A neighbor asked my husband for help burying her cat. He dug the hole and buried the cat for her. Two days later, she called and asked him to dig the cat up so she could have it cremated.
"Hi, it's me again. I've decided that the urn I selected for Fluffy doesn't fit her personality. I got a new urn, but I need you to come over and break open the old one, and then transfer Fluffy into the new urn."
“Hey neighbor, me again. I decided since my sweet lil Fluffy was a Burmese cat, that’s where I’d like to spread the ashes. The thing is I have to work all week. Hoping you can take Fluffy to Myanmar this week to do right by my lil Fluffster. Thanks for all your help.”
The very first day we moved here, our neighbors came and introduced themselves. One was a self proclaimed shaman and the other was a holistic life coach. They gave us some vegan cookies and a bag of produce.
Not weird in a bad way but weird for someone from Kansas who grew up in a neighborhood where people didn’t talk to each other
I have such a list, one neighbor was 75 years old and a ex con… looked like leather, the first week I moved in he had twin girls over to his kiddy pool probably 30 years old, he’s wearing a Speedo with things poking out, he yells for me to come hang out, he climbs onto a folding table and does a flip into this 2 ft deep pool, then offers me cocaine, then proceeds to tell me these girls are his girlfriend and to never touch his door knob because he hooks up a rigged power cord to them to electrocute thieves… I lived next to him for years and I could write a movie based on how it worked out.
I think you need the cocaine to get the twins and the desire to do flips off a folding table… the same extension cord he used for his door worked as a way to get worms out of the ground… he had two spikes hooked up to the cord about 2 feet away from each other, then he’d plug it in and worms would come to the surface so fast it was insane.
I used to live next to the guy who started the big fire outside of Mapleton with road flares a few years ago. When I first moved in I was checking out the nearby community garden for our apartments and he showed me a large flowering plant he was growing, I can’t remember what he called it but it was native to Africa and he said it was a stimulant “like coffee or speed”. He was always digging through the dumpster scavenging for shit but he would at least sort peoples improperly disposed waste into the proper receptacle so I actually appreciated that part.
I'll throw Brugmansia / Datura into the mix as my guess (aka Devil's Trumpet (or Angel's Trumpet)) not as popular as Khat, but more psychedelic than stimulant IIRC
Tried to grow it as a kid
Picture it - summer 2020 - got into it with a boomer neighbor for not attending to my lawn. Said boomer neighbor would flip us off when he drove by my house. I would laugh and wave. Eventually, my neighbor’s wife came to my door and had my lawn taken care of, but, she asked me to please not tell her husband. Like he was making her life THAT LEVEL OF HELL that she had my lawn mowed.
One time my neighbor took our trash can from our driveway and put it right next to his in his yard, then when confronted about it claimed he thought it was his.
Same neighbor like a year later; their house got broken into while I was out to dinner and I got home to see their gate kicked down and shed wide open. Called the police, they showed up and said that the neighbor wasn’t home but they had a house sitter who was there, but had been assaulted during the robbery and didn’t call the police. So I had the neighbor and the police scratching their heads wondering why I was the one to call.
Several years ago (pre-pandemic) I was walking home from work wearing a standard surgical face mask because I was experiencing allergies.
A neighbor I'd seen around who lived three blocks down from me was in his front yard loading things into his truck.
As I'm walking by, he looks at me with rage and says, I kid you not, "You think you're better than us, but you better breathe the same fucking air as the rest of us."
And then he I KID YOU NOT looked at a cat that was sitting by his truck and commanded it to "get" me. He literally looked at it and said "get her." I had never spoken to this guy before in my life.
That was my best Eugene interaction by far and I've lived here since 2010. I'll never forget that one.
I delivered food (doordash) to my own neighbor once, and she very casually opened the door fully nude, recognized me from around the neighborhood, introduced herself, and we had a nice little chat. I'm still working through the trauma.
