Well Meaning Neighbors (minorly aviationish)

Shepherd

Shepherd

Final Approach
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Nov 24, 2012
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Location
Hopewell Jct, NY
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Display name:
Shepherd
Let me begin with a little preface.
There are only three kinds of neighbors.
1. "Invisible" neighbors. You know there is someone living in the house. You see lights go on and off, curtains go up and down, sometimes you see the flag on the mailbox go up.
But you NEVER see them. Even if you are my wife, and are willing to stand 3 feet back from the windows with a high tech set of binoculars for hours at a time, you never see them. For some reason, at a crucial moment, you get distracted, and you look up and their car is driving away. Missed them again!
2. "Neighbors from hell". We've all had them. The kids ride their bikes through your expensive, hybrid day lilies and roses, and the parents deny it ever happened even when the police have video of it. They have parties that last all night and when you go out the next day they have thrown their garbage in your back yard. You know what I'm talking about.
3. Well meaning neighbors. These people are so nice, so sweet, so accommodating you sometimes wonder if they are actually human. Stepford Neighbors. You bring their garbage can in and the wife bakes you a loaf of bread.

I have well meaning neighbors. They are in their mid 80s and my wife and I help them with the physical stuff they can't do anymore, and yes, they bake me fresh bread. It's delicious.
But it comes at a cost.
They have opinions, and they feel compelled to share them with me, for my own good.
Every time they find out I'm going flying, or I come back from flying, out comes the rosary, and the "How can you be so irresponsible!" lecture. Don't I know how dangerous flying is? What will happen to my wife if I get killed in that death trap? Shame on me!
So today I'm outside working on one of my motorcycles (my DL1000) and Angela comes over and starts the "What is wrong with you, a man of your age...." lecture about the dangers of riding motorcycles. I let her wind down, it takes awhile, but when she is finally done, my mouth moves of it's own volition and I know, I absolutely KNOW it's a huge mistake, but I can't stop it. My mouth says, "I need to get the bike ready so I can ride it to the airport (1.25 hours) and fly the Cub."

There is a moment of stunned silence and then ...........
She wailed. An actual wail. Like something from a bad movie kind of wail. A grieving for the dead kind of wail.
I thought she was going to faint.
Her mouth moved and nothing came out. She was speechless. I had crossed some existential boundary and she was unable to function. We just stared at each other.
Finally she walked off. Unfortunately it was to track down my wife who is all bent out of shape that Angela is so upset.
According to my wife I need to be more sensitive to the sensibilities of our well meaning neighbors.
I think I need more "invisible" neighbors.
 
Nah, they are old, and you are a lifesaver to them. Here's a hint on how to deal with them.... you don't have to be completely honest with them. It's ok to tell them white lies. "Where are you going?" Oh, I have a sick friend who just got home from the hospital, I need to visit him. "Why are you riding your motorcycle there?" Oh, there is no parking for my car, but I have this back route that is real safe. Trust me, it works, I used to do it with my dementia ridden mother, sometimes she would give me a your full of crap look, but wouldn't argue about it. Give it a try, it will make your life easier.
 
Ah, those types of people. I usually go out of my way to mention the "dangerous" things I do and then embellish a little more than what actually happened.
 
I have the ones who will watch you push a mower in the bleeding sun, sipping their tea, then just as you are about to finish, rollout their zero turn and smile at you directly. Then have the audacity to ask if they can pick some of my tomatoes because surly i can't use them all even though they know we canned them.
 
I live out in the country and have no neighbors close by. Thank goodness!

Growing up I lived in Mesquite TX. We had what they called zero lot line, our back yard had a brickwall from the neighboring house and it did that all through the subdivision. I could get on our house and jump from roof to roof if I wanted. Im guessing that upbringing drove me to the country. I dont live deep enough in the country as it is and no way would I live around other people for those types of neighbors you mentioned. haha
 
I have a friendly neighbor who is somewhat of a hoarder and takes keen interest in the junk I want to get rid of.

I have another one who covered his front yard with mini putt green carpet in order not to mow the lawn anymore. The city told him to remove it, so now his front yard is covered with rocks.

I have a neighbor who insists on parking in the street in front of our house instead of in his driveway.

I have neighbors with pristine grass, others who mow the lawn maybe twice per summer.
 
