Is It Wrong to Hate My Neighbors?.....ALL OF 'EM!!!!

[StevenGuthmiller]

.....Or am I just getting old and cranky?

 

I love having my windows open when the weather begins to get nice, and in this part of the country, it's a pretty short period of time.

I love hearing the sounds of the birds singing and the frogs croaking in the spring, and the crickets in the fall, and the sounds of children playing, and just the "normal" sounds of summer life in a small town are all so very welcome.

 

But it's becoming increasingly difficult to withstand the inconsiderate and unnecessary racket coming from a number of my neighbors, that continues to drive me up the wall, ALL SEASON LONG!

 

My next door neighbor has a penchant for deciding to mow his lawn late in the evening, (like 8:30 or 9:00) when everybody else in the neighborhood is expecting to be able to wind down and enjoy a little peace and quiet for the night, and this is a normal occurrence several times a week!

My neighbor across the street has a son with a loud diesel Dodge pickup who feels the need to start it up and let it run in the driveway for a minimum of a half an hour, early every morning, and often other hours of the day as well. 😣

There's also another neighbor who lets his dog out early in the morning who then proceeds to sit and bark INCESSANTLY for the entire time.  (sometimes an hour or more) 

Another neighbor has cleared some of the brush out of the wood line directly behind me to create a "track" so that his kids can run their four wheelers back and forth, and back and fourth, and BACK AND FORTH, for hours upon hours, nearly every day, ALL DAY LONG!! ☠️

Is it just me, or have people lost all consideration for the people around them?

 

Anyway.....

Excuse my rant, but the wife and I are considering a move when we fully retire in a few years, and I'm not going to miss ANY of them!!!

When we consider where our next residence will be, the "absence" of annoying neighbors is going to be a HUGE factor!!

 

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by StevenGuthmiller

[imarriedawitch]

Don't get me started about neighbors.

[thatz4u]

Steve, I understand, across my backyard fence they are building 35 new homes, next property 1 block over the other way, is a new 3 story Motel...😬

[1972coronet]

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Well, I have a few neighbor gripes too...like the clowns who don't even start their loud weekend moron music until after 11:00 PM when county code says it has to be quiet, the ones who insist on burning their household trash late at night (also illegal) when I have the windows open and the exhaust fan running in lieu of AC to cool the house (filling the place with the acrid stench of burning plastic), the ones who leave their dogs' poop at my mailbox, and the drive-through local landscaping trucks that use the entire street as a private dump.

I'm leaving as soon as humanly possible.

[StevenGuthmiller]

11 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Well, I have a few neighbor gripes too...like the clowns who don't even start their loud weekend moron music until after 11:00 PM when county code says it has to be quiet, the ones who insist on burning their household trash late at night (also illegal) when I have the windows open and the exhaust fan running in lieu of AC to cool the house (filling the place with the acrid stench of burning plastic), the ones who leave their dogs' poop at my mailbox, and the drive-through local landscaping trucks that use the entire street as a private dump.

I'm leaving as soon as humanly possible.

At least you have some illegalities that you can report to law enforcement to possibly remedy the situations.

The town cops are going to ignore me if I complain about barking dogs or idling pickups in the early morning.

I don’t think I have much recourse aside from direct confrontation which will probably just make things worse.

 

 

Steve

[redscampi]

I absolutely hated my neighbors.  Dogs, rats, junk cars, unkempt trashy yard, police drama, weird people showing up at odd hours, and the worst - since their yard was at a much higher elevation than mine, the dude would lean on his deck rail smoking while staring at whatever we were doing in our back yard. They absolutely destroyed our otherwise mostly tranquil escape from the world.  Thankfully, I retired and we moved to a home where we have 300 acres around us and the folks that own it are more than 1/4 mile away. My current next door neighbors are a flock of sheep. Next year might be cows again. They're pretty cool for the most part.

[NOBLNG]

8 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

.....Or am I just getting old and cranky?

 

 

Steve

You might be getting old and cranky,🤔 but that’s beside the point….neighbours should be respectful. You shouldn’t have to resort to this but a set of these bluetooth beauties might help when it gets real annoying.