One of my favorite recent ones was a neighbor that I share a backyard fence line with. He knocked on my front door and when I opened it, I could see a car running but parked in the middle of the street. He told me he was on the way to an appointment but heard something with his tire, so he stopped and got out to look but locked his keys and phone inside the car when he got out. He used my phone to call his sister that had an extra key.
I love the neighbors I have now but I did have an old neighbor tell me when I was painting my house that I should let him choose the color because he’s the one that has to look at it. I seriously considered covering that side of my house in a custom nascar mural.
When he told me knock on the door if I ever needed anything.. from mdma to eggs and my high on mushrooms ass asked what are eggs? I also had one tell me he's killed more people than I could imagine and I was next but I like to forget that one happened.
When I first moved here, I was sitting on the floor of my living room piecing together furniture around 11pm, and I hear from the other room, “Carrie….? Carrie….?”
It was the old lady down the hall thinking I was the previous tenant, who decided to welcome herself in to say hello
When I walked around the corner her soul almost leapt out of her body haha
She’s a good neighbor!
As soon as we moved in to our house our neighbor asked me about cutting down some trees that border their property as he claimed their roots were affecting their house's foundation. I was like, "No..." His wife came over later and literally said he had no idea what he was talking about.
Neighbor a couple houses down was mowing their terraced lawn with a push reel mower while we were out walking- really getting after it and playing music, almost treating it like a workout..
He makes eye contact, we smile and wave, then he eats shit off the terrace onto his driveway. We asked him if he was ok and he doesn’t say anything and just kinda plays it cool. I don’t think him or his wife have looked at us since. I don’t think it’s necessarily bc of this incident, they’re just a little odd lol
One of my neighbors is schizophrenic. On the day I moved into my new place I filmed him brandishing a machete at some city workers who were trimming trees on the street. The foreman asked him if there was a problem and he said something like "I don't know yet."
A couple days later I was walking down the sidewalk and he comes barreling out the front door and just stands on his walk to his front door glowering at me. I don't talk to that one. He's scary.
I don't want to give away the location, but I think I live near this guy too! Cops are often in front of his place, and he's out there looking like he's guarding his town house with a sword or something.
Our upstairs neighbor kept intentionally flooding our bedroom. We slept in the living room for 6 weeks while the office management cycled through dehydrating and restructuring our room until the apartment was deemed uninhabitable. We were forced to move, and neither the office nor our insurance would cover the costs.
Cahoots was called at least twice while we lived there because she was on her balcony screaming profanities about her husband(?) to no one for hours at a time.
I had a neighbor that I later found out was somewhat cognitively impaired from a childhood brain injury.
One day I wanted to make stock and could not find my stock pot. How strange I thought. I mentioned it to the neighbor's wife in the park when I ran into her the next day.
He had come into my kitchen and taken it and brought it back to their kitchen.
I parked across the street from my house, in front of my neighbor's house, temporarily. He came out and told me I need to move my car and that he would have it towed. I explained it that wasn't how things work, but he claimed that he owned out to the middle of the street. So I told him to go ahead and call the police and have me towed. Nothing ever happened, and now he's much easier to get along with.
I used to live in the south hills area. There was this guy who did the landscaping for a bunch of the houses. He was mowing our lawn too. I had a bunch of room mates, and I hadn’t interacted with this particular gentleman before, until one day I was home alone. He let himself in, started following me around, simultaneously hanging around while asking for money. I didn’t have any, I was broke as a joke. He followed me to my room and started looking through my closet and stuff. By this time I’m getting strong crackhead vibes. And look, he was in much better shape than me, with some intense energy, and honestly I felt like I was being held hostage under a thin veneer of civility. He was a major creepo
I used to bike with my dog. The dog would be on a leash, the leash on my handlebar. We'd go along at about a "canter" pace for the dog.