Fortunately, all of our neighbors are 1s or 3s. My wife had a #2 behind her house before we got married and sold the place. We had a bunch of garbage in the yard and a broken window from that piece of work. Their worthless children used to hot box it in the garden shed at the rear of their property, which happened to be 10' from the back corner of her house.

Pascal Forget said:
I have a friendly neighbor who is somewhat of a hoarder and takes keen interest in the junk I want to get rid of.

I have another one who covered his front yard with mini putt green carpet in order not to mow the lawn anymore. The city told him to remove it, so now his front yard is covered with rocks.
Click to expand...

I have a hoarder neighbor (actually 3 doors down) who hoards all sorts of stuff and the house/yard looks like a war zone, lol. She is a nice old lady though, and hard working as can be. She has actually taken all of the concrete driveway chunks that I broke up with a sledge hammer (my driveway collapsed) and loaded them into her beat up Tacoma to use on her oil lease road for erosion control. I bet she's manually loaded and placed about a 20'L x 8'W section of concrete, lol.
 
One of our neighbors has four airplanes, of which two are in a separate hangar nearest to our house and the other two are in a hangar on top of which is their house. (Built into a hillside. Very very cool setup.)

Another neighbor is someone I grew up with and swears that ever since she got hit by lightning nothing has been the same for her. Loooooong story. She’s a mess. But far enough away that we can’t see her house from ours.

Other neighbor is an older couple, quiet, just the right amount of friendly, and far enough away that we can’t see their house from ours.

Did I mention that our back yard overlooks the grass runway where my airplane lives? :) Life is good.
 
Shepherd said:
Let me begin with a little preface.
There are only three kinds of neighbors.
1. "Invisible" neighbors. You know there is someone living in the house. You see lights go on and off, curtains go up and down, sometimes you see the flag on the mailbox go up.
But you NEVER see them. Even if you are my wife, and are willing to stand 3 feet back from the windows with a high tech set of binoculars for hours at a time, you never see them. For some reason, at a crucial moment, you get distracted, and you look up and their car is driving away. Missed them again!
2. "Neighbors from hell". We've all had them. The kids ride their bikes through your expensive, hybrid day lilies and roses, and the parents deny it ever happened even when the police have video of it. They have parties that last all night and when you go out the next day they have thrown their garbage in your back yard. You know what I'm talking about.
3. Well meaning neighbors. These people are so nice, so sweet, so accommodating you sometimes wonder if they are actually human. Stepford Neighbors. You bring their garbage can in and the wife bakes you a loaf of bread.

I have well meaning neighbors. They are in their mid 80s and my wife and I help them with the physical stuff they can't do anymore, and yes, they bake me fresh bread. It's delicious.
But it comes at a cost.
They have opinions, and they feel compelled to share them with me, for my own good.
Every time they find out I'm going flying, or I come back from flying, out comes the rosary, and the "How can you be so irresponsible!" lecture. Don't I know how dangerous flying is? What will happen to my wife if I get killed in that death trap? Shame on me!
So today I'm outside working on one of my motorcycles (my DL1000) and Angela comes over and starts the "What is wrong with you, a man of your age...." lecture about the dangers of riding motorcycles. I let her wind down, it takes awhile, but when she is finally done, my mouth moves of it's own volition and I know, I absolutely KNOW it's a huge mistake, but I can't stop it. My mouth says, "I need to get the bike ready so I can ride it to the airport (1.25 hours) and fly the Cub."

There is a moment of stunned silence and then ...........
She wailed. An actual wail. Like something from a bad movie kind of wail. A grieving for the dead kind of wail.
I thought she was going to faint.
Her mouth moved and nothing came out. She was speechless. I had crossed some existential boundary and she was unable to function. We just stared at each other.
Finally she walked off. Unfortunately it was to track down my wife who is all bent out of shape that Angela is so upset.
According to my wife I need to be more sensitive to the sensibilities of our well meaning neighbors.
I think I need more "invisible" neighbors.
Click to expand...

https://goo.gl/images/3N9vEP
 
Shepherd said:
Let me begin with a little preface.
There are only three kinds of neighbors.
1. "Invisible" neighbors. You know there is someone living in the house. You see lights go on and off, curtains go up and down, sometimes you see the flag on the mailbox go up.
But you NEVER see them. Even if you are my wife, and are willing to stand 3 feet back from the windows with a high tech set of binoculars for hours at a time, you never see them. For some reason, at a crucial moment, you get distracted, and you look up and their car is driving away. Missed them again!
2. "Neighbors from hell". We've all had them. The kids ride their bikes through your expensive, hybrid day lilies and roses, and the parents deny it ever happened even when the police have video of it. They have parties that last all night and when you go out the next day they have thrown their garbage in your back yard. You know what I'm talking about.
3. Well meaning neighbors. These people are so nice, so sweet, so accommodating you sometimes wonder if they are actually human. Stepford Neighbors. You bring their garbage can in and the wife bakes you a loaf of bread.

