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February 24, 2004
Don't Get Offended ...
Lynne’s latest post entitled “Don’t Fence Me In!” reminds me of my own neighbor/barrier story. I’ll tell you mine, but you still need to read Lynne’s. I completely agree with the way she handled things. Sometimes people think that they are too good or that their animals are too good to obey the laws of simple consideration.
Okay now for my story. We have a strip of grass about 4 feet wide that runs between our house and our neighbor’s house. This is a shared piece of property. She would mow her half and we would mow ours. (These people do not live there anymore by the way.) Anyway, the woman loved to mow the grass. It didn’t matter if it needed it or not, she mowed EVERY freaking weekend. It drove me nuts to be quite honest. Her husband was from England, so I’m surprised that he didn’t stop her. The reason I say that is because I have watched enough BBC America to know that the people over there don’t cut their grass near as often as we do. Maybe it has something to do with the amount of rain they get. They would have to mow constantly to keep it as short as we expect it to be over here. Really, it’s a shame too because they have beautiful grass and we could learn a lesson or two from them!
So … a few years back we were in a drought. It hadn’t rained and the forecaster said that it wouldn’t rain again for at least ten days. Being in a drought already and then hearing there wasn’t going to be rain for another ten days was a big blow. The grass looked horrid. It wasn’t the bright, vibrant green that you’re used to seeing and we were not allowed to water it. It had turned a yellowish color and was stagnant. Why would it grow with no water to make it flourish?
Since the lady next door mowed every weekend she decided that she would start mowing our half of the strip. I’m sure it killed her that we only mowed every two to three weeks and she wanted it to look uniform between the two houses.
Up until this time we were great friends. We would do anything that the other asked. I took care of their pets on many occasions; even for a week at a time when they would travel back to Leicester. They would always bring back presents. I especially loved the Nestle Milky Bars. You can’t get those over here! We exchanged Christmas presents every year and I met his and her parents and family. I particularly liked his family. They were so friendly!
Anyhow, it was during the drought and I knew that she was going to be mowing so I emailed her a note asking her to please not mow our half of the strip. I told her what the forecaster had said and that I appreciated her doing this, but we didn’t want it mowed this particular week. I was extremely nice about it.
Well, you would have thought I had slapped her in the face. She was madder than a wet hen and sent an email back saying that she didn’t know that my two feet meant so much.
After this, we never talked again really. It took months before she would even say hello. Not long after this, they moved. They still live in Winchester, but way out in the country where they won’t be bothered by anyone. As with Lynne, this incident clouded our relationship and it was my entire fault. That Christmas there were no cards or presents exchanged. It felt very awkward.
Had I known that she would take things so personally, I would have never said anything. But, who would have known that grass would hurt someone’s feelings so much? With Lynne and her story of the dog poop – that couldn’t be avoided no matter what! It’s just their tough luck that they got offended. It was offensive to Lynne to have the poop at her front door!
Posted by tami at February 24, 2004 8:38 AM
Comments
Holy cow, that's *insane* for her to have gotten so bent out of shape about grass. Yie. Off to read the link you gave now.
Posted by: gw at February 25, 2004 3:55 AM
You understood where I was coming from perfectly.
Posted by: Lynne at February 28, 2004 1:58 AM