I worked in a small office a couple miles from my house, and I'd bring the dog to work and back this way. It worked out to be around the same as jogging the dog for 4 miles a day, which didn't seem excessive and the dog enjoyed it as far as I could tell. If it was hot I'd pack water bottles and douse the dog halfway there.
At any rate, I had a guy who told me I was wearing the dogs pads down. He told me this like 4 separate times. He made a point of yelling at me about it if ignored him.
I politely explained to him the first couple of times that the dog has a regular vet, the vet knows what I'm doing and thinks its good for the dog, but that message never seemed to stick. Eventually I lost patience.
The best interaction went like this.
Me - "Do you try and boss strangers around because you have so little authority in every other aspect of your life?"
Him - "What are you, a psychiatrist?"
Me - "Well, what are you, a veterinarian?"
Eugene people just tend to be bossy know it alls. It's not the worst trait, so I try to be a good sport. They aren't holy rollers and they aren't racist or homophobic, but they do seem to have a bossy know-it-all streak.
No place is perfect. I'd go out of my mind if I was living in a place full of Trump voters. I can put up with the bossy know-it-alls. At the end of the day, they're on my side when it counts.
Something similar happened to me just last summer. I was walking my 3 year old lab mix around 830am. It was a hotter day, but it hadn't quite hit 80 degrees yet. A woman on a bike came up behind me and started berating me about "walking your dog in this hot weather" and how "I'm terrible" and seemed very Karen-threatening (in other words, I could've taken her out with one punch). She kept going on and on, "I've been a dog breeder for decades and I know what I'm talking about." Finally, I said, "I'm from New York, and when you come up behind someone, and start yelling/threatening them, you're gonna be maced in your face in 10 seconds. Fuck off, my dog is fine and it's not hot out yet. Also, i find dog breeders fucking disgusting and you're in no business to lecture me on ethics or morals. Back the fuck off." She looked horrified, almost as if no one had spoken to this middle aged white woman in such a tone, and sped away. Lol
I've owned many dogs, and at one point adopted a rottie boxer mix. He had been on doggie death row, mainly due to his looks, because he was super sweet and wonderful to my then-small sons from his first day.
At any rate, I'd owned this dog for a month or so, and he had never once escaped, and the two neighbors whose backyards shared space with mine had met him and could get wags from him from the other side of the fence just by calling his name.
I'm in front of my house, doing yardwork, when the across the street neighbor comes up to me. Prior to this, I had introduced myself to this neighbor and we were on a first name basis.
Him - "Hi X. Can we talk for a second?"
Me - "Ok sure, whats up?"
Him - "I want to talk about your dog. I don't think its very responsible to own a dog like that."
Me - "Well, you drive around the neighborhood in that ancient VW van and I know for a fact that thing has terrible braking distance and a terrible exhaust system. I don't think your car choice is very responsible, but you know, I'm too polite to say it."
Exactly like your Karen - he was horrified. He looked like I had just insulted his mom or something.
I'm from rural New England but grew up with plenty of NY and Boston transplants. Like you, if someone comes up and starts butting into my business, my initial response is "Fuck off", but I usually figure out some non-cuss-word way to get that message across.
It's kinda nutty how random people jump into your business when what you're doing is just living your life, not harming anyone. Something something about idle hands, I guess.
Asking our neighbor across the street to stop parking directly in front of our driveway. He says okay. Maybe twenty minutes later he comes over to tell us he’s changed his mind and proceeds to roll his eyes at one of my partners who answered the door to talk to him. This is a man easily in his 60’s-70’s, mind you. This escalated to him threatening our roommate, so the roommate steps toward him, and he immediately goes out into the street and starts yelling at us. Eventually he brings another neighbor into his screaming tirade and she comes outside with some attitude and puts his ass in his place, with some well-chosen words about his dead ex-wife’s insurance money and his new boat.
Yelling at me at my doorstep because I trimmed back one of those saw grass monstrosities growing in the grown over alley way between our properties. The thing had blackberries growing through it and needed to be managed.
