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Monday, March 30, 2015

I'm (usually) a nice guy

When I first moved here, I lived under a 5x7 tarp while my wife stayed at our rented place in town.  I was spending my days working on clearing the area and trying to get things started. I had only met one neighbor, and figured we'd get along fairly well, as he is a second amendment kinda guy.
Then one day the Norman cops showed up. I asked what they wanted, and was told they received a call that I had abandoned my animals and were checking it. Now keep in mind, when I first went out to meet them, one asked if I were 'Steven'. NOT Mr Vanderhoff. The only person who knew my name,  (and coincidentally ONLY my first name) was the neighbor across the street from me.
No worries, I'm not a high profile kind of guy, and it could have been an honest mistake by someone concerned about the welfare of my critters.
Then when my wife moved out with me, we first lived under a huge tarp, 20x30', and this particular individual stopped over and asked if we could move our 'camp' back on the property, as his wife didn't like the look of it.
I promptly moved it closer to the FRONT of the property. Needless to say, relations between my neighbor, (Crazy Nick as he's known by every other resident in the neighborhood) and I have been rather strained since.
Now he has six large dogs that run around on his fenced in yard, and he constantly stands at his front door and yells at them. This is somewhat annoying, but nothing I can't live with.

After a few thefts on my property, I put up the above sign, just to be fair to the next person who steps on my land and leaves in a box.
I woke up one morning to voices outside my window.  Seems one of his dogs got out, and he and his wife were running all over MY land trying to catch him.  So I went out, and with the help of my dog, helped them get theirs and take him home. Neighborly thing to do right?
No 'thank you'. No apologies for trespassing.  No acknowledgment of the fact it was freezing cold and I'd offered my help.

Recently, someone dropped a stray dog off, and I took him in. He likes to go across the street to try to play with Crazy Nick's dogs through the fence.
This morning, as Rose was heading out the door for work, the mutt was across the street and Crazy Nick was yelling at him to get home.
Rose started calling the dog, and yelled her apologies to the neighbor. He shouted back at her that 'she'd better keep her fucking dog on our side of the street'.

I don't care that he shouts at his dogs all day, or shoots his guns at six AM on weekends.  His regular drunken rowdy friends over all the time, and the loud parties don't bother me. He leaves me alone, I'll leave him alone.
But he cussed my wife while she was trying to be polite.
I wonder if he has any fucking clue what a total fucking asshole he just pissed off?

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