Neighbor Frustration

I have a little frustration to release today. I have had some irritants concerning my neighbors lately. I try not to be bothered by them, I try to be more mellow...but I don't think that comes naturally.

You see, we have new neighbors on either side of us. To the right (the gray house), we have just an interesting and confusing situation. I really don't have any issues with the neighbors themselves, but the fact that they are completely gutting the house and replacing everything you can think of, has ended with fleets of work men and delivering guys crowding our little corner. I am not crazy about all the old carpet and toilet sitting in their front yard, but I know they will take care of it...eventually. They have been doing this for...2 weeks, I think. So much crap in and out, but very little furniture. I don't think they even stay the night.I just hope they finish soon; I dislike strangers loitering around my yard for days on end. Getting the mail is suddenly a spotlight performance. Which ironically brings me to my main issue today.

My issue is my left (the pink house) neighbors. It's a relatively small issue, but one that boggles my mind every week. As you know, once a week, you roll your big trash bin out the the curb for the garbage truck to collect. On weeks when we you also wheel out your recycling, you have to place the two bins at least 3 feet apart. They need to be away from any object that can enable the mechanical arm on the truck from picking up each bin. Common sense. Now, I will remind you that we all have front drive houses, so we also have to place the bins around cars parked on the street and mailboxes...at least most of us do this.
My neighbors somehow think it is perfectly acceptable to wheel out their trash bin and place directly in front of our mailbox. I actually watched her push the bin down her driveway and stop in front of our mailbox, OPEN our mailbox, take a glance inside, then place her trash in front of the box. What?! The other side of her driveway is completely open. No cars, no mailboxes, just wide open space. Why would one purposely block someone else's mailbox (thus not receiving mail that day) when they have another option? This blows my mind. It's been 3 weeks now, and each week I wake up Thursday morning to find her trash in my way...again. I could go on on how illogical, rude, and inconsiderate it is to do this, but I think you understand my frustration.
So today I decided to move the trash away from my mailbox (like we have the past few weeks) and leave a little note in their mailbox. I want to communicate with them that this is not a good plan, but I don't really want to walk up to their house with Lorelai and make some awkward scene over it. It was a polite note, I just asked them if they could please put their trash on the other side so it doesn't block our mailbox from getting mail. I said "Thanks" with a smiley face and walked over to deliver it. I opened their mailbox and...it was stuffed with mail. It looked to be 4-5 days worth of mail, at least. My baffled mind was overwhelmed with confusion. I tried to rationalize their actions: "So you walk over to my yard, check my mailbox, but not your own?" Wh-what...why? *sigh*
I placed the note in there anyway, we'll wait to see if they even find it through the mess of bills, fliers, and magazines. I just hope once they read it, a little light bulb with click on and they will see how insane it is to do what they are doing. I fear my next step if they choose to ignore my polite request. I really don't want to be that bitchy neighbor, honestly, I don't...but I can't let people walk all over me in the process. I don't think I was too annoying with it, not anymore annoying than their actions at least. I just want to keep to myself in my house without any problems.


Ok, I feel a little better; I'd feel a lot better if you all agreed with me on how ridiculous they are being. ;)




M.LEWIS