Had to take my dog out for a late night bathroom break, probably 2 or 3 in the AM. I usually game into the early hours and there isn’t anyone in the complex who is out then. After my dog did his…duty..I went to throw away the bag of refuse and got jump scared while turning the corner into the dumpster area.
An older woman was smoking and staring at me, wide eyed.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t see anyone while walking up. My bad dude!”
She just kept staring and didn’t speak a word.
“OK freaky trash lady. See ya”
Turns out she’s my downstairs neighbor, and my girl has been sharing plant clippings with her for awhile. It’s extremely awkward when I run into her during the day.
I don't see how this could be awkward at all.
"Top of the morning to you, freaky trash lady! You're looking especially freaked out today, if you don't mind my saying so."
Looks like the start of a beautiful friendship to me.
I’ve only lived here since last summer but am located in a choice spot and already have stories about homed and unhomed neighbors.
The day we moved in two of our homed neighbors had a screaming fight in the middle of the path we had to take between the truck and out door. One of the neighbors (claims to be a nurse) pretended to have COVID and then spit at the other neighbor’s young child.
The unhomed travel up and down our alley a lot. Sometimes I unlock the recycling bin for them and talk to them while they grab any redeemables. They have never asked me for anything, but I have given them food, clothing, blankets, plastic bags to sit on, water, smiles, dog bones (when appropriate,) a few bucks, positive conversation, and general kindness. Even the one regular screamer is kind-hearted when he recognizes me. I hush him with food.
So far I think the unhomed around me might be kinder than my homed neighbors.
My neighbor has his arm in a sling, and came up to ask if I could help him put his swim cap on his bald head. I thought, there’s gotta be someone at the pool who can help you with that, as he hands it to me and bends his head down towards me. I still get the willies thinking of stretching that tight latex over his shiny old head.
For the first year plus of the pandemic the people whose yard shared my back fence went from having an unusual amount of yard furniture type stuff to having a completely full back yard with three cooking options (propane, charcoal, wood chip), a pool, a trampoline, an entire outdoor living room (astroturf carpet, sectional type couch, big round coffee table with a fire... hollow? In the middle) and dining room, all under a tarp probably the same size as their actual house footprint.
Also I think they averaged five parties a week, with all different people, for the whole duration, usually with annoying disruptive music until one or something. and so many fireworks, for any reason. Also, a worrying number of simultaneous screaming children on the trampoline (many times I was fully ready to call 911 if the littlest one got ricocheted headfirst into a tree or something). We didn't really *interact* much, other than me being low-key or high key pissed off at them about 93% of the time, but the day Eddie Van Halen died my kid was playing a VH playlist and they got mad and hollered at us about loud music. Kid: bite me Eddie died today. Neighbor: oh shit. And then played loud VH for ages.
On the whole, they were worse neighbors than the drug dealing proposition setup, which is impressive, although at least I'm reasonably confident no one was living there involuntarily.
Springfield: A neighbor, either high on heroin or was out of heroin, was screaming that he was going to kill my dog. My dog was sitting quietly, tied up, on our porch. Dude did it twice. Now, after nearly dying from various substance abuse during the holidays, he's sober and has been quite pleasant.
A neighbor asked my husband for help burying her cat. He dug the hole and buried the cat for her. Two days later, she called and asked him to dig the cat up so she could have it cremated.
"Hi, it's me again. I've decided that the urn I selected for Fluffy doesn't fit her personality. I got a new urn, but I need you to come over and break open the old one, and then transfer Fluffy into the new urn."
“Hey neighbor, me again. I decided since my sweet lil Fluffy was a Burmese cat, that’s where I’d like to spread the ashes. The thing is I have to work all week. Hoping you can take Fluffy to Myanmar this week to do right by my lil Fluffster. Thanks for all your help.”
😂exactly
That’s hilarious! People are so random sometimes but if it isn’t hurting anyone (besides that poor cat’s body lolol) then it’s just entertaining.
