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Redneck neighbors moved! Well, almost …

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I was so happy last Saturday when I got up that I was almost jumping for joy! Why … well, the Redneck renter neighbors next door had a truck outside and it appeared they were haphazardly loading it up to move!

Figures they’d pick, what was up to that point the hottest day in the year (Monday was the hottest) to move!

I was so happy! You see, we knew they were moving but whenever we’d ask them when they’d always say they weren’t moving out until the end of the month. I always thought they were kind of lying as it was obvious that they already had control of the other house and were painting it and slowly moving some of the things they could carry by hand or car over the last month.

It wasn’t until the evening that I knew for sure that they probably weren’t going to be back at the house much … you see they took their window air-conditioner out and packed their BBQ into the van. Yeah!

Oh and what terrible movers they were! It seems like they didn’t prepare their move by getting boxes or disassembling furniture or even moving things to one room of the house for an easier move … things came out one by one, in bags or in fully assemble states. The last van load that I saw they put their big couch in upside down and jammed their barbecue in beside it. If they’d turned the couch upright they could have put boxes or small items on top of it … but because they put it in so badly they could only put two things in the big truck???? DUMB.

Anyway … I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to be moving over the weekend. Just going outside coated you in sweat because the temperatures were so high as was the humidity. They were just dripping sweat. I’m sure an acne treatment is in their future!

So … the redneck neighbors still have some furniture in their house. Maybe they’ll get the rest this coming weekend … but for our peace of mind, they’re as good as gone and oh … we have our driveway back! No more big boat of a car blocking the whole lane way! Yeah!





The neighbor saga continues!

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A while ago I wrote about how our new neighbors have been driving me crazy. I think I mentioned that they had purchased a huge boat of a car (a Buick Regal – 30 year old gas guzzler!) and since it was there month to park in our shared driveway, promptly parked their new car in the driveway and left it there.

I think he almost decided to return the car a few days after he bought it because he found out that he’d have to do a lot of paperwork to get a license for the car since it’s not exactly environmentally friendly. Well … about mid-month I guess he got it all figured out and license plates appeared on the car … but still it sat and sat in the driveway.

Blocking the driveway is more like it since it’s wedged between our two houses in our narrow driveway. I can’t even get our garden hose past the car without my husbands help. We have to carefully pass the hose over about five feet of car – being careful not to touch the car since the neighbor is out there washing and polishing it pretty much daily! God forbid if we made a mark on it!

Anyway, I guess he called around and got some insurance quotes because they’ve started driving the gas guzzling car about once a week.

I’m just so frustrated with the huge car blocking off the top of our driveway. They also put their BBQ at the end of the driveway so they end up blocking the end of the driveway too. Argh!

Luckily … we get the use of the driveway in July. He’d better move that darn car! Oh and their young daughter told us that they might be moving in August … If the home owners continue to rent the house I hope we get better neighbors when they move.

Between what they’ve done to the driveway, how they treat their puppy and all the screaming and yelling I keep hearing next store I won’t be sorry to see them go.

Neighbors starting to drive me nuts!

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Do you like or even know your neighbors? Sometimes I feel like we know our neighbors too well and most of the time that’s not a good thing. Not at all!

We know most of our neighbors because my husband is Mr. Friendly. So friendly in fact that I often call him Mr. Flanders (from the Simpsons) and I’d swear I’ve heard him call out “Hi de ho – Neighbor” on occasion! So yeah … we know everyone for blocks around, half due to my husbands outgoing friendliness and half due to the fact that the two of us work at the hospital just down the street and we’ve both taken care of many of our neighbors over the years in the ER (me), day surgery or on the various medical floors of the hospital.

Our newest neighbors, the renters that moved in next door in January, are really getting on my nerves lately.

They bought a Lab/ American Bulldog mix puppy shortly after falling in love with our Lab, Midnight, and I fear for the poor little thing. They let it out in their backyard unattended and it’s eating weeds, wood and all kinds of things. That pup is going to have a bowel obstruction soon. Also, their gate doesn’t lock properly so this week their puppy has gotten out and ran to the front twice! Luckily yesterday when it happened the first time I was outside with my dog and the puppy ran right up to us … otherwise he might have ran out into the busy street.

On Saturday the guy was walking their puppy and he let it get too close to a dog that was fenced in it’s own backyard. The dog bit their puppy in the face! Did my neighbors take their dog to the vet? Nope! They asked me for advice since I’m a nurse. My main advice was to go to the vet fast as I though their puppy needed stitches, but I also gave them betadine to put on the wound to keep it clean. Anyway, by the next day the three holes in their puppies muzzle were infected and pussy, probably because they’d let the dog play outside in the dirty weedy garden. They finally took their pup to the vets on Monday and it’s now on antibiotics.

Then … last night they bought a used car. We share our driveway – alternating driveway use each month since the drive way is short and narrow and only one car can be parked in it at once. So they bought this old boat of a car (they now have three or four cars!) and wedged it in the driveway.

