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The Little Dog That Wouldn't Let Go

Viewing comments for Chapter 46 "Crazy Neighbours and more."
Subtitle: God Never Lets Go!

26 total reviews 
Comment from Sally Law
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I apologize that I am so late in reviewing this as I marked it for when I had more "eye" time. I can appreciate this and I remember a landmark case when I worked for an attorney's office that was similar to yours. The two neighbors were sparring over a sea wall made of stone, encroaching upon one of the neighbor's property line. The neighbors argued over the ancient boundary for years until it was finally resolved. I'm glad to see yours was resolved, and that you have a nice fence; your difficult neighbor helping to pay for it.

My best wishes to you in the contest, too. It should be a lot of good fun.

Sending you my best today as always,
Sally xo

 Comment Written 08-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 08-Jul-2019
    Hi Sally I think the old Creepy Neighbours poem was in a contest ages ago. Thanks anyway for the great review. Need to get to your stuff soon.
Comment from Miles Connolly
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Just some grammar edits if you want em ;)

Background
...as another scripture says in Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Ch 16c Word

We have been most thankful for the "back door" neighbours who assist us with our lawn care and with house cleaning. We have known them now for close to 15 years. They seem to be the only ones not keen to move away from us.

A couple of the neighbours have dogs. On one side there is a Rottweiller and Chihuahua. At the back, is a Labrador (Meg) and a Ridgeback (Tommy.) Silly me had offered to take them for walks. I found out next door's daughter's boyfriend broke a leg, trying to take "Bear" the very placid, but still very strong Rottie for a walk one day. I was also informed I would suffer a similar fate if I tried to take Meg the fully grown Labrador for a walk. I have given up both of those plans. As an edit to this chapter, sadly "Bear" has gone to the neighbour's friend's home, ostensibly for security. However, if the thieves and robbers knew it "Bear" has to be the most placid Rottweiller I have ever known.

One very hot night, pre-air conditioning of our bedroom, we had our blinds and window open for any cool air that might happen to make itself known. About 1 am my wife turned over, to get more comfortable. As she did she saw a big fire burning in a "Skip*" bin across from us. It seems some scraps that were in the bin resulting from a renovation by the neighbour, was set alight by some kind of "incendiary" device. Flames were shooting meters into the air, from the bin.

We had our suspicions where the "device" came from, as well. We called the fire brigade and they came within about 10 minutes, and soon had the fire extinguished. They knocked on the front door but no one answered. I figured the neighbours might either have taken sleeping pills or had a good night out drinking the previous night.

We later learned the couple were sound asleep in their front bedroom, just behind the skip and the fire. They had no idea what had happened till they saw the burned out skip contents next morning.

We have been robbed a few times. One of those stories is in a later Chapter. The other time was when a "whipper-snipper*" was stolen from the old back shed which I admit was left unlocked by me! Another smaller infraction was when a whole bunch of neighbours including us, had their hose portions cut off.

We wondered if someone needed them for "bonging" as we were pretty sure at one time, down in the bottom streets in front of us, a regular drug cartel or some such was thriving. We used to see cars coming and going at the same time every week, in and out of the street opposite, which led to more streets further down with only very short spaces of time between the entry and exit.

I have always been inclined to be friendly with the neighbours. The current neighbours came a bit over twelve years ago and the kids were really friendly, initially. I took a shine to all the children ranging in age from (then) about 4 years to the eldest about 12.

The lady happened to confide in me sometime later the neighbour in their previous home had (she claimed) molested one of the boys. I guess you know that was the end of it for me. From that moment on I have kept my distance from her children. We know from the neighbour on our other side that this lady has been in the habit of "colourizing" the truth somewhat.

On a number of matters, she has been seen as an outright liar. The second youngest boy, now 17 I think, was the one when they came who was particularly keen to be friends. It pains me that he has had no idea after all this time why I have kept my distance. Goodness knows what tale his mother has told him about me.