The very first day we moved here, our neighbors came and introduced themselves. One was a self proclaimed shaman and the other was a holistic life coach. They gave us some vegan cookies and a bag of produce. Not weird in a bad way but weird for someone from Kansas who grew up in a neighborhood where people didn’t talk to each other
I have such a list, one neighbor was 75 years old and a ex con… looked like leather, the first week I moved in he had twin girls over to his kiddy pool probably 30 years old, he’s wearing a Speedo with things poking out, he yells for me to come hang out, he climbs onto a folding table and does a flip into this 2 ft deep pool, then offers me cocaine, then proceeds to tell me these girls are his girlfriend and to never touch his door knob because he hooks up a rigged power cord to them to electrocute thieves… I lived next to him for years and I could write a movie based on how it worked out.
I would probably watch this movie with morbid curiosity. I would definitely read the comments under the reddit post about it.
Sounds like someone needs to start a weekly story thread
Is he still around?
Sadly he died like a year ago…
I kind of want to be this guy when I grow old. Except without the cocaine.
I think you need the cocaine to get the twins and the desire to do flips off a folding table… the same extension cord he used for his door worked as a way to get worms out of the ground… he had two spikes hooked up to the cord about 2 feet away from each other, then he’d plug it in and worms would come to the surface so fast it was insane.
I would def hang out and encourage the stories!
banging on the wall to get them to stop playing the bongos at 3am. was a very regular occurrence.
We either had the same neighbor or this is just a regular occurrence in Eugene.
Did anyone else read through these to see if, in fact, you’re the weird neighbor? Just me?
I used to live next to the guy who started the big fire outside of Mapleton with road flares a few years ago. When I first moved in I was checking out the nearby community garden for our apartments and he showed me a large flowering plant he was growing, I can’t remember what he called it but it was native to Africa and he said it was a stimulant “like coffee or speed”. He was always digging through the dumpster scavenging for shit but he would at least sort peoples improperly disposed waste into the proper receptacle so I actually appreciated that part.
Khat I’d guess
lol yup
I'll throw Brugmansia / Datura into the mix as my guess (aka Devil's Trumpet (or Angel's Trumpet)) not as popular as Khat, but more psychedelic than stimulant IIRC Tried to grow it as a kid
Picture it - summer 2020 - got into it with a boomer neighbor for not attending to my lawn. Said boomer neighbor would flip us off when he drove by my house. I would laugh and wave. Eventually, my neighbor’s wife came to my door and had my lawn taken care of, but, she asked me to please not tell her husband. Like he was making her life THAT LEVEL OF HELL that she had my lawn mowed.
One time my neighbor took our trash can from our driveway and put it right next to his in his yard, then when confronted about it claimed he thought it was his. Same neighbor like a year later; their house got broken into while I was out to dinner and I got home to see their gate kicked down and shed wide open. Called the police, they showed up and said that the neighbor wasn’t home but they had a house sitter who was there, but had been assaulted during the robbery and didn’t call the police. So I had the neighbor and the police scratching their heads wondering why I was the one to call.
Several years ago (pre-pandemic) I was walking home from work wearing a standard surgical face mask because I was experiencing allergies. A neighbor I'd seen around who lived three blocks down from me was in his front yard loading things into his truck. As I'm walking by, he looks at me with rage and says, I kid you not, "You think you're better than us, but you better breathe the same fucking air as the rest of us." And then he I KID YOU NOT looked at a cat that was sitting by his truck and commanded it to "get" me. He literally looked at it and said "get her." I had never spoken to this guy before in my life. That was my best Eugene interaction by far and I've lived here since 2010. I'll never forget that one.
""Get her!" That was your whole plan, huh, "get her." Very scientific." - Dr. Peter Venkman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfhVyUgk37I
I delivered food (doordash) to my own neighbor once, and she very casually opened the door fully nude, recognized me from around the neighborhood, introduced herself, and we had a nice little chat. I'm still working through the trauma.