 

Edited May 11 by NOBLNG

[StevenGuthmiller]

33 minutes ago, NOBLNG said:

You might be getting old and cranky,🤔 but that’s beside the point….neighbours should be respectful. You shouldn’t have to resort to this but a set of these bluetooth beauties might help when it gets real annoying.

 

That’s probably less likely to get me into trouble than what I was thinking! 😒

 

 

 

Steve

[1972coronet]

28 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

That’s probably less likely to get me into trouble than what I was thinking! 😒

 

 

 

Steve

Taking pictures of some guy who's hunting ? 

[Russell C]

9 hours ago, imarriedawitch said:

Don't get me started about neighbors.

Rearrange some of the details in the descriptions in this thread, and ya have my former apartment neighbors, the couple of lunatic renter neighbors at the house I was the caretaker of after leaving the apartment, and a trio of the property owners next to me at the current place I'm living at. One additional detail not seen in this thread so far is that at the apartment building I used to live in, my upstairs neighbors were the Walkers. That was not their names, that's what they did, several different generations of 'em over the years, either walking around in endless circles (on a flood-damaged floor that creaked) or pacing back & forth like caged animals. 10, 20, 40 minutes at a time or more sometimes, non-stop. One thing that hugely pleases me right now: zip, zero, nada overhead noises any more.

[rattle can man]

Unfortunately, we live in a me-centric world. I don't foresee that changing anytime soon.

[Mike 1017]

Unless they are breaking the law there is not much you can do. It is their property so they can do whatever they want to

Mike

[NOBLNG]

11 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

Taking pictures of some guy who's hunting ? 

Except for one loud crack…it’s all peaceful and quiet out there.

[stavanzer]

20 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

.....Or am I just getting old and cranky?

 

I love having my windows open when the weather begins to get nice, and in this part of the country, it's a pretty short period of time.

I love hearing the sounds of the birds singing and the frogs croaking in the spring, and the crickets in the fall, and the sounds of children playing, and just the "normal" sounds of summer life in a small town are all so very welcome.

 

But it's becoming increasingly difficult to withstand the inconsiderate and unnecessary racket coming from a number of my neighbors, that continues to drive me up the wall, ALL SEASON LONG!

 

My next door neighbor has a penchant for deciding to mow his lawn late in the evening, (like 8:30 or 9:00) when everybody else in the neighborhood is expecting to be able to wind down and enjoy a little peace and quiet for the night, and this is a normal occurrence several times a week!

Have you asked him why he mows his lawn so late? Habit? Only Free time he has? A green lawn fiend? Would he be interested in an Electric Mower?

My neighbor across the street has a son with a loud diesel Dodge pickup who feels the need to start it up and let it run in the driveway for a minimum of a half an hour, early every morning, and often other hours of the day as well. 😣

There's also another neighbor who lets his dog out early in the morning who then proceeds to sit and bark INCESSANTLY for the entire time.  (sometimes an hour or more) 

Have you gotten together with other neighbors approached him as a group about the dog barking all day?  and Have You called the City or County Humane Society or Pound? Have you Filed Noise Complaints with the Local P.D.?

Another neighbor has cleared some of the brush out of the wood line directly behind me to create a "track" so that his kids can run their four wheelers back and forth, and back and fourth, and BACK AND FORTH, for hours upon hours, nearly every day, ALL DAY LONG!! ☠️

Have you called Code Enforcement, about the noise and nuisance?

Is it just me, or have people lost all consideration for the people around them?

Yes, most folks have lost ALL consideration for their neighbors. But, most neighbors don't know each other either. Do you know the names of the folks you have singled out in you gripes. Do THEY know your name? Do they know it only so they can gripe about you?

I get it, I really do.

Lousy neighbors are a modern "Curse of the Suburbs", and since most of us own  not rent, we are justifiably wary of  causing long term troubles that will result in huge consequences & costs. We are a mostly atomized society any more, so it is easy to "Do your own Thing" with a care for the other folks around you. You may have tried all of my suggestions, or know that in your case they are a waste of time. All I can say then is you'll have to either put up with it or move. When I bought my house 14 years ago, my next door neighbor's sons had a Heavy Metal Band. I worked graveyard shifts and slept during the day. It was not a good mix. There never was a good solution to the issue. Eventually, I moved to a day shift job, the oldest Son moved out, and the band started to practice only on the weekends. So it worked out, but took some time and some aggravation to do so.

