Howdy Neighbor!

I got a new neighbor last Thursday.

Well, sort of.

I came home to find a Johnny on the Spot right next to my driveway.

The photo above is not the actual structure, I just thought it would be fun to put a picture up.

The Backstory:

I live in a beautiful, new neighborhood, at the end of a cul-de-sac.

I have one neighbor, to my left.

He moved in last December.

I moved in this June.

For about a month, we had the entire street to ourselves.

We are the only houses on our side of the street.

There are ten vacant lots between the main road and my house.

A while ago, they started building five houses right across the street from my neighbor and I.

With that came:

The muddy tire tracks

The hammering at 5:30 a.m.

The "crew" gathering at 5:15 a.m. and discussing, quite loudly, their weekend...in great detail. Complete with the screaming of obscenities. Lots of whooping involved.

The "crew" using our outdoor water spigot to fill their water coolers.

"Crew Parties" on Friday nights, where maybe four or five crew members, who stop working at 2:00 in the afternoon, will enjoy not one, not two, but dozens of beers. Things have been to the point where they will run out and purchase more beer. Women and friends who don't even work on the job site will join their friends in the garage of a home under construction until well past 8:00 p.m.

Delivery men and concrete trucks blocking our driveways.

You get the point?

It's great to have a new house...it sucks to be one of the first houses on the street.

So, as you can imagine, the events above have compounded in my mind and I have reached the point of feeling dizzy, seein' stars, breakin' pencils mad...

So, I discover a new "structure" next to my house and I LOSE IT.

I don't even turn into my driveway, I round the cul-de-sac and head to the construction office.

Of course, the foreman is gone for the day and I contact the main office. I speak with a woman who can't understand why I'm so mad. After all, it IS a construction zone...I ask her "Would you wan't it next to YOUR house?" I'm quickly assured it will be moved the next day. She was going to call the foreman and let him know.

Not satisfied with the response, I call my neighbor, who hasn't seen the "new addition".

His response: "Oh, fuck that. We're the only houses on our side of the street, and there's how many vacant lots up the street?" "I'll take care of it."

So, an hour later, my neighbor and I moved the "offender", (and oh did it offend) to the street and pushed it, with his truck, up the street, four lots away from my house.

It sat there over the weekend.

I came back on Monday, and it had been moved betweeen two houses under construction, at the bend of the cul-de-sac.

Where it should have been all along.

So, Trixie, ever greatful for me being the one to play the bad cop, but also quick to tell me that I place too many demands on people, comments that "they must have gone to move that thing Monday and thought 'Jesus Christ, this thing is four lots away! What the fuck was this guy complaining about?'".

Sometimes, to get things done, and get them done right, you just do it yourself.