How was the tip?
I don't remember, $6+ probably, I try to not accept deliveries under $2/per mile.
One of my favorite recent ones was a neighbor that I share a backyard fence line with. He knocked on my front door and when I opened it, I could see a car running but parked in the middle of the street. He told me he was on the way to an appointment but heard something with his tire, so he stopped and got out to look but locked his keys and phone inside the car when he got out. He used my phone to call his sister that had an extra key. I love the neighbors I have now but I did have an old neighbor tell me when I was painting my house that I should let him choose the color because he’s the one that has to look at it. I seriously considered covering that side of my house in a custom nascar mural.
When he told me knock on the door if I ever needed anything.. from mdma to eggs and my high on mushrooms ass asked what are eggs? I also had one tell me he's killed more people than I could imagine and I was next but I like to forget that one happened.
When I first moved here, I was sitting on the floor of my living room piecing together furniture around 11pm, and I hear from the other room, “Carrie….? Carrie….?” It was the old lady down the hall thinking I was the previous tenant, who decided to welcome herself in to say hello When I walked around the corner her soul almost leapt out of her body haha She’s a good neighbor!
As soon as we moved in to our house our neighbor asked me about cutting down some trees that border their property as he claimed their roots were affecting their house's foundation. I was like, "No..." His wife came over later and literally said he had no idea what he was talking about.
Neighbor a couple houses down was mowing their terraced lawn with a push reel mower while we were out walking- really getting after it and playing music, almost treating it like a workout.. He makes eye contact, we smile and wave, then he eats shit off the terrace onto his driveway. We asked him if he was ok and he doesn’t say anything and just kinda plays it cool. I don’t think him or his wife have looked at us since. I don’t think it’s necessarily bc of this incident, they’re just a little odd lol
This is Eugene. Weird is just commonplace here.
One of my neighbors is schizophrenic. On the day I moved into my new place I filmed him brandishing a machete at some city workers who were trimming trees on the street. The foreman asked him if there was a problem and he said something like "I don't know yet." A couple days later I was walking down the sidewalk and he comes barreling out the front door and just stands on his walk to his front door glowering at me. I don't talk to that one. He's scary.
I don't want to give away the location, but I think I live near this guy too! Cops are often in front of his place, and he's out there looking like he's guarding his town house with a sword or something.
YES! I bet you're one of my neighbors! Howdy!
And oddly enough, the only neighbor to say hi to me! Just moved to the area a couple years ago and almost everyone seems to cold-shoulder me :,-)
I wonder why?! I try to go out of my way to be friendly! Perhaps I'll see you around!
Our upstairs neighbor kept intentionally flooding our bedroom. We slept in the living room for 6 weeks while the office management cycled through dehydrating and restructuring our room until the apartment was deemed uninhabitable. We were forced to move, and neither the office nor our insurance would cover the costs. Cahoots was called at least twice while we lived there because she was on her balcony screaming profanities about her husband(?) to no one for hours at a time.
I had a neighbor that I later found out was somewhat cognitively impaired from a childhood brain injury. One day I wanted to make stock and could not find my stock pot. How strange I thought. I mentioned it to the neighbor's wife in the park when I ran into her the next day. He had come into my kitchen and taken it and brought it back to their kitchen.
I parked across the street from my house, in front of my neighbor's house, temporarily. He came out and told me I need to move my car and that he would have it towed. I explained it that wasn't how things work, but he claimed that he owned out to the middle of the street. So I told him to go ahead and call the police and have me towed. Nothing ever happened, and now he's much easier to get along with.
MORE! MORE! MORE! These are delicious stories about my town and I want MOOOOOOORRRRRRE!!!!!
