multipurposegoddess (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
multipurposegoddess) wrote2012-07-27 04:33 pm
multipurposegoddess) wrote2012-07-27 04:33 pm
Entry tags:
Neighborhood Gossip, Sort Of
So, my dad came over on Wednesday to help me fix the door closer (that's what it's called on the packaging, a "Door Closer", so I guess that's right. The arm thingy that keeps the door from slamming to shut and that you can set to stay open. You know) and my little greenhouse that's been more or less a shambles since it blew off the porch. It took all day, but only two trips to the hardware store and we got both things done and even anchored the greenhouse to a wall so it won't go flying again. So yay for that.
At one point while we were working, my neighbor's dog came trotting over and when she came to retrieve him she said (after the usual pleasantries) that she had gotten a ticket for parking her car in her driveway with the bumper over the sidewalk, and that that had never happened before and she thought somebody must be calling in complaints. Well, I got a notice that my grass was too high this week, too, so I commiserated with her and didn't think too much about it.
After my dad left, I had to go pick up this week's chickens and eggs (stocking up while I can!) and when I got back, another neighbor was working in my next-door neighbor's yard (he does a bunch of handyman type stuff for her). As I pulled up he motioned for me to come over and talk to him, so I do, and he whispered that my car is chalked, don't look right now, but it's marked so if I don't move it they'll tow it away, and HE CAN"T BE SEEN TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT. Apparently we can't park on the street for over 72 hours, which I did not know (it had been parked in the same spot for around 80 hours when it got tagged. I do habitually park in the same spot, so it could have looked to a casual observer as if it had been there for weeks, because any time they'd look out their window, chances are it would be there. Of course, when we first moved here our next-door neighbor who has since moved away had his truck stored on the street for months and months, so I did not realize this was an issue). So, totally nice of him to tell me because I might not have gone to drive it right away on my own and that would have been a huge hassle, but the cloak and dagger business was so weird! Now I'm totally suspicious that his mother has taken against me personally, because she is the most likely neighbor to complain about the rest of us. I know I'm That Neighbor - I'm practically Boo Radley over here, and I guess Southern Gothic doesn't fly in California suburbia - but it's still not a pleasant feeling.
The annoying thing was, when I did go to drive that car, the notice that it would be towed if I didn't move it was on the windshield right in front of the steering wheel, so when I peeled it off the sticky residue obscured my view. That just doesn't seem sensible.
Anyway, car not towed, door and greenhouse fixed, I need to mow the yard, etc. but instead I'm cleaning the kitchen (which I also need to do, and I've got over a week to whip the front yard into passable shape) and making soup. Because that's what I feel like doing today
At one point while we were working, my neighbor's dog came trotting over and when she came to retrieve him she said (after the usual pleasantries) that she had gotten a ticket for parking her car in her driveway with the bumper over the sidewalk, and that that had never happened before and she thought somebody must be calling in complaints. Well, I got a notice that my grass was too high this week, too, so I commiserated with her and didn't think too much about it.
After my dad left, I had to go pick up this week's chickens and eggs (stocking up while I can!) and when I got back, another neighbor was working in my next-door neighbor's yard (he does a bunch of handyman type stuff for her). As I pulled up he motioned for me to come over and talk to him, so I do, and he whispered that my car is chalked, don't look right now, but it's marked so if I don't move it they'll tow it away, and HE CAN"T BE SEEN TALKING TO ME ABOUT IT. Apparently we can't park on the street for over 72 hours, which I did not know (it had been parked in the same spot for around 80 hours when it got tagged. I do habitually park in the same spot, so it could have looked to a casual observer as if it had been there for weeks, because any time they'd look out their window, chances are it would be there. Of course, when we first moved here our next-door neighbor who has since moved away had his truck stored on the street for months and months, so I did not realize this was an issue). So, totally nice of him to tell me because I might not have gone to drive it right away on my own and that would have been a huge hassle, but the cloak and dagger business was so weird! Now I'm totally suspicious that his mother has taken against me personally, because she is the most likely neighbor to complain about the rest of us. I know I'm That Neighbor - I'm practically Boo Radley over here, and I guess Southern Gothic doesn't fly in California suburbia - but it's still not a pleasant feeling.
The annoying thing was, when I did go to drive that car, the notice that it would be towed if I didn't move it was on the windshield right in front of the steering wheel, so when I peeled it off the sticky residue obscured my view. That just doesn't seem sensible.
Anyway, car not towed, door and greenhouse fixed, I need to mow the yard, etc. but instead I'm cleaning the kitchen (which I also need to do, and I've got over a week to whip the front yard into passable shape) and making soup. Because that's what I feel like doing today
no subject
But my friend was told she had to lose her butterfly garden and a couple of other friends were told they couldn't have their vegetable gardens in the front yard--it had to be grass. So two of them took everything out, transplanted it to the back or side yards where they could, and graveled the front as a "parking area" so they wouldn't have to water grass. The third is thinking of paving the whole thing from front walk to sidewalk, for the same water-saving reasons. And to piss off the "must-be-grass" folks. Of course they also considered installing a marijuana plantation because, "you said it had to be grass!" Some people.
no subject
I legitimately have tall weeds, and that's on me. The damn things grow fast and I don't have a lot of energy to combat them. I am tempted to go the gravel route but that would get so excruciatingly hot in the summertime, it just seems bad for, like, the world. Not to mention that the parts of the backyard that are gravel laid over weed-blocking material are also sprouting tall weeds. I might go for a lot of mulch and some prickly but decorative plants that do that thing where they make the soil hostile to other species...
Of course, one of the big things that keeps me from working in the front yard as often as I ought to is that I feel exposed to public view out there, and if someone is in fact giving me disapproving looks that really does not help.
no subject
I think my friends were more defiant, once they got over being hurt that all their careful environmentally sound effort was being ignored--even condemned--for rigid neighborhood conformity. Gravel is theoretically more easily re-converted to productive soil than pavement, though weeds will defy anything. They just didn't want to concede to grass.