We knew there were problems in the household as one night one of the girls took off down the road, to neighbours in the street in front of us, in her nightwear, to get some sort of assistance. This same girl, at nine years of age, was climbing out of the second level window and crawling across a pipe from the house to the garage in her panties one day in broad daylight.

I reported it to her mother but I am not sure what was done about that. Another reason I know things were not ok next door is the speed with which the eldest son and the 2 girls have moved out either to live with their father or flat together or with friends somewhere. I very rarely, if ever, see them coming to visit their mother.

Thanks to a very new friend in FS I now include the following:(This intro will be deleted in final editing.)

The previous owner of the Creepy Neighbours' house had a white metal see-through fence put around her property to keep her dog in. After the Creepy Neighbours moved in a car ran up on the street opposite in our T-intersection and messed up the fence as well as knocking over the steel light post in front. The "Creepies" wanted me to pay half the cost of replacing the fence. I refused as the lady who wanted to put it up excluded us from contributing seeing it was only to keep her dog in. We did not feel obligated to contribute on that basis.

We do have 3 large Pine trees dividing our properties that were there when we bought the house (a lot smaller then of course)...sadly some of them are dying and we have had several tree removers offering to come and take the dying one/s down.

On a more positive note with these particular neighbours. After all the troubles we have had with them over the years as outlined above. A really good thing happened over replacement of the old brick fence dividing our properties. We believe the old brick fence most likely preceded both our house and the 2-story one of these "Creepy Neighbours" you will read about in my enclosed poem. On another occasion, we found some old fibro pieces in our yard that may have belonged to a previous old house, where the 2-storey one now stands.

We are certain the old brick fence was probably there in the old house's time.Our House is the beginning of a newer estate, where the house we live in was the last of a group of homes all built by the same company in 1982.


Our former pastor visited one day and made the observation that despite a marked lean in the old brick fence, he claimed it might still stand for years.
Some two or three years later we heard this enormous bump. Our house shook from it. Lo and behold one old brick fence decided it had been sitting around on its ever-so-slight angle for long enough. Down it Came!

The "Creepy Neighbours" of our poem became much more amenable over replacement of the old fence. We came to an agreement a Skip Bin would be obtained by me. The neighbours volunteered to come over and carefully pick up all the old bricks, and load them, very symmetrically, I might add, into the skip bin to make the best use of the limited space it afforded.

We agreed on the fence provider and installer's quote and now we have a complete "Colorbond" fence surrounding our property. It took a kind of "spiritual suggestion" to get the creepies to finally pay their half of the fence cost, but they did, in the end.





Recognized


*Skip Bins are iron bins of various sizes, carried on the back of trucks and lifted off to be filled at the homes, later to be picked up and taken away. *Whipper snipper is a slang expression for a lawn edging apparatus. Some are petrol or gasoline operated, some electric.
The picture Index: Top Left-Old Brick fence on the right of the picture.
Top Right and Second left Fallen Fence after some weeks with overgrowth of grass.
Second Right: Bricks removed. Left same tidied up. See the new fence in the Poem Link Below.
Here is a Poem I wrote here on Fanstory about the Creepy Neighbours, including the photo of the brand new Fence mentioned in this chapter.
Creepy Neighbours Poem

 Comment Written 06-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 06-Jul-2019
    Thanks very much I think some of these have been pointed out before I have to get onto them, Appreciate your review. Not sure we have met before will check out your stuff thanks again.
Comment from Dolly'sPoems
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You are one of those good neighbours who are good to have around and you would be rare as many people are uncaring these days about their neighbours, that fire could have killed your neighbours had it not been noticed by you. This is an insight into your world and I enjoyed it, love Dolly x

 Comment Written 05-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 05-Jul-2019
    Thanks, Dolly. I think Karyn and Wayne remembered what we did that night. She is a lot more neighbourly these days. Has offered help with emergency shopping even did get something for us one time seeing we don't drive no more.
Comment from ExperiencingLiphe
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I guess I grew up around good neighbors. My parents trusted them to kind of watch the house, and us from a distance, when we were home alone. They have lived there forever. Their next door neighbor died and the person on the corner bought her house. He owns like a quarter of the block now. If anything, our neighbors give us good stories.