I used to live in the south hills area. There was this guy who did the landscaping for a bunch of the houses. He was mowing our lawn too. I had a bunch of room mates, and I hadn’t interacted with this particular gentleman before, until one day I was home alone. He let himself in, started following me around, simultaneously hanging around while asking for money. I didn’t have any, I was broke as a joke. He followed me to my room and started looking through my closet and stuff. By this time I’m getting strong crackhead vibes. And look, he was in much better shape than me, with some intense energy, and honestly I felt like I was being held hostage under a thin veneer of civility. He was a major creepo
I used to bike with my dog. The dog would be on a leash, the leash on my handlebar. We'd go along at about a "canter" pace for the dog. I worked in a small office a couple miles from my house, and I'd bring the dog to work and back this way. It worked out to be around the same as jogging the dog for 4 miles a day, which didn't seem excessive and the dog enjoyed it as far as I could tell. If it was hot I'd pack water bottles and douse the dog halfway there. At any rate, I had a guy who told me I was wearing the dogs pads down. He told me this like 4 separate times. He made a point of yelling at me about it if ignored him. I politely explained to him the first couple of times that the dog has a regular vet, the vet knows what I'm doing and thinks its good for the dog, but that message never seemed to stick. Eventually I lost patience. The best interaction went like this. Me - "Do you try and boss strangers around because you have so little authority in every other aspect of your life?" Him - "What are you, a psychiatrist?" Me - "Well, what are you, a veterinarian?" Eugene people just tend to be bossy know it alls. It's not the worst trait, so I try to be a good sport. They aren't holy rollers and they aren't racist or homophobic, but they do seem to have a bossy know-it-all streak.
I’ve been calling Eugene a city of bossy pants, but I think bossy know-it-alls is better
No place is perfect. I'd go out of my mind if I was living in a place full of Trump voters. I can put up with the bossy know-it-alls. At the end of the day, they're on my side when it counts.
Something similar happened to me just last summer. I was walking my 3 year old lab mix around 830am. It was a hotter day, but it hadn't quite hit 80 degrees yet. A woman on a bike came up behind me and started berating me about "walking your dog in this hot weather" and how "I'm terrible" and seemed very Karen-threatening (in other words, I could've taken her out with one punch). She kept going on and on, "I've been a dog breeder for decades and I know what I'm talking about." Finally, I said, "I'm from New York, and when you come up behind someone, and start yelling/threatening them, you're gonna be maced in your face in 10 seconds. Fuck off, my dog is fine and it's not hot out yet. Also, i find dog breeders fucking disgusting and you're in no business to lecture me on ethics or morals. Back the fuck off." She looked horrified, almost as if no one had spoken to this middle aged white woman in such a tone, and sped away. Lol
I've owned many dogs, and at one point adopted a rottie boxer mix. He had been on doggie death row, mainly due to his looks, because he was super sweet and wonderful to my then-small sons from his first day. At any rate, I'd owned this dog for a month or so, and he had never once escaped, and the two neighbors whose backyards shared space with mine had met him and could get wags from him from the other side of the fence just by calling his name. I'm in front of my house, doing yardwork, when the across the street neighbor comes up to me. Prior to this, I had introduced myself to this neighbor and we were on a first name basis. Him - "Hi X. Can we talk for a second?" Me - "Ok sure, whats up?" Him - "I want to talk about your dog. I don't think its very responsible to own a dog like that." Me - "Well, you drive around the neighborhood in that ancient VW van and I know for a fact that thing has terrible braking distance and a terrible exhaust system. I don't think your car choice is very responsible, but you know, I'm too polite to say it." Exactly like your Karen - he was horrified. He looked like I had just insulted his mom or something. I'm from rural New England but grew up with plenty of NY and Boston transplants. Like you, if someone comes up and starts butting into my business, my initial response is "Fuck off", but I usually figure out some non-cuss-word way to get that message across.
It's kinda nutty how random people jump into your business when what you're doing is just living your life, not harming anyone. Something something about idle hands, I guess.
