Fencing (But Not That Kind)

Well, we had an eventful morning yesterday! The fence contractor came to give an estimate for repairing our garden fence. You may remember that one of the fence posts leans slightly in Mrs. Kravitz's direction, and she is not happy. I believe she even sent a legal notice to our landlord, arguing that the fence encroaches on her property. We arranged for her to be able to speak to the contractor, so she could express her concerns.

(I should preface this by saying that in our neighborhood, all property owners are responsible for the fence on the left side of their garden -- thus, the fence that upsets Mrs. K is our landlord's responsibility.)

After he examined the fence from our side and took some measurements, I took him next door to see it from Mrs. Kravitz's patio. She argued for a whole new fence, which has been a long-standing campaign with her, but to my surprise the contractor took her on. He told her that the fence, with a few minor repairs, would be fine and structurally sound. This led to a shouting episode in which she screamed "I AM ENTITLED TO A NEW FENCE!" She said ours is not the kind of neighborhood where people do "cheap repairs," and threatened more legal action. She's obsessed with some cosmetic issues like small gaps in the boards and deteriorated caps on the fence posts (which, to me, look weathered but not bad).

He explained to her that some of her demands are basically a matter of opinion. I echoed that, telling her that we like a more "casual" approach to gardening and emphasizing that the leaning post and a couple of warped panels would be fixed. She insists that all the other fences around her have been replaced more recently, but I pointed out that the fence on our other side was just as old. "Well, you should tell your neighbor to replace it," she said.

"But it doesn't bother us!" I replied.

Anyway, I apologized to the contractor before he left, but I bet he deals with this sort of thing all the time. In retrospect I think he knew exactly what he was getting into -- and, in fact, exactly what the scope of the work would probably be -- before he even arrived. I was surprised he pushed back at her. If I were him I'd have nodded and smiled, and then done whatever the heck I wanted, which is my usual approach to Mrs. Kravitz. But it's just as well that he did.

When we got home from work later in the day, I mowed a sinuous path through our "No-Mow May" lawn from the patio to the bench in back, just to show that its shaggy state is deliberate. I don't want her taking pictures and arguing that we're letting the place go to pot.

At work, I continued to weed our library collection. Here are some other books I've targeted for removal. This one (above) is from 1952! The end papers are covered with cowboys and rocket ships and other mid-century images. It's all very "Make America Great Again," but I don't think we need a 69-year-old book when we have much newer materials covering the same time period.

I'm on the fence about this one. It's a photo essay with accompanying text describing, as the cover says, a day in the life of a Pilgrim boy. It's written in the style of Puritan speech, and thus not particularly easy to understand, and frankly I find the photos kind of cringey. But on Goodreads it has lots of positive reviews and some people say they really liked it as a kid. Maybe I'll leave it.

And finally -- who cares?! I realize our kids weren't even born in the '90s, and their relationship to that time period is a lot like my relationship to the '50s. But if they want to read about Tamagotchi, Nirvana and "Friends," surely they can do it online. (For the record, none of these books have been used in ages, if at all.)

(Top photo: Phone booths in Limehouse, East London.)