I have well meaning neighbors. They are in their mid 80s and my wife and I help them with the physical stuff they can't do anymore, and yes, they bake me fresh bread. It's delicious.
But it comes at a cost.
They have opinions, and they feel compelled to share them with me, for my own good.
Every time they find out I'm going flying, or I come back from flying, out comes the rosary, and the "How can you be so irresponsible!" lecture. Don't I know how dangerous flying is? What will happen to my wife if I get killed in that death trap? Shame on me!
So today I'm outside working on one of my motorcycles (my DL1000) and Angela comes over and starts the "What is wrong with you, a man of your age...." lecture about the dangers of riding motorcycles. I let her wind down, it takes awhile, but when she is finally done, my mouth moves of it's own volition and I know, I absolutely KNOW it's a huge mistake, but I can't stop it. My mouth says, "I need to get the bike ready so I can ride it to the airport (1.25 hours) and fly the Cub."

There is a moment of stunned silence and then ...........
She wailed. An actual wail. Like something from a bad movie kind of wail. A grieving for the dead kind of wail.
I thought she was going to faint.
Her mouth moved and nothing came out. She was speechless. I had crossed some existential boundary and she was unable to function. We just stared at each other.
Finally she walked off. Unfortunately it was to track down my wife who is all bent out of shape that Angela is so upset.
According to my wife I need to be more sensitive to the sensibilities of our well meaning neighbors.
I think I need more "invisible" neighbors.
Click to expand...

Shepherd, its obvious you require some counseling. Report to your local Prrr, oh wait, you are the Preacher. Never mind, carry on Sir. ;) :biggrin:
 
mscard88 said:
Shepherd, its obvious you require some counseling. Report to your local Prrr, oh wait, you are the Preacher. Never mind, carry on Sir. ;) :biggrin:
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was the most gentle rant I've ever read. Needed some @#$% and ^&%$# !!! and some $%#@#% to color it a bit. And there was hardly any angst or even mild disgust. What's wrong with ranters these days? I mean, it's not like anyone's even trying any more. No one ever punches anyone in the throat these days.
 
Shepherd said:
...................................
Finally she walked off. Unfortunately it was to track down my wife who is all bent out of shape that Angela is so upset.
According to my wife I need to be more sensitive to the sensibilities of our well meaning neighbors.....
Click to expand...

Tell them you’ve made Angela the Beneficiary of your Life Insurance
 
Best story this week. Thanks Shep; truly enjoyed that!

Even though it has little to do with either (she won't know), give her a copy of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for Christmas. She won't read it. But you might get in some defibrillator practice that could come in handy some day.
 
Shepherd said:
Let me begin with a little preface.
There are only three kinds of neighbors.
1. "Invisible" neighbors. You know there is someone living in the house. You see lights go on and off, curtains go up and down, sometimes you see the flag on the mailbox go up.
But you NEVER see them. Even if you are my wife, and are willing to stand 3 feet back from the windows with a high tech set of binoculars for hours at a time, you never see them. For some reason, at a crucial moment, you get distracted, and you look up and their car is driving away. Missed them again!
2. "Neighbors from hell". We've all had them. The kids ride their bikes through your expensive, hybrid day lilies and roses, and the parents deny it ever happened even when the police have video of it. They have parties that last all night and when you go out the next day they have thrown their garbage in your back yard. You know what I'm talking about.
3. Well meaning neighbors. These people are so nice, so sweet, so accommodating you sometimes wonder if they are actually human. Stepford Neighbors. You bring their garbage can in and the wife bakes you a loaf of bread.