 Comment Written 04-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 05-Jul-2019
    Thanks for the great review. I am pleased you have good neighbours. Surprisingly neighbourliness has improved more recently. People have seen us walking to and from the local shops and know we don't drive anymore. Have had offers of help which would never have happened for years.
Comment from Gail Denham
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It's fun to have some old parts of the yard or house - kind of gives you feeling for who might have lived there. In the fall, we often go to a neighboring state and explore ghost towns - where people lived who hunted gold or who worked a log mill till it closed. Kind of interesting.
I can understand your reluctance to be around folks who spread the gossip like that.
Interesting chapter.

 Comment Written 04-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 05-Jul-2019
    Yeah thanks for coming along. I was pleased to hear the other neighbour had same suspicions the crazy one tended to embellish the truth some. Just sorry they were like that as it would have been lovely to be friends with their kids. Being childless ourselves who knows how much benefit we could have been to the kids.
Comment from judiverse
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Interesting anecdote about the dogs. They have their own very distinct personalities. Funny that the one who was supposed to be the watch dog was actually very placid. Interesting story about the fire and the thefts. Unfortunately, with some women you can't tell whether they're telling the truth or not. The story of replacing the brick fence could be developed as a separate story. It shows how you were working for something that would benefit the neighborhood. Engaging story. judi

 Comment Written 04-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 04-Jul-2019
    Thanks, Judi about the idea of separate story on Fence replacement. Will look into that. See same people winning the contests again in here. Notice? I really wanted to be friends with Sean I think it was he is probably 20 something now but when she said what she did (truth or lie) I knew I had to steer clear. The younger brother was weird too so wondering if he was the abused one.
Comment from lyenochka
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Oh my ! What a trial to have that set of neighbors. But it's good that you have nice ones like the ones in the back. It sounds like you are being good neighbors and a great witness there. Bless you. I liked your poem, too and the nice fence picture!

 Comment Written 03-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 03-Jul-2019
    Thanks need to get to your stuff. Glad to see more around than I was expecting.
Comment from Ulla
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Hi to both of you. This a story and a half about some somewhat troubling neighbours. My goodness, that woman coming up with all those wild tales about her children. No wonder you withdrew. I'm glad the neighbour finally paid their share of the fence. I loved the poem. It's very well written. Warm regards. Ulla:)))

 Comment Written 03-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 03-Jul-2019
    Thanks Ulla, appreciating your lovely review again.
Comment from Joan E.
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I appreciated your glossary and photographs' descriptions. Thanks for sharing the antics in your neighborhood--makes me feel more grateful about mine, where I have lived for 20 years and know very few of my neighbors--mostly condos with adults and no dogs! Smiles- Joan

 Comment Written 02-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 02-Jul-2019
    Yeah much appreciate the review. Recently watched a Youtube on Light Rail (trams) in Poland. Could not believe the number of blocks of apartments or Units and NO basic housing around. Some very large houses must have been big families or the birth control did not work hehe.
reply by Joan E. on 02-Jul-2019
    I understand that in the Czech Republic very few people drive because the rail system is so efficient. Smiles- Joan
Comment from Ben Colder
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Wow! You have an interesting neighborhood. My daughter has two Rocky, and they do their job taking care of the place. Neighbors can be frustrating especially, when children are evolved.Thanks for sharing.

 Comment Written 02-Jul-2019


reply by the author on 02-Jul-2019
    Thanks Bro appreciate your lovely review. Rocky as in Rottweillers?
reply by Ben Colder on 02-Jul-2019
    Yes