Good Luck.

 

Anyway.....

Excuse my rant, but the wife and I are considering a move when we fully retire in a few years, and I'm not going to miss ANY of them!!!

When we consider where our next residence will be, the "absence" of annoying neighbors is going to be a HUGE factor!!

 

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

 

[espo]

21 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

.....Or am I just getting old and cranky?

 

I love having my windows open when the weather begins to get nice, and in this part of the country, it's a pretty short period of time.

I love hearing the sounds of the birds singing and the frogs croaking in the spring, and the crickets in the fall, and the sounds of children playing, and just the "normal" sounds of summer life in a small town are all so very welcome.

 

But it's becoming increasingly difficult to withstand the inconsiderate and unnecessary racket coming from a number of my neighbors, that continues to drive me up the wall, ALL SEASON LONG!

 

My next door neighbor has a penchant for deciding to mow his lawn late in the evening, (like 8:30 or 9:00) when everybody else in the neighborhood is expecting to be able to wind down and enjoy a little peace and quiet for the night, and this is a normal occurrence several times a week!

My neighbor across the street has a son with a loud diesel Dodge pickup who feels the need to start it up and let it run in the driveway for a minimum of a half an hour, early every morning, and often other hours of the day as well. 😣

There's also another neighbor who lets his dog out early in the morning who then proceeds to sit and bark INCESSANTLY for the entire time.  (sometimes an hour or more) 

Another neighbor has cleared some of the brush out of the wood line directly behind me to create a "track" so that his kids can run their four wheelers back and forth, and back and fourth, and BACK AND FORTH, for hours upon hours, nearly every day, ALL DAY LONG!! ☠️

Is it just me, or have people lost all consideration for the people around them?

 

Anyway.....

Excuse my rant, but the wife and I are considering a move when we fully retire in a few years, and I'm not going to miss ANY of them!!!

When we consider where our next residence will be, the "absence" of annoying neighbors is going to be a HUGE factor!!

 

 

 

Steve

 

 

 

I have fought this same battle more than once myself. A suggestion for when you sit down with your realtor, maybe offer a price concision if they can find someone with an affiliation with the Hells Angels to buy your home.

[StevenGuthmiller]

2 hours ago, Mike 1017 said:

Unless they are breaking the law there is not much you can do. It is their property so they can do whatever they want to

Mike

Yeah, maybe I just need to pull my '69 Grand Prix out on the driveway at about 1:00 AM a few nights a week and rev the hell out of it for an hour or so.

Maybe then they'd get the drift.........but I doubt it.

 

 

Steve

[JollySipper]

9 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Yeah, maybe I just need to pull my '69 Grand Prix out on the driveway at about 1:00 AM a few nights a week and rev the hell out of it for an hour or so.

Maybe then they'd get the drift.........but I doubt it.

 

 

Steve

Two wrongs don't make a right, Steve man.........  but three lefts can!  

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Have you asked him why he mows his lawn so late? Habit? Only Free time he has? A green lawn fiend? Would he be interested in an Electric Mower?

Because he's an A-hole? 

But seriously, yes, he is a lawn freak, but I suppose that would be expected as he owns a lawn care business in the twin cities, but he's the boss, so any work he's doing is from home.

He has free time up the wazoo and spends a good portion of his afternoons on the golf course.

I see him milling around doing all sorts of things during the day when he's not golfing.......except mowing his lawn!

An electric mower?

That's hilarious!!

He has a lot half the size of ours, so probably a half acre or less, and he has a push mower, 2 lawn tractors, and a zero turn mower.

If it doesn't run on gasoline, this guy doesn't own it!

Including his snow mobiles, side by side ATV, and even his mosquito sprayer, which he also likes to drag out a couple of times a year......at dusk!!

 

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Have you gotten together with other neighbors approached him as a group about the dog barking all day?  and Have You called the City or County Humane Society or Pound? Have you Filed Noise Complaints with the Local P.D.?

This is the conundrum.

Minnesota nice rules the day, so I'm not sure what the other neighbors think of the barking dog.

In that same vane, who wants to be the one who calls the cops?

The noise is aggravating, but is it to the point of creating bad relationships in the neighborhood?

Probably not.

I suppose you could say that I value quiet less than a war with a neighbor that I barely even know.

