15 + 11 points
City Of Neighborly Love by Wetdryvac
March 4th, 2015 10:58 AM
Own a house next to another that serves as a rental unit. I keep introducing myself to the next-in-line tenants with the intention of doing up this task, and then forgetting about it, so what you get - and sadly, what I get - is the latest iteration.
Bloke in his 40s, met first as I'm crossing back to me own place, "Hey, I'm the vac," You'll have to imagine my actual name used here, "And I live next door to you." What follows is the single most evasive conversation I've had in years, with the occasional, "Do you really live there?" And, "Are you trying to..." Where whatever I might be trying is left with a very verbal sort of ellipsis, as though I must know whatever it is I'm trying to do.
Conversation, for these reasons, peters out.
"That was boring," Thinks I, "Hardly worthy of..." At which point, over the course of the summer, they - as the house slowly fills with people - proceed to do un-neighborly things on a relatively minor sort of level for much of the summer. This goes on until they decide to cut a driveway into the wee tiny space between our houses, digging out the six foot berm of foundation wall support and cracking the exterior fascia on our coffer dam type foundation.
I become, shall we say, more personally introduced, on the line of, "It would be greatly appreciated if you'd backfill that and re-structure it. You've still got room for your drive, but that berm was holding our house up."
They do not come over to dinner.
They put a couple railroad ties haphazardly against where the cut is now eroding. This rather fails to structure, but as I've assessed the depth of the coffer and determined that what's cracking is the fascia, I pretend it'll do.
They move their drug dealing business from wherever it was to the lot across the street.
I stop talking to them.
Anyone want to buy my neighbors?
Humanitarian Crisis indeed.
* * *
There'd be pictures, but I figured that might result in my getting shot, so I gave it a miss. Guess I'll draw one.
* * *
Except that the image isn't uploading, and clicking the placeholder results in, "
You have reached a domain that is pending ICANN verification."
Uh... Right then. You can see it here.
And, looks like files are working again. Excellent!
Bloke in his 40s, met first as I'm crossing back to me own place, "Hey, I'm the vac," You'll have to imagine my actual name used here, "And I live next door to you." What follows is the single most evasive conversation I've had in years, with the occasional, "Do you really live there?" And, "Are you trying to..." Where whatever I might be trying is left with a very verbal sort of ellipsis, as though I must know whatever it is I'm trying to do.
Conversation, for these reasons, peters out.
"That was boring," Thinks I, "Hardly worthy of..." At which point, over the course of the summer, they - as the house slowly fills with people - proceed to do un-neighborly things on a relatively minor sort of level for much of the summer. This goes on until they decide to cut a driveway into the wee tiny space between our houses, digging out the six foot berm of foundation wall support and cracking the exterior fascia on our coffer dam type foundation.
I become, shall we say, more personally introduced, on the line of, "It would be greatly appreciated if you'd backfill that and re-structure it. You've still got room for your drive, but that berm was holding our house up."
They do not come over to dinner.
They put a couple railroad ties haphazardly against where the cut is now eroding. This rather fails to structure, but as I've assessed the depth of the coffer and determined that what's cracking is the fascia, I pretend it'll do.
They move their drug dealing business from wherever it was to the lot across the street.
I stop talking to them.
Anyone want to buy my neighbors?
Humanitarian Crisis indeed.
* * *
There'd be pictures, but I figured that might result in my getting shot, so I gave it a miss. Guess I'll draw one.
* * *
Except that the image isn't uploading, and clicking the placeholder results in, "
You have reached a domain that is pending ICANN verification."
Uh... Right then. You can see it here.
And, looks like files are working again. Excellent!