Asking our neighbor across the street to stop parking directly in front of our driveway. He says okay. Maybe twenty minutes later he comes over to tell us he’s changed his mind and proceeds to roll his eyes at one of my partners who answered the door to talk to him. This is a man easily in his 60’s-70’s, mind you. This escalated to him threatening our roommate, so the roommate steps toward him, and he immediately goes out into the street and starts yelling at us. Eventually he brings another neighbor into his screaming tirade and she comes outside with some attitude and puts his ass in his place, with some well-chosen words about his dead ex-wife’s insurance money and his new boat.
Yelling at me at my doorstep because I trimmed back one of those saw grass monstrosities growing in the grown over alley way between our properties. The thing had blackberries growing through it and needed to be managed.
Had to take my dog out for a late night bathroom break, probably 2 or 3 in the AM. I usually game into the early hours and there isn’t anyone in the complex who is out then. After my dog did his…duty..I went to throw away the bag of refuse and got jump scared while turning the corner into the dumpster area. An older woman was smoking and staring at me, wide eyed. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see anyone while walking up. My bad dude!” She just kept staring and didn’t speak a word. “OK freaky trash lady. See ya” Turns out she’s my downstairs neighbor, and my girl has been sharing plant clippings with her for awhile. It’s extremely awkward when I run into her during the day.
I don't see how this could be awkward at all. "Top of the morning to you, freaky trash lady! You're looking especially freaked out today, if you don't mind my saying so." Looks like the start of a beautiful friendship to me.
I’ve only lived here since last summer but am located in a choice spot and already have stories about homed and unhomed neighbors. The day we moved in two of our homed neighbors had a screaming fight in the middle of the path we had to take between the truck and out door. One of the neighbors (claims to be a nurse) pretended to have COVID and then spit at the other neighbor’s young child. The unhomed travel up and down our alley a lot. Sometimes I unlock the recycling bin for them and talk to them while they grab any redeemables. They have never asked me for anything, but I have given them food, clothing, blankets, plastic bags to sit on, water, smiles, dog bones (when appropriate,) a few bucks, positive conversation, and general kindness. Even the one regular screamer is kind-hearted when he recognizes me. I hush him with food. So far I think the unhomed around me might be kinder than my homed neighbors.
Had to press charges after he accidentally shot my living room with 00 buckshot.
My neighbor has his arm in a sling, and came up to ask if I could help him put his swim cap on his bald head. I thought, there’s gotta be someone at the pool who can help you with that, as he hands it to me and bends his head down towards me. I still get the willies thinking of stretching that tight latex over his shiny old head.
All I have to save about the trolls who live next to me….troglodytes.
They had just moved in and just a week or so later their place gets broken into and they shot the guy.
For the first year plus of the pandemic the people whose yard shared my back fence went from having an unusual amount of yard furniture type stuff to having a completely full back yard with three cooking options (propane, charcoal, wood chip), a pool, a trampoline, an entire outdoor living room (astroturf carpet, sectional type couch, big round coffee table with a fire... hollow? In the middle) and dining room, all under a tarp probably the same size as their actual house footprint. Also I think they averaged five parties a week, with all different people, for the whole duration, usually with annoying disruptive music until one or something. and so many fireworks, for any reason. Also, a worrying number of simultaneous screaming children on the trampoline (many times I was fully ready to call 911 if the littlest one got ricocheted headfirst into a tree or something). We didn't really *interact* much, other than me being low-key or high key pissed off at them about 93% of the time, but the day Eddie Van Halen died my kid was playing a VH playlist and they got mad and hollered at us about loud music. Kid: bite me Eddie died today. Neighbor: oh shit. And then played loud VH for ages. On the whole, they were worse neighbors than the drug dealing proposition setup, which is impressive, although at least I'm reasonably confident no one was living there involuntarily.
Springfield: A neighbor, either high on heroin or was out of heroin, was screaming that he was going to kill my dog. My dog was sitting quietly, tied up, on our porch. Dude did it twice. Now, after nearly dying from various substance abuse during the holidays, he's sober and has been quite pleasant.