I got to the campground late Friday so I couldn’t pull into our spot because quiet hours are 10pm to 8am. 8 am rolls around and I move our camper to our spot. I hear someone yelling WTF are you doing JC they’ll let anyone in here. I’m fairly certain it came from the motorhome next to our spot because there was no one on the other side for 8 spots. I felt like saying something, but held my tongue.

Two days later when the whole family is here, my wife tells me my son went into the RV to grab because he forgot a poop bag for the dog. She says not ten seconds later a guy knocked on the door and started yelling at my wife about picking up the poop. She tried to explain that my son had just came in to grab a poop bag and was on his way back to pick it up, but the guy wasn’t having any of it. Now I’m pissed and I’m ready to go over and lay into him. My wife though isn’t sure who the guy was and asks me to just let it go.

I notice the guy’s Wisconsin plates and when see his wife, I ask where in Wisconsin they are from. Turns out their daughter went to the same college I did. A little while later when I’m not there again, the guy comes over and apologizes to my wife. I thought that was good of him.

Today, my wife noticed they had a refrigerator next to the door of their motorhome and tells me I need to go over and see if they need help. I help the guy get the fridge, only 10cuft, in and he thanks me. Later on, while we are having diner outside, he wishes us Happy Thanksgiving and tells us to help ourselves to the firewood he has if we want to make a fire. We said thank you and wished him a Happy Thanksgiving as well.

I’m thankful for my wife and for her reminding me on an all too often basis that I should be the bigger man, not the bigger asshole.

Has the makings of a Hallmark movie. Just kidding. Glad you resolved the conflict.

Kinda long but worth it. All my friends want me to tell this story to every new friend I meet.

I live in a development. Neighbor directly across the street from me parks on the street in front of my house (directly across from my front door) every day. Now he has a 2 car wide driveway and room for 2 cars in front of his house. It's only him and his wife, they both drive small cars, Ford Focus size.

This goes on for years, I don't say a word. He starts becoming a dick to some neighbors over trivial shit so one day I see him outside and I walk over to his side of the street to chat.

Me: Hey Andy, I've always wondered, why do you park in front of my house when you have enough room in your driveway for 2 cars side by side and room out front on the street.

Andy: Well you know I like to keep the space in front of my house open in case we have guests (in 5 years I've never seen a guest at his house).

Me: You know what, so do I. Yet there you are parked in front of my house every day.

Andy: It's a public street, I can park where I want.

Me: You know what you are right. I walk over to my beater pickup, fire it up, rev it pop the clutch and sling the ass end around doing a 180, and proceed to park it in front of his house instead of mine.

Andy: Looks at me with hate in his eyes and goes in his house.

2 days go by, my truck still there, and he's still parking his car in front of my house, no problem, time to up the ante. Tomorrow is garbage day, instead of putting my garbage out front it goes into the back of my pickup sitting in front of his house.

A week goes by, no change, 2 more garbage bags added the the truck, a chicken carcass, some shrimp shells, etc...

Week 3 comes no change, 2 more bags of garbage, more stinky stuff, and man it's hard to walk by that truck without gagging (by the way its summer time).

A few days go by, I'm outside cutting the lawn, I see Andy coming my way. He waves, gets in his car, moves it from the front of my house to his driveway. He gets out, waves again and goes in his house.

I go inside my house, tell the wife, she asks "you gonna move your truck now"? My reply "maybe in a day or two". 2 days go by, I take the truck to the firehouse, put some vicks under my nose so that's all I smell, grab some gloves, chuck all the trash into the dumpster out back and go run the truck through the car wash.

He never parked in front of my house again, ever. He moved out 10 years later. It was the talk of the neighborhood for many years. Hell even other neighbors were afraid to park in front of my house.

^^^^ That's good!

I had a mini issue the other day. The one neighbor put in a driveway very close to the property line, curves our way. They knew the boundary, no excuses in that.

I have some medium sized pine trees near the line, on my side. Over the years they mowed a little towards the line, later piled firewood between trees I’m 98% sure are completely on my side. We each have 5 acres, but these trees are handy for him.

