The B*tchy Neighbor and Tree Drama

I'm not normally one to publicly point out problems with friends, family or neighbors. However, I am going to drop this self imposed rule and share a little story of neighbor drama. We have a neighbor that's.... well, interesting. She has an ex-husband that shows up in some sort of modified truck/van that he obviously sleeps, makes curbside meals in and travels in like a gypsy. Kind of like a little odd circus on wheels. Not sure where he showers or even if I want to know. Her grown children often sit outside in the yard with guitars and what sounds like a sick banjo playing and singing very loud folk music. Her yard is full of old tires, rusting yard furniture and dead grass. The porch is littered with bags full of what I can only assume are items destined for yard sale or thrift shop fame. My last encounter with her porch brought me close to a bag of shriveled green marshmallows. I thought marshmallows were white, who knew. This leads me to tonight's drama and fun...

My husband, my ever handsome and manly husband, has been doing a little spring yard cleaning to keep our yard looking neat and as tidy as a yard can look with limited time and a large family. The aforementioned neighbor has 3 very large overgrown ponderosa pine trees hanging over onto our property as well as the sidewalk and into our mailboxes. Anyone who has seen a very large overgrown pinetree knows that the underside has a lot of dead branches and these things drop tons of needles... and ponderosa pines have nasty long needles. These trees have been dropping needles and pinecones onto our lawn ever since we have lived here and we've just dealt with their pointy sappy goodies spread all over the place. However, today while trimming our trees, these overgrown trees of the aforementioned bitchy neighbor got a "haircut" of the limbs hanging onto our side of the fence. My husband, being neighborly, also trimmed a handful of branches hanging way out onto the sidewalk which were making it difficult to walk past without getting slapped in the face with pine needles. I said "job well done!"... hubby felt happy with his progress and we decided to hop into the truck and spend some time together running about town. Upon arriving home we were greeted with post-it notes on our door. Four total post it notes, here is one:

Now apparently she thinks she has the authority to say who can and cannot park near her home on the public street. Interesting ! I thought only the city had that authority. A side note, our family and friends rarely park on the street by her home. They only park there when the street in front of our home is being used by our other neighbors.

Here is one of the apparently beloved neighbor's trees... the offending needle dropping overgrown tree. You can clearly see how low the branches are and how far it sticks out onto the sidewalk. By using the car and standard height mailbox as a measurement, it is clear how hard it is to walk around this tree.

I guess the days of doing a good deed for your neighbor are over. What a sad and telling statement on society !! I think a much better way to have handled this was to come speak to us in person and we'd work it out. I walked over to her house and attempted to talk to her but no one would answer the door although I could hear them inside.

Here's hoping your neighbors are "drama free".

xoxoxox

~Wendy