 

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Have you called Code Enforcement, about the noise and nuisance?

This is the one that I'm probably going to act on at some point.

I don't know for certain what the codes are for operating off road vehicles within city limits, but my guess is that this will likely go nowhere as well as this is a small farming community where they bend over backwards for anything that you may be able to argue has a remote farming purpose, and a place where teenagers freely run their parents golf carts, dirt bikes and ATVs all over town on the city streets all summer long without anyone batting an eyelash.

 

1 hour ago, stavanzer said:

Do you know the names of the folks you have singled out in you gripes. Do THEY know your name? Do they know it only so they can gripe about you?

  I know some of them, and others not at all.

The ones that I do know, I barely know.

 

The only one I know fairly well is my neighbor directly across the street, Steve, who is also a lawn fanatic, but a conscientious one.

Never had anything at all to complain about with him. 

 

Some may know my name, and I'm positive some don't, such as the people behind me with the ATVs.

We can't even see each others houses through the woods.

 

In all honesty, I can't imagine why they would have anything to "gripe" about me.

I don't have a dog, or ATVs.

I mow my lawn once a week on average during the day like a normal person.

I don't leave loud vehicles running to "warm them up" for a half hour when it's 80 degrees outside.

I don't have parties or play loud music.

We're quiet people who keep to ourselves and have enough sense to realize that what we do can affect those around us.

We moved eight years ago to the very edge of what we had assumed would be a quiet, sleepy little town, and for the most part, it's been okay.

But as time goes by it's beginning to become apparent that it's not as sleepy or quiet as we had hoped.

I think it was just the luck of the draw that we seem to have situated ourselves between several narcissists, who don't really give a rats behind what people around them think.

 

As I sit here typing this, the roaring ATVs in the tree line have again commenced!

 

 

 

 

Steve

 

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, espo said:

I have fought this same battle more than once myself. A suggestion for when you sit down with your realtor, maybe offer a price concision if they can find someone with an affiliation with the Hells Angels to buy your home.

Now there's an idea.

I nice little meth lab might be appropriate payback!

 

 

Steve

[stitchdup]

19 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

Now there's an idea.

I nice little meth lab might be appropriate payback!

 

 

Steve

a more subtle and legal way would be to get one of those grow your own mush room kits and put it in the ac vent. If you accidentaly forget they are there they eventually start to rot and that smell is tough to get rid off. it gets in their clothes, hair and carpets and eventually its like rotting corpses (bonus points if you use the actual rotting corpse variety but you probably dont want to go near those,lol)

[1972coronet]

I used to hang around a biker who lived in an old apartment. He woke up at 0300 to go to work ; he was out like a light every weeknight by 2100 at the latest. 

Across the way - apartment block across the driveway - there were some noisy folks who'd make noise until the wee hours. There are enforceable noise ordinances here : no loud noises between 2200 - 0600. 

That did nothing to quiet those morons across the way. 

My buddy used to coast his H-D down the driveway and start it there out of respect for neighbours. 

Well, he got so tired of the neighbours' yucking it up so late that he did something about it... he backed his Hog up to the front door of their apartment at 0300 one morning, and kicked it off. You could hear that roar on Pluto ! 

Things got quiet after that. The other neighbours were made aware of his plan, so there were no complaints (haha). 

And, believe me, Hank was not someone you'd want to have any problems with ! 6'5" and arms as big as cannons.

But, a true friend and otherwise quite pleasant.

[redscampi]

1 hour ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I think it was just the luck of the draw that we seem to have situated ourselves between several narcissists, who don't really give a rats behind what people around them think.

Unfortunately, I think it's much more of a cultural issue. Generations of people have now been taught from a young age that they can do whatever they want. We live in a very selfish society. Social media is full of spoiled people acting out. Without going into specifics it is directly attributable to people's upbringing. So, I expect what you have to deal with is more the norm, and the exception is having great neighbors all around you.

[stavanzer]

 I hear you , Steve. Just my thoughts on the subject. There may not be much you can do.

I really feel for you.

Here is a photo of the Official Kern County Dog!

The Meth Lab!

[thatz4u]

where i lived before the neighbors played loud music every Sunday afternoon, so I put my huge stereo speaker in my window & played Mozart for 2 hrs. result was quiet Sundays thereafter..