A few days ago I offered to bring two deer in to the processor, he’s in a wheelchair, but hunts with family. These deer were hanging in my pine trees, no real biggie.

I go get the deer, I see two metal steps screwed into the trees to tie the rope to. These trees are medium to smaller, I planted as infants. On top of this there was mention of fastening a ‘buck pole’ on these trees.

I wanted to talk in person, he was gone, I gently texted I didn’t like the metal steps, nor mention of a permanent buck pole. I’m the one that cuts downed trees, even a stout rope can choke the life out of a tree, when left on. I also mentioned I’m willing to get that edge resurveyed.

He was very cool about it, I said no need to move the firewood. I’m also not bothered by a deer hanging there a few days a year. I could just see the movement over time, as I showed low concern.

If his wife is annoyed, so be it. I don’t feel the need to pay to resurvey, but will if it comes to that.

Maybe I should try the parking trick on my neighbors. They can't park in the driveway so they park on both sides of the street and make it hard for the garbage trucks. Good luck if a fire truck needs to turn around.

quote:

Originally posted by sigarms229:
Kinda long but worth it. All my friends want me to tell this story to every new friend I meet.

<snip>

He never parked in front of my house again, ever. He moved out 10 years later. It was the talk of the neighborhood for many years. Hell even other neighbors were afraid to park in front of my house.

That is chess master level strategy. That conflict could have gone bad in several ways but you handled it with his own logic and a little passive aggression against him. Nicely done.

I do have a good neighbor story . A young , newly married couple moved in next door . Extremely polite and respectful . If they had any ourdoor activity like a BBQ , etc, they made it a point to invite us . The young man didn't have much in the way of yard tools so a couple of times he knocked and asked to borrow a shovel or wheelbarrow . When he was done he would knock again . Finally I told him just to go get what he needed and put it back when you're finished. They were good kids and I missed them when we moved a few years later .

Some people are beyond oblivious and/or so self-centered they can't be bothered to put themselves in someone else's shoes. I have a neighbor to the south that will routinely run his leaf blower daily to get every last leaf off his lawn. The wind blows 95% of the time from the south. He will blow his leaves into my lawn on the border every time he is out there. I at least try to clean up my lawn and little bit of my neighbors on the borders. He will also blow all his leaves into the street then takes his mower to mulch them up and leave them there hoping the wind will blow them away. If the wind is blowing it's not a huge issue for me but I'm sure the other neighbors don't appreciate it. It's when they only blow enough to come into my lawn or leave a massive pile in front of my house that really irks me. It's just crazy to me how he justifies this in his head. I am pretty certain he would not appreciate the same treatment. /rantoff

quote:

Originally posted by 41:
[QUOTE]They look like Rhodesian Ridgebacks to me. I've only met a couple and they were as friendly as can be. They were, however, well trained and socialized.

They also look like Ridgebacks to me, we have our 2nd- 85lbs 1yo female who is big but not tall. Ridgebacks are extremely “mouthy” dogs- they put everything in their mouths (like hands) and lick anything. They love to play and I’ve never personally seen one act aggressive towards humans. I still wouldn’t want to piss one off though, they are powerful dogs. They are also incredibly motivated by food- like would abandon whatever they are doing for a snack.

I've just read the last six pages with [mostly] a lot of headshaking on my part.

Y'see, we live in a village in Eastern England, piled in in a way that most of you would just look at in amazement. Our street, a cul-de-sac, is narrow to start with, and most of us have two cars, but no pick-ups - this is England, right? To our left are some great neighbours, a married couple with two great kids under nine. Never been any kind of problem. to our right, a Mormon family with five cars, but again, they are no trouble, in fact, they are a great bunch, with two of the five kids off doing their whatever-it-is they do somewhere else. Sadly they are moving out to be nearer the main temple, and we'll miss them. Opposite we have people who have been here longer than us - we chat, I get them eggs from the eggery every week. not close in any way - we've been in their house once in 34 years. Next door to them, a new, older couple, I know their names after day 1, but we never see them, and never talk to them. Next door to them, another married couple who don't talk to anybody. Sure, we know a few people to say hello, but we've been here in this house since '87 - or rather, Mrs tac has, as I was still in the Army, and going all over the place on short deployments until 2000, when I retired. then I went back to Canada for almost two years, and after that, four months, twice year, in Japan for seven years. When I came back I made a real effort to brush up my acquaintanceship with nearer neighbours I'd never really gotten to know, but my efforts failed. After all this time I still don't know anything about the families living diagonally across the street from us, and as for those further up or down - total strangers who live their lives in total anonymity. No arguments, no street hassles, no fighting for space or hairy-chest showing, no crapping on other peoples' front lawns- easy,that - we don't HAVE any space for any kind of a lawn.

