Despite the rancor

[elfs]

I gardened a lot today, finishing up the whole of the back yard, which involved a lot of mowing and just as much weed whacking. It was, on the whole, an excellent 4th of July. I've cooked every meal, cleaned up my messes, took care of my family and my household and in general, as they say in CoveySpeak, "connected with the mission" of being a devoted father and husband, a serious caretaker of my patch of land, and (hopefully) a generous and thoughtful friend and lover besides.

At least, that's what the plan says I'm supposed to become. Eventually.

Omaha spent most of the day tuning her bicycle. By evening, we went out to the Fireworks show down in Des Moines, which we appreciate because it's homey and you have a great view of both the Tacoma and Vashon Inlet shows, which are both huge and wonderful. Kouryou-chan loved every second of it. We invited j5nn5r and shastaw along (along with her two delightful kids) and a good time was had by all.

Trying to get home was a chore. Our delightful new neighbors had decided to block off our driveway so that they could shoot fireworks. I shouldn't have to ask permission to get to my own freakin' driveway. Grr.... It was too bad they were near the end of their stash, too, because it's a $1000 fine (or 30 days in jail) if they get caught.

Comments

Seattle Fireworks

[(Anonymous)]

My wife and I watched the Ivars and Lake Union fireworks from the top of the parking garage across from McCaw Hall. (Drove past your workplace on the way there, had that "Ah HA! So that's where Elf works." moment.) There were two Seattle Police officers up there with the small crowd that had gathered, probably just over a dozen people total.

Upon arriving, their announcement to everyone was "Light 'em if you got 'em!" I had suspected -- though I didn't know the actual penalties -- that fireworks weren't legal in Seattle. From these two, at least, there was a more indulgent view.

All around us were the whistles, pops and fizzles of personal fireworks... which were quite impotent in comparison to the concussions coming from Lake Union.

Sounds like the neighbors are going to be who they are... take out your camera, take pictures. Keep track of things so if/when it does go south, you have some documentation.

But you knew that.

Best of luck, don't let them get to you!

Bryan.

[(Anonymous)]

I shouldn't have to ask permission to get to my own freakin' driveway. Grr.... It was too bad they were near the end of their stash, too, because it's a $1000 fine (or 30 days in jail) if they get caught.

This part of your post saddens me, for it suggests that your neighbors are, in fact, distracting you from "connecting with your mission".

I must ask.. have you attempted to fight their fire with love? Perhaps "apologizing" for having offended them in any way, accompanied with a nice bottle of wine and an invitation for dinner could break the ice and provide both your family, and their family with something good to walk away with, and a new sense of community and respect.

-Dallas
ugly@imaspy.com

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

Elf probably has a better idea than any of us of what he has to deal with, but it makes me feel rather lucky about the neighbours we have. Even if the hassle of moving can be a distraction from being a good neighbour, short term, there's something ominous here.

[omahas.livejournal.com]

I must ask.. have you attempted to fight their fire with love? Perhaps "apologizing" for having offended them in any way, accompanied with a nice bottle of wine and an invitation for dinner could break the ice and provide both your family, and their family with something good to walk away with, and a new sense of community and respect.

The problem is that these people had apparently moved into our area with an assumption of how to deal with your neighbors. The assumption, at least from the woman's point of view, is that when things go wrong, you don't try to communicate with your neighbor civilly. You yell at them.

Yesterday when Kouryou-chan and another neighbor kid had (apparently) been taking little clumps of pine and dropping them on the road right next to their lawn to dam up a stream of water, there were two ways the neighbor woman could have handled this.

She could have done what I and everyone else in the neighborhood would have done. If I had asked the kids to stop and they hadn't (which is what her boyfriend claimed...I don't believe it for a moment; Kouryou-chan doesn't ignore requests like that), I would have gone over to the neighbors house and engaged them in a calm conversation regarding the issue and asked them for help regarding getting their kids to stop the behavior...letting them know the importance of why I wanted it stopped.

Or she could have done what she did...which was come over here and yell at Elf.

She has assumed that this is the only way to deal with her neighbors, and frankly I don't know if there is any way to break her of that habit. It's a habit that is based on years of experience. And it's hard to break an "old" dog of it's habits.

Re: Seattle Fireworks

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Upon arriving, their announcement to everyone was "Light 'em if you got 'em!" I had suspected -- though I didn't know the actual penalties -- that fireworks weren't legal in Seattle.

Actually, we don't live in Seattle. We live in Burien, a little south of Seattle. It's interesting that around the entire Puget Sound area there's a large variation in which city makes fireworks legal, somewhat legal, and totally bans them. In Burien they are banned, while in Normandy Park, just a five minute walk away from us, and Des Moines, one mile south of us, they are totally legal.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

[The neighbors assume] when things go wrong, you don't try to communicate with your neighbor civilly. You yell at them.

More to the point, they establish a record of complaint. It doesn't matter that they're new to the neighborhood; this is how they've always dealt with neighbors in the past and they've never really had "good" (i.e. passive and servile) neighbors. So the way to gain the upper ground is to start off with a history of complaint against the neighbors; that way, when the neigbors lodge a formal complaint, it'll look like retribution.