I have well meaning neighbors. They are in their mid 80s and my wife and I help them with the physical stuff they can't do anymore, and yes, they bake me fresh bread. It's delicious.
But it comes at a cost.
They have opinions, and they feel compelled to share them with me, for my own good.
Every time they find out I'm going flying, or I come back from flying, out comes the rosary, and the "How can you be so irresponsible!" lecture. Don't I know how dangerous flying is? What will happen to my wife if I get killed in that death trap? Shame on me!
So today I'm outside working on one of my motorcycles (my DL1000) and Angela comes over and starts the "What is wrong with you, a man of your age...." lecture about the dangers of riding motorcycles. I let her wind down, it takes awhile, but when she is finally done, my mouth moves of it's own volition and I know, I absolutely KNOW it's a huge mistake, but I can't stop it. My mouth says, "I need to get the bike ready so I can ride it to the airport (1.25 hours) and fly the Cub."

There is a moment of stunned silence and then ...........
She wailed. An actual wail. Like something from a bad movie kind of wail. A grieving for the dead kind of wail.
I thought she was going to faint.
Her mouth moved and nothing came out. She was speechless. I had crossed some existential boundary and she was unable to function. We just stared at each other.
Finally she walked off. Unfortunately it was to track down my wife who is all bent out of shape that Angela is so upset.
According to my wife I need to be more sensitive to the sensibilities of our well meaning neighbors.
I think I need more "invisible" neighbors.
Click to expand...
My take away is that you have your airplane 75 minutes away?!!
 
I just moved May 1st... don't know anything about the neighbors.

Downsized a bit so it's only a 1 acre lot. Still far enough away that a simple wave from afar works. Fingers crossed.
 
I live out of town. Cool, right? - no neighbors.
Actually the more land you own, the longer the periphery...the more neighbors and the more linear interaction with them and the general public. It's not too bad but you can get sick of people tearing up the fence to get in, leaving gates open (they need to be unlocked for various reasons), whacking their golf balls, baseballs, frisbees into the property, beer bottles where the road dead-ends at your gate, several have gone traipsing around looking for drones and rc aircraft, geocachers mindlessly walking past your No Trespassing sign, people thinking that knoll oughta be cool to hike (also past NT signs, and past locked gates), others who just think they have every right to the land for recreation as the owner does (known locals caught on trail cams), other locals telling birding tourists 'ya go on to that acreage, they got some great finches/chickadees/wrens/warblers'.
There. Now I feel all 'Yoos kids get off my um.....pasture' But it is rather annoying. The "240V electric fence thought has popped into my mind briefly a time or two including when I was mending intentional damage to my fence the other day next to the ball diamond (Really? You have to CUT the fence to get the baseball, when there is a stile just FIFTY feet away??)
 
One set of "good neighbors" just moved out tonight. Helped them load their truck last night and used my cargo trailer to get the stuff from their walk out basement up through the pasture gate to their big truck.

New neighbors arrive 9AM tomorrow morning. Currently I'm still at the office, and my truck and trailer are parked in the new neighbor's grass. HA!

I should be home around 3-4AM... and move the truck. But if this phone system upgrade keeps going the wrong way, which it has all night, having my dually and trailer sitting in the grass of their new house will be quite the test to see if they're good new neighbors hahaha...

I'd rather not test them, however. :)
 
03:22 Local and the truck and trailer are back in my driveway. And the phone system isn’t upgraded but the roll-back plan worked great.

Between the three of us we had 60+ years of combined Avaya experience and none of us had EVER seen an Avaya system doing what it did tonight during an otherwise bog-standard upgrade. So freaking strange.

Anyway, I think I’ll be asleep when the new neighbors arrive... unless someone calls saying something is horribly wrong and I’m sitting at my computer in my underwear with an entire thermal carafe of coffee sitting next to me.

Maybe meet the neighbors when I wake up closer to lunch than breakfast. Probably best if I put on pants first though. Just a guess.
 
Shepherd said:
3. Well meaning neighbors. These people are so nice, so sweet, so accommodating you sometimes wonder if they are actually human. Stepford Neighbors. You bring their garbage can in and the wife bakes you a loaf of bread.
Click to expand...

I have mostly those. One of them just took it to the extreme. Earlier this year I had merely offered to use my little tractor to move a pile of gravel from where the truck had dumped it on his driveway to the spot in the backyard where he needed it. Somehow, we never connected and by the time I was back in town, he had moved it using a wheelbarrow. I know he is big into bonsai and trees. To thank me fore there mere offer of moving a truckload of gravel, the other day he shows up with his pruning shears and shaped all the little evergreens in my frontyard into neat little cubes. So to recap, I did absolutely nothing and he spent 3hrs in the sun pruning shrubs to reciprocate :thumbsup:
 
denverpilot said:
03:22 Local and the truck and trailer are back in my driveway. And the phone system isn’t upgraded but the roll-back plan worked great.