You guys have all the space in the world to be miserable with each other, or, if you are lucky, happy. We have none at all, and we seem to be happy.

A lot of these incidents involve encroachment upon property. Folks living piled on top each other have no property to encroach upon.
Folks buy a nice property in the suburbs and form it into a nice retreat from the hubbub. They expect the neighbors to do the same, respect boundaries and not inflict themselves on others.
I find it strange for people to want to live piled on top of each other yet know virtually nothing of their neighbors, even after years and years of living so close together.

I've lived and traveled all over the country but never expected VA to be as liberal as it is now. I have property in Loudoun and Fairfax County, but Loudoun County is by far, the worst with the County personal failing to do their job of enforcing the building code.

Having worked with fire departments, I have never seen the attitude they have by not responding to potential fire situations. In 1987, the builder of the adjacent lot set the field on fire when they failed to clear enough space around the stumps they were burning. If the fire reached the woods, it would have cost 1/2 to 1 million dollars to put it out and several homes would have been lost. It was so hot, you could only run up and stomp it out and retreat. You continued this procedure until it was under control. The soles on my boots were completely melted. I went and called the fire department but they never went out there. The next day when I checked the field, there were several spots still burning under ground.

Several years ago, one of the neighbors was burning stumps in front of his house with embers shooting 30+ feet into the air with no one around. It was very dry and there should have been a burning ban. I called the fire department to report the burning. The next day I called them to see what they did. Turns out that they never went out there. The ladies response was, " Do you think we should go out there now?" Are you shitting me?

In Herndon where I live, little did I know that the previous owner of this house couldn't stand the neighbors. I have had only two good neighbors and they moved a long time ago.

The present neighbors will keep your mail if it makes it to their box by mistake. In August, FedEx left a package at the wrong house so they kept it.

The house has a big side yard where all the neighbor kids played and trashed the yard. When I kicked them off, now I am the bad guy. One neighbor use to shoot fireworks onto the roof of your house. You were taking a chance if you went away the 4th of July. Reporting it to the police got no response.

Then there is the neighbor behind me that has poisoned the trees and plants in my yard when I landscaped it. At one time, he had killed $17K worth of plants.

quote:

Originally posted by jed7s9b:
A lot of these incidents involve encroachment upon property. Folks living piled on top each other have no property to encroach upon.
Folks buy a nice property in the suburbs and form it into a nice retreat from the hubbub. They expect the neighbors to do the same, respect boundaries and not inflict themselves on others.
I find it strange for people to want to live piled on top of each other yet know virtually nothing of their neighbors, even after years and years of living so close together.

I didn't want to live piled up on top of anybody, but circumstances were different. I was in the Army and needed a foothold on the property ladder. Within a year we were paying 16% interest on the mortgage...we managed to move into a house near where I was based that had a second bathroom downstairs, and the garage converted into an office - we jumped at it, even though we were stretched. That was in 1987. At that time our tiny little house was just over $300K.

We would have liked a bungalow, but they were way out of our range, and still are. There are currently two for sale locally, both are way north of $1M....

Space here in UK costs, unless you have inherited it from your parents - both my wife and I are are long-time orphans of people without their own properties, We lived, when I was in the Army, almost entirely on my wages - having a severely handicapped daughter meant that Mrs tac could not work and necessitated owning a big car for transportation of wheelchairs and stuff. You might have noticed that things are a lot more expensive here in UK - gasoline is currently over $9 a gallon, and premium almost $13.