I say wedged because it’s wider than the driveway and we can’t even walk down the driveway beside the car because the car is only about half a foot from each of our houses! Grrrr! So what now … gee, when I need to water my lawn and front flower beds I’m going to have to ask them to move the car so I can get the hose between the house and their boat of a car? Sigh!

They also have two daughters. One is a ten and she’s been asking my advice about dieting and reading Colonix reviews. She’s only 12 and I don’t want to hurt her feelings but I’m starting to feel like a professional adviser what with all the questions she’s asking … not to mention her family asking us all kinds of dog car and training advice (and then not using it!).

Do you have neighbors that just make you shake your head in wonder at the things they do?

A beautiful day turns scary with sudden wind storm!

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I’m still recovering from a scary experience that I had at about 5:30 this evening here in Toronto.

It was supposed to be a beautiful day and for the most part it was, at least up until 4:30 or so when the skies started darkening. The weather forecast had said that we were expecting a thunderstorm this evening, so naturally I just thought the storm was approaching. Little did I know that by 5:15 pm or so I’d be outside (pruning roses in backyard) in what felt like a mini-tornado!

As I was outside puttering in the garden I noticed that it was getting darker and darker. I swear that if I didn’t know what time it was I might have thought the sun was about to set. So I was just about to start gathering the items I’d been using in the garden when strong winds came out of nowhere … no warning at all.

Suddenly I was in the worst wind storm I’ve ever experienced. Small branches were flying off my neighbors maple tree and I was worried that the broken down roof that they had over their garage overhang was about to blow into my yard. As it turned out a few pieces of the wood holding the roof down did land in my yard.

Our other neighbor rushed outside just as part of his back fence came loose and went flying towards him and his house. Then I noticed that the neighbor behind us was about to loose a large piece of their evestroughing from the front of their house!

That was enough for me and my new MBT shoes! I rushed into our enclosed back porch with my gardening tools. I stayed there for a bit to keep an eye on my neighbor who was covering up his BBQ and kids bikes just in case our other neighbors garage overhang roof did fly off and headed towards him. At least a little warning might have helped!

Chris was out at Home Depot while this was going on. When he came home just after 5:30 I learned that a TREE fell down right in front of the car as he was driving! It brought down power lines too! He carefully drove to the other side of the road and made it past the fallen tree and dangerous downed power lines.

Needless to say once he came home he was a little shaken up. I was glad that he hadn’t been hurt and told him about my backyard adventures as well.

Oddly enough, watching the news and the Weather Network at 6 pm they didn’t mention any damage from the powerful winds although they said there were gusts up to 85 kilometers an hour … I’m sure it was stronger in our area during the 10 to 15 minute windstorm. The news didn’t even mention downed trees … maybe this severe windstorm was just in our immediate area?

Pretty scary though .. I mean I literally saw two of my neighbors houses being damaged and another neighbors fence fly off! Not to mention Chris’ experience with a tree falling down right in front of him as he was driving … oh and after that the car lifted up off the ground while he was driving across the bridge at Millwood.

It’s scary how fast weather can change isn’t it? One minute it’s our warmest Spring day so far – 26 C (79 F) but felt like 30 C (86 F) with humidity and the next it’s the worst windstorm that I’ve experienced! Shortly after the winds the rain started falling. We had a little thunder, but nothing compared to that wind storm that I won’t soon forget!

I hope the weather in your area is better than ours was about two hours ago!

Don’t you just love Spring?

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Don’t you just love Spring? The grass is starting to turn green, trees and bushes are starting to get new leaves and even some flowers are blooming! What a great time of year!

We had some rain and cooler weather earlier in the week, but right now it’s 19 C (66 F) outside and tomorrow it’s supposed to reach 26 C (79 F) or perhaps even higher. Now that’s spring weather that I can get in to!

Last Saturday was nice too … before all the rain started on Sunday and onward. We did some gardening and yard work that day and Chris put our glass and metal patio table together.

Our neighbors kids seem to love our yard and our patio table. They ended up coming over to play with our dog, sit at the high patio chairs and even helped me with some of the garden bed tidying that I was doing. I have a feeling that every time I go out in the yard when they are home they are going to end up in our backyard. The older girl hung out with us for hours last Saturday and even wanted to come inside with us when we were done working outside. I think I’ve been “adopted”! LOL

Tomorrow, once the yard work is done we’ll probably pull out our Muskoka chairs and put them on the lawn. I’ve got to find the outdoor cushions that we use on them … they certainly make the chairs comfy!

We also have a lot (A LOT) of solar lights that we use in the front and back garden beds. We pull them out of the ground each fall so that they don’t get damaged by the cold, snow and ice and store them in our enclosed back porch. I think it’s about time we haul them out and set them up in the garden again. They look so pretty at night when they light up the garden beds and some of the plants.

What are your plans for the weekend? Are you expecting nice Spring weather too?

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