A pebble in my shoe

It seems, in my life, I'm destined to have some kind of issue with the gray house.  [laugh]  When we first moved in, the homeowner's wife said I had to stop the cat from looking at her, or she'd kill him.  A teacher... said this.  I reminded her that harming an animal is a felony, she just made a threat.  She also had to watch Ron fall down in front of the house before she stopped parking in front of our yard.  They have a huge driveway.  I have seen 4 cars... and they only had two! 

Then the moved out and the first renters moved in.  They were actually OK, if you disregard the young men losing their ball over the fence and coming after it.  Ron and I were OK with that, until someone warned me it was a liability issue.  Not only that, I caught them looking in our windows more than once.  We use curtains and blinds, but I didn't appreciate some kid I don't even know, staring in my window, then looking at me with no shame and saying "You have a lot of books".  We started running the kids out of the yard, and they'd just go in without permission.  They got furtive, is all.  They got robbed, that was the end for them - off they went. 

Then it was the family with the special needs boy (he was not very delayed but socially he was several years behind his age - possibly FAS like me).  He was always over at our house, wanting to play with the cat, just wandering around in our yard.  He kept throwing his ball over the fence and asking me to get it one night, until my husband went over there and said "Do you know your son is knocking on our door at 8 PM?"  They kept him contained after that - I didn't dislike the kid but he had no concept of property lines.  And he was slow enough that I could see him badly hurting himself chasing the cat or something.  Their other boys continued the policy of yard invasions.  They moved out right before the hurricane. 

The last ones were a treat!  Not only did they rip boards off the fence, making a "doorway" between the two yards, they climbed on the gate repeatedly and broke it.  Their 13 year old daughter's "boyfreind" left used condoms in ziptop baggies thrown into our yard.  It reminded me of living next to the crack house.  I saw used condoms everywhere.  Not only that, the guy was using her, in his car, in the driveway, while the father was home!  What kind of Father... [shaking head in despair].  Also had the looking-in-the-windows issues and the older boy was very antisocial. 

Their middle boy was hit in the face by the same guy who mugged me.  I was glad, hearing that, that I had beaten my mugger.  They moved out at the end of the school year. 

This family is better in a lot of regards.  They don't live the "thug life" - that's apparent.  The wife/mom is pretty high-maintanence appearing.  The girls, 3 of them, seem well-adjusted and polite.  I haven't caught any humans in the yard, and the disreputable boys in the subdivision aren't coming over to "play" and destroy my fence. 

Fences are not cheap.  Anyway, yes, their dog is damaging the fence.  Yes, they refuse to make even a minor repair, with supplies my husband provided.  [shrug]  Yes, their dog runs loose all over the neighborhood, including our yard, but I think I have solved that somewhat.  Yes, the dog barks constantly at night, but when Ron called the police they locked her up somehow and made it stop. 

That house is just a pebble in my shoe.  I guess it will always be "something" going on next door, some kind of needless drama, but it's sure made me appreciate all the other, wonderful, houses around.  I'd hardly know they were habited, the people are so quiet, and when the dogs in the other houses broke the fence, the owners made immediate and permanent repairs.  Thank you, neighbors, I love you.