Cursed

The house next door is cursed.

I've become convinced of this over the past few years. We live in a wonderful neighborhood. People take care of their homes, inside and out. We have HOA rules to keep the neighborhood from looking like a junk yard. And yet......

The house next door has always been occupied by renters. Different renters may come and go, but they've all been less than ideal.

First there was the family who asked me if their dogs could use our yard as a bathroom because they didn't like to "go" on the dirt. I don't know if I said yes or no; all I remember was standing there in shock. I guess they took that as a yes, and so I spent 6 months or so shoveling dog crap back on to their yard. {at least clean it up, people!}. I was once tempted to deposit it on their front porch, but I refrained.

Then came the family that let their children run wild. By this I mean knocking on our door at 7 a.m. wanting to play, constantly playing in our backyard, breaking glass beer bottles in our yard just for fun, and being all around annoying.

Next was the family {I'm not really sure how many there were. they were dodgy} who I'm pretty sure were illegal immigrants. They didn't speak English, and one day a man with a badge knocked on my door & asked me what I knew of the neighbors. He showed me various mug shots & asked if I'd seen any of them. I told him not really, they're dodgy. These neighbors were my favorite. They stayed out of my yard, were quiet {except for their chihuahua who was kind of annoying at times. but at least it didn't poop on my lawn}, and kept to themselves. I did get whiffs of what smelled like burnt toast coming from their house all the time, though. Anyone know what a meth lab smells like? They left behind some sweet ceramic frogs in the front yard that the new renters seem to love just as much.

Now we have the worst ones yet. A family who has 4 kids who are left to their own devises pretty much all the time, from what I've seen. I met the parents once, a few days after they moved in, when I had to tell them to please shut off their hose that had been "watering" our lawn for the past 2 hours {there was still snow on the ground at the time}. One of their kids thought it would be a good idea to turn it on, I guess. Since then it's been one thing after the other. Kids playing in our yard and peeking in our windows. Kids riding their bikes on our grass and down the middle of the street for that matter, and leaving them on our driveway for me to run over {trust me, I've been tempted}. Broken glass all over our driveway and gravel all over our back lawn from the gravel pit that is their yard. Shredded moving boxes appear almost daily out back. Matt's nice- he throws them away. I just chuck them back into their yard.

Did I mention that their smoke alarms have been beeping since they moved in? And that they usually have the windows open? And that I have to hear the infernal beep all day long? Change the batteries, people! I don't know how they live with it. Honestly.

The two girls {7 & 5} come over all the time to ask me questions for their mom. First it was if I could take them to the bus every day and pick them up. Um, no. 1. I don't know these people
2. they don't know me. How could you leave your children's care in the hands of a stranger? One time they came over with a note the mom had written saying "this is so&so. Could you drive me to Southtowne Mall today at 5:00?". What? It was ten to five. I had plans. If you need something why don't you come over and ask me yourself, instead of sending your kids over??!!!

I'm very irritated. I know I should be more forgiving. I should be nicer to these poor kids who are on their own {I've got the number for child services ready to go}. I just can't seem to get there. We've spent a lot of time and money on our yard, and it kills me to see people who have no respect for property {theirs or other people's} ruining it. I clean up messes all day- I HATE cleaning up other people's messes, too. I so wish we had a fence.

Okay, I'm done. At least the guy 2 houses up who's on the sex offenders registry keeps to himself.........