We live in a different world to you, that's for sure.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
Space here in UK costs, ...

Same in Netherlands, my wife's home country. You get used to it. Perhaps because everybody's so much closer to one another people tend to avoid intruding upon one another's space.

I've never heard of any of our Dutch friends or relatives having the kinds of issues I've seen mentioned in this thread, or that my wife and I have encountered.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
You might have noticed that things are a lot more expensive here in UK - gasoline is currently over $9 a gallon, and premium almost $13.

We live in a different world to you, that's for sure.

That's an understatement. I think most Americans don't realize how good we have it. (And, admittedly, not so good in some respects, but that's for another thread.)

Was just having a live on-line discussion with some on-line IT colleagues yesterday. We got on the subject of energy costs. I was asked what our heating costs were in terms of cost-per-kwh. Me: "I really have no idea." European colleague: "sounds like a .us-answer :P"

He wasn't being insulting--just making an observation. And he's right. Energy here is so economical, compared to much of the rest of the world, that we often really don't know how much it's costing us.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
Space here in UK costs, ...

Same in Netherlands, my wife's home country. You get used to it. Perhaps because everybody's so much closer to one another people tend to avoid intruding upon one another's space.

I've never heard of any of our Dutch friends or relatives having the kinds of issues I've seen mentioned in this thread, or that my wife and I have encountered.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
You might have noticed that things are a lot more expensive here in UK - gasoline is currently over $9 a gallon, and premium almost $13.

We live in a different world to you, that's for sure.

That's an understatement. I think most Americans don't realize how good we have it. (And, admittedly, not so good in some respects, but that's for another thread.)

Was just having a live on-line discussion with some on-line IT colleagues yesterday. We got on the subject of energy costs. I was asked what our heating costs were in terms of cost-per-kwh. Me: "I really have no idea." European colleague: "sounds like a .us-answer :P"

He wasn't being insulting--just making an observation. And he's right. Energy here is so economical, compared to much of the rest of the world, that we often really don't know how much it's costing us.

Perhaps I ought to have said the same thing. Just about all the problems mentioned in the last few pages are not necessarily unique to the US of A, but we have none of them in the twin-village setup we live in. With so little room to play with, we tend to respect each other's space and you only tend to find the land-grabbing neighbour playing his tricks if there is a lot of land at stake. I've mentioned the high cost of land here before here, and been more or less called a liar, but a sixty-by-eighty FOOT building lot here in my village just cost $328,000 last week.

My little house, that would easily fit in a double-front garage, is currently valued at around $350K. I have a space at the side to park one car, but that's it. Getting nearer to Cambridge, especially on the outskirts, you get much bigger properties - older, of course, when houses were bigger and had lots of land around them, by our standards - maybe as much a a half-acre. The average house cost on Girton Road, still a mile out of the city, is fast approaching $2M. Getting a two-hundred year-old 'town house' in a street row of similar dwellings - with direct entry off the street, two rooms and a kitchen downstairs, two small bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, might cost 3/4 million dollars.

My neighbors, being the pack of crackheads that they are, have convinced themselves that anyone can be on the utilities easement that crosses my property. This, despite being told otherwise by myself, four cops, and the electric company.

quote:

Originally posted by tacfoley:
I've mentioned the high cost of land here before here, and been more or less called a liar, but a sixty-by-eighty FOOT building lot here in my village just cost $328,000 last week.

I may pull your chain from time-to-time, but a liar is the last thing I'd think of you, tac

Americans who have never spent any real time outside the country simply do not understand.

My wife and I had had vague plans of moving to Netherlands after my retirement. Seemed only fair. She gave up her career, her friends, and her family to marry me and move here. But, when the time came, and we looked at what housing costs in any area even remotely close to where her friends and family live--and I'm not talking McMansions, we discarded the idea. In fact: She made the decision to discard the idea.

(I think that's probably one reason that, a couple years later, she went ahead, on her own initiative, and got her American citizenship. I never asked her to do that--or even suggested she should.)