "Yes, that was me." Obviously annoyed, she asked "Well, how long are you going to be doing that?" I said "About five minutes. I'm driving four screws." Before she could respond I added "I'd be happy to do it at another time if want...say...late at night. Of course it would have to be after midnight, but I'll gladly do it then if you'd prefer." As she rolled her eyes and stormed back into her house, I said "Really, Sue. I'm serious." (And I really was serious.) 🤣

LOML and I don't really care what Sue thinks of us, and at this point I'm very tempted to set up a couple thousand watts of PA speakers in my back yard (pointed at her house, of course) and start blasting a mix of death metal and vulgar hip-hop rap music. It'd just be the neighborly thing to do. :rofl:
Maybe you can use the speakers Tony Soprano used on his boat to get out of the beach house deal..... :p
 
I forgot to mention that we had an annoying neighbor when we lived in Virginia. She lived next door to us and always mowed the yard in a tiny black string bikini that barely covered her gorgeous body (not that I ever noticed). My wife noticed that I noticed once so I was careful after that.

We had a backyard vegetable garden and when she was mowing I knew it was time to hoe the weeds. They always grew faster when she was out.
 
I forgot to mention that we had an annoying neighbor when we lived in Virginia. She lived next door to us and always mowed the yard in a tiny black string bikini that barely covered her gorgeous body (not that I ever noticed). My wife noticed that I noticed once so I was careful after that.

We had a backyard vegetable garden and when she was mowing I knew it was time to hoe the weeds. They always grew faster when she was out.
Explains why you’re still wearing the sunglasses.
 
Maybe you can use the speakers Tony Soprano used on his boat to get out of the beach house deal..... :p
Oh trust me, mine could do that. ;)
...We had a backyard vegetable garden and when she was mowing I knew it was time to hoe the weeds. They always grew faster when she was out.
"They" being the weeds, right? :D
 
Lived next door to an indian couple (navajo) who had aloud obnoxious dog whe barked all night long. Didn't bother them even if i called. Both deaf without hearing aids. Finally cops were called but they couldn't raise them either. Dog finally died of something? They were a nice couple but not the dog.
David
 
I feel the pain. I lived next to the worst human being on planet earth , well. at least until they finally moved a bit over a year ago.

Im not going to go into all the nonsense, other than to say he had run ins with at least 6 other neighbors.....he wastn confrontional, he was a spineless piece of garbage that wouild do things in the dark, or when you werent home, or call and report you. (he was the one who reported me for woodworking and I had to deal with that with the local village authorities, he also reported me when I widened the driveway and I had to go to court which ofcourse I did nothing wrong except not p;urchase a 10 dollar cement permit)

anyway....one of the things that he always did, was more amusing than anything else. and ofourse, I took a p;icture of it once, just because I knew people wouldnt believe me what a horses butt this guy was.

my entire life, at leazst since I lived where I am now, Ive always had large suvs, jeeps, hummers.....

but whenever it snowed, I wouild blow the snow out of my driveway, very carefull not to get any of it onto his lawn....but the strip of grass along the sidewalk.....I would p;ile the snow on there.

he wouild go out at night, and shovel the snow off the grass, into the street, which ofcourse is against village code...but hey....he would shovel it out in a straight line along my property and my driveway we figured hoping it would make it difficult for us to p;ull into the driveway......my jeeps and hummers never had a problem going thru anything he created.....heres a picture one day after he made his line of snow 6 feet out into the street.the far end its the only spot on the entire block where snow was in the street. if I felt inclined to remove the snow with my snoblower anytime, hed creep out there sometimes after 1am in the morning, wed hear shoveling, and put the wall back.....my other neighbors would hear shoveling at 1 am and laugh at him.....wed all laugh.....his wife was a piece of work also. it all ended one day when I came home from work....was a rough 12 hour day for me....he built his wall because neither of us were home, we were working, and I pulled my hummer up onto his p;roperty, got out with a shovel and stood in front of his door, telling him yelling at him, if I find another mountain shovelled out in front of my driveway, I would use this same shovel and I would bury him with it when he comes out.....he never did it again. its not like Im brave or a bully, but enough was enough already.....just to show youo how sick he was.....when the snow started melting, he would go onto his front lawn, and carry that snow into the street to help build his mountain range. a real sicko. one more thing, when my driveway was installed, he went out in the middle of the night, and turned on his hose and let it run in the street all night aimed at the apron of my driveway, the pit filled up and the next morning I had to stop the contractor from going to his home and beating the guy to death....I explained to him he is mentally challenged, but the cement guy stood at his door, he wouldnt open it ofcourse, but gave him a stern warning, if I come back again tomorrow and you run the water, you will be a very sorry man.oh, so you dont think maybe its me....the village p;ut a slow down, children at play sighn in that same patch of grass next to the street, at 3 am one night he cut it down, being it was in front of his house, and he put the sign behind his shed.....what he didnt know is that one the other neighbors who had p;roblems with this jerk for years heard the noise and saw him do it all and called the police the next day. to avoid jail, he had to pay restitution to the village for the sign, p;ay for a new one, and pay for a new crew to install it. which ofcourse he did......he is one sick puppy
 

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Lol -25c this morning and 0 in the forecast next week. I’ve been putting up with my special neighbours for 5 years that simply can’t mind their own business. My 90 year old immediate neighbour sadly seems to be moving into a home and is the only reason I don’t have the allowable 6’6” fence yet. (A limited but mountain view). I will be purchasing fence material this weekend. If revenge is best served cold, frozen should be awesome. Winter fence pics coming soon 😂. Not sure what short circuits folks
 
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