Spring Flowers, The Daily Grind, and Neighbors

Well now that I have been officially sent back to work, kicking and screaming all the way, I find first of all that I did not get near the projects done that I thought that I would during my extremely shortened recovery and second, my job exhausts me! It is the time of the year, I am sure, this is when we start to get really busy and that is good after the winter but there is so much to do that it is just push, push PUSH to get everything done and deadlines. I keep telling myself that we are just making t-shirts here people, this is not NASA but some days it seems like t-shirts are just as important! The Princess is "riding" the World's Smallest Two Wheeler. I found this at the yard sale last week. It is still too big for her, but she liked Mommy pushing her around on it. I think Grammie might milk the recovery a little longer, that looked like a backbreaker pushing that little thing.
Spring flowers popping up everywhere. I love them!

And the continuing saga of the neighbors....just a little background, we have two neighbors to the one side of our house that fight with each other constantly to the point that they take each other to court and are constantly calling the police on one another. One is a single 60ish woman and the other a late 60ish recent widow. Both need a hand every now and then and my dear husband has sort of "helped" them here and there. If he helps Neighbor #1 though, Neighbor #2 HAS to see it and find something for him to do for her also. About a week before my surgery the second one became a widow and she wanted us to find a "home" for her husband's wheelchair and power chair. Of course the irony of this was that he always used our driveway which makes a circle to "exercise" in, making round after round around our driveway in the power chair sometimes aggravating the heck out of me because I was so afraid that we were going to hit him pulling in, AND I would be out working peacefully in my flowers and he would pull up behind me and say something and startle me. Most of the time it was to complain about the other neighbor and I just did not want to get in the middle of it....telling me that she was stealing my tomatoes, then she would say they were harassing her and then he would say this and on and on. I try (have tried) not to be short tempered with the whole thing but it is really a test for me. Not John though, patience of a saint, he LISTENS to them both and helps them and for this I am sure there will be a special jewel in his crown, I give up, just give me a rock. I can't do it.
Enough of the background, the other day Neighbor #1 needs her plastic recycling taken to the trailer for that purpose at the fire hall and she wants John to do it for her. He tells her to bring it to the shop on Mon at 10 and he will go with her and unload it, then he has to leave the shop for something and remembers that and does not want me to have to deal with it so he goes to her house to collect it. She has her house surrounded by a chain link fence and has a security camera scanning the "compound" and he has to wait outside until the camera sees him and then she comes out and opens the gate. This process takes just enough time for Neighbor #2 to see him and dream up some chore for him while he is there so while Neighbor #1 is throwing out five garbage bags of recyclables, Neighbor #2 is screaming (did I mention the sanity issue?) for him to come over there. He collects the bags of plastic loads them in the truck and then has to go to Neighbor #2's house and collect the manual for the power chair that is STILL sitting in my garage waiting for pick-up by some charitable organization. Neighbor #2's house smells so bad that he has to leave there and search for something in his truck that smells good to stuff up his nose to get the smell out of his nose from her house. Of course John makes a big joke of it all and says that it is a good thing that he has been losing weight lately because if anything ever happens to Neighbor #1 inside the fence, he is going to have to pole vault over the fence with the clothesline pole to get to her. I gently remind him that we don't have clothesline poles but we do have a ladder which might be more effective, but the visual of him polevaulting does bring humor!
Anyone else with neighbor stories?


Comments

Cindy said…
Yay!! You're back to work -- that was bad...not that you have to go to work, you're well enough to go back to work! That's better....hate that "work" word as in job! Heehee.

I am so sorry for your neighbor predicament -- I have totally great neighbors all around me. True a couple talk alot, but this is the best neighborhood I've ever lived in with people getting along. We're all in the same age group within 15 years, so it works out quite well! But I hope the venting worked?!
ohiofarmgirl said…
Yes...we have a terrible neighbor. He uses binoculars to watch our every move (he lives about a 1/4 mile down the road). When I work outside he gets in his truck and sits right along our property and watches what I am doing. Our furniture guys even asked us if he carries a gun....all I know is I am praying that he moves! Dianntha
Sorry you have to go back to work. It really interferes with our free time, doesn't it - lol. Wow, that is too, too, bad about the neighbors - sounds like your husband is a saint!
Very funny. Your husband sounds like a sweetheart. Mine would be like that too. I love the visual of the motorized wheelchair sneaking up on you as you garden. Geez, my own neighbor stories...I could write a book. Thankfully we live out in the country and have a bit of land separating us from the crazies on both sides of us. The guy on the one side is a true hilbilly and the family on the other side ... well, let's just say they breed like rabbits and have grandchildren that are older than some of their children.
Thanks for the smile!
Cathy
Chanda said…
Nothing like funny crazy old neighbors. I have a crazy hippie that lives by me and she once worked in her flowers naked. I swear. She also found a dead hoot owl on her property and it freaked her out so bad I thought she just might move, but no, she found some hippie religous cermony to perform and all was better. She has funny smells emitting from her place too, some times at about 4:20 pm. Ha ha!
Lynn said…
Just added you to my favorites. Your painting is beautiful. I taught Tole Painting for 27 years. Love to look at others work... Great job.
Ann said…
Cathy, you made me laugh reading your trials with the neighbors! Our next door neighbor is a widow - 3 years, also in her 60's. She comes over occasionaly for help from my husband. One evening he wasn't home, but I assured her when he got back from his meeting, I'd send him over. I had a good chuckle telling him his "girl friend" wanted him in her bedroom, she couldn't set her alarm clock and needed his help! His ears did turn the slightest shade of red! Good luck with them, I'm glad we only have 1 and she doesn't cause too many problems, she's just a busy body. ~Ann
So funny with the neighbors we are the only house up this road except for a church but down the road are the "Bumbeses" (as in The Christmas Story) they don't have dogs but a million cars that they work on also motorcycles that they reve constanly. The first warm day they are all out doing their thing cars, motorcycles burning garbage. I could go on and on:)
Love the little bike she looks so cute, I'd pass on pushing her around too:)
Rondell
Ashley said…
Nice pictures of spring flowers!! I prefer to buy flowers from 1800Flowers for any occasion...

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