Yesterday the sun was so bright that I put Olga's bed out in the garden so she could soak up some rays. I put on a jacket and sat with her, reading "The Wager" by David Grann, about the wreck of British ship off the coast of Chile back in the 1700s. I've just started it but it seems promising. Unfortunately, despite the sun, it wasn't warm -- 44º F or 6.6º C -- so we didn't stay out there very long.
Still, the seasons are slowly revolving.
We heard nothing back from Mrs. Russia regarding the front garden. Maybe she's written the landlords, but I doubt it. I think we're in a stalemate.
We are also in a bit of a Cold War with Mrs. Kravitz next door, over our rubbish bins. Remember how several years ago we locked them because she (or someone in her household) kept using them? Well, one day last fall I found one of the locks torn off and a lot of rubbish from her bins strewn around in our alleyway. I came in and told Dave, who marched over to her house to demand answers. Mrs. Kravitz was greatly offended that we suspected she had torn off the lock, and she hasn't really spoken to us since. (I think she's also been gone for much of the winter. I've only caught a glimpse of her once or twice.) Her rubbish at the time included a lot of gift bags from fancy brands like Chanel, and in retrospect, I think a homeless person or other passerby tore off the lock because they thought something valuable might be in the bin. (We did apologize for confronting her, for what it's worth.)
Thinking about these fraught neighborly relations, I began to wonder yesterday if we're the problem. As I said to Dave, "Am I an asshole?"
He assured me that I am not. Granted, he's a biased source, but surely wanting to use your own trash bins without finding them filled with the neighbor's debris isn't that extreme.
Besides, I suspect being an asshole is a bit like being insane. If you worry you might be, you're probably not. It's only people who think they are without fault who have the real problems.
We have since removed the locks on the bins. They were a pain to navigate and one side benefit of confronting Mrs. Kravitz, and her appalled reaction, is that she wouldn't dare put her rubbish in them now.
Well, let's lighten the mood. Here's a video of Olga plowing through the overgrown ivy in the garden. This is the same ivy we're going to have pruned and brought under control when the gardeners come in about a month, so Olga is enjoying it while she can!
Olga is having a grand old time in the ivy 😃
ReplyDeleteI have similar rubbish bin problems with neighbours using any old bin they please once theirs is full or if theirs is too far away, like two feet past the first available bin, so I keep my (washed and dried in the sun) bin inside my closed in back porch. Can't do anything about the communal green waste or yellow-lid recycling bins, so they continue to get over filled with whatever might be remotely recyclable. I did write on the lid just last week after I again washed the damn thing out, "No food waste! No Liquids!" We'll see how that goes.
It does sound like Dave was wrong to accuse Gladys, but if it has an ongoing positive effect, than perhaps not so bad.
ReplyDeleteOlga romping in the ivy is great to see. She still seems to move well.
Olga is agile and full of life.
ReplyDeleteWe used to keep our wheelie bin down by the gatepost at the bottom of the drive but somebody started to throw their dog poo bags in it, so now we store it halfway up the drive behind a large tree. We just have to haul it down to the roadside then back up again on collection day.
ReplyDeleteHaving and being good neighbours makes such a difference, on one side we share a drive with lovely neighbours on the other our home is attached to the most horrible woman.
ReplyDeleteOh no Steve, you are definitely not an asshole! You might be an arsehole but an asshole - never! Living close to other people can be challenging. Sometimes I think it would be a lot easier to live in a cabin in a clearing in a forest if not for the birds and goddamn badgers!
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