Between the three of us we had 60+ years of combined Avaya experience and none of us had EVER seen an Avaya system doing what it did tonight during an otherwise bog-standard upgrade. So freaking strange.

Anyway, I think I’ll be asleep when the new neighbors arrive... unless someone calls saying something is horribly wrong and I’m sitting at my computer in my underwear with an entire thermal carafe of coffee sitting next to me.

Maybe meet the neighbors when I wake up closer to lunch than breakfast. Probably best if I put on pants first though. Just a guess.
Click to expand...

Just click the receiver a few times, works every time.
 
We had had some #2's. Finally, one of their sons forgot he was no longer a minor (just turned 18), and he (with his lacrosse team) mooned some girls walking up the street. The girls reported it to their parents, who finally had enough, reported to the police and the kid got arrested for indecent exposure. The family moved shortly after that. Much rejoicing ensued.
 
PaulS said:
Just click the receiver a few times, works every time.
Click to expand...
Back in the days of rotary phones and centrex , the phones in the labs would have a lock in the hole for 9 so you couldn't dial an outside line (or anybody inside the company that had a 9 or 0 in their number, but...). So, one simply rapidly rattled the hangup button 9 times. Worked every time.
 
Sounds like my neighborhood is a bit more urban than others here. While we have a driveway, we're in an old trolley suburb and houses (and neighbors) are close to one another. I'd argue there's a 4th; neighbors that we see all of the time and exchange pleasantries, but we stay out of each others business and might not even know their names. Most of my neighbors have no idea I own an airplane or fly. Heck, noone even mentioned anything when I had my giant military surplus Humvee parked outside the house.
 
Brad Z said:
Sounds like my neighborhood is a bit more urban than others here. While we have a driveway, we're in an old trolley suburb and houses (and neighbors) are close to one another. I'd argue there's a 4th; neighbors that we see all of the time and exchange pleasantries, but we stay out of each others business and might not even know their names. Most of my neighbors have no idea I own an airplane or fly. Heck, noone even mentioned anything when I had my giant military surplus Humvee parked outside the house.
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Beat me to it. Most of my neighbors are this type or invisible.
 
Recent uptick in neighbor goodness in FL for us - the couple whose wife was unhappy because she couldn’t find a nail salon within 60miles and whose husband was the nosiest little bastage I’ve ever known (remodeling crew finally had to kick him out with instructions not to return), were replaced by a couple escaping FL’s east coast for quieter environs. He commented to her when we first met that “these are our kind of neighbors, inviting us over if we’re out but not expecting us”; and she’s hot.
 
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I live in an average neighborhood where houses are in the $250-300K range. I built the first house in the hood 25 years ago and the original group was fantastic. We'd get together once a week and BBQ, kids played together, if someone was going to DQ they'd bring back ice cream for everyone. Over time they all moved off. It's a different atmosphere now.

1. The people on the right side of me use their back yard as a dumpster. Neither they nor the people on the left side of me have mowed in years, so I run over it twice a month just so it doesn't bother me as much. I was hoping other neighbors would jump in to help, but no. I've stopped mowing a few times hoping they'd start, but I don't think they even own mowers. They're incredibly nice people, just ...trashy.

2. A younger couple moved in down the street a few years ago. I stopped by to welcome them and they didn't say anything...it was awkward so I left. Last winter she rang the neighbor's bell at 2 a.m., holding her infant, saying her husband was beating her. He went to fetch her and claimed it was all PTSD from being deployed in the middle east. When you drive by they both just look the other way.

3. We had an ice storm last winter that left 1/2" of ice on the roads and no one could get anywhere. Except my son was stuck at school so I tied a rope to my truck and would brace myself against the light poles and pull the truck to get it to the main roads that were clear. A guy a few houses down walked out on his porch and watched me. I kept thinking he was a prick for not helping. But it got worse. When I got my truck in front of his house maybe half an hour later he yells over, "be careful to not hit my car!", which was parked on the street. That's the only thing he's said to me since he moved in 4 years ago.

I'd move, but I hear stories like this from people in every neighborhood in town. The only thing that gives me some relief is that at least they're not dumping used condoms on my lawn.

4. I'm the only person on the street who has their lawn treated for weeds.

5. I had a problem for years with people letting their dogs take a dump on my lawn while they're walking them. I put up security cameras several months ago and it stopped.
 
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