Hesitant, Hopeful

I've written before about how much I dislike my neighbors, but I think it warrants mentioning again.  The house next door to us is a rental and the people who've rented it have always seemed to be the absolute lowest sort.  We frequently have new neighbors over there, in the last 5 1/2 years we've had 10 different neighbors.  I never see them bringing anything --no furniture, no clothes-- they just appear out of the blue one day and then are gone just as quickly as they came.  The most recent batch of neighbors are always changing, but someone is always living over there.  There'll be a couple, then one of them will disappear replaced by someone else, then the other one will disappear replaced, yet again, by someone else.  It's ridiculous and it's starting to get to me.

When we first moved here, there were a whole bunch of "cowboys" living over there.  They ran around in their boots and hats and had big trucks with gun racks.  One night, we came home and they were drinking beer and cradling their riffles, all of them were drunker than a skunk.  I almost called the cops then and there, but I decided the better of it when they went inside and didn't show their faces again until morning, all hung over and bleary eyed.  They were ridiculous and a menace, but they were relatively harmless.  Other than their stupidity, I only took offense to their dogs, which they kept in a little tiny chain-link kennel, of sorts, in the yard between our houses.  I always thought those dogs looked sad and were ignored.  I counted my blessings when they left.

Then there were 5 or 6 people to follow, all particularly shifty eyed and unfriendly.  I worried about them, but they minded their own business and we did them same.  The people who came after them were assholes, who I was glad to see go.  The husband was mean as all hell to his wife and baby, who I heard him beating on on more than one occasion.  Those people are the ones who called the cops on us when Matt and I got into a fight one night, I know it was them because they would look at us with their sunken eyes and whisper whenever they saw us outside.  After them, the house sat empty for a good year or so, for which I was grateful, only to be filled with obnoxious single mothers with passels of kids.  There had to be two or three of them over there, and a good 10 kids between them.  They were noisy and unfriendly and always had random men coming in and out, which made me nervous.  It was when they built a damn trampoline between our houses, where their kids would spend hours screaming at the top of their lungs, that I thought I'd lose my mind.  Then they were gone.

After them were the people who live there now.  The ones residing there right now are generally friendly, but I dislike them nonetheless for it.  For a long time I'd come home to find furniture in the yard --sofa's, broken washing machines, beat up wicker furniture.  It got old fast.  Then, when they stopped that it was trash.  There were actually dirty diapers and all manners of garbage all over the yard, not just theirs but scattered around on ours, too.  The managers asked them to clean it up before I had the chance to talk to the manager about it, for which I was grateful.  Now, it's the mess their dogs are making.  They have two large dogs chained up outside, and two smaller dogs in the house.  In the mornings they're letting their dogs off the chains to run loose in our yard and they're making a huge mess!

I finally had enough and went to talk to the manager about it.  This is when it gets tricky.  The manager is a generally nice guy, I haven't had much trouble with him, but he tells me that the guy who lives next door to us does work for him.  In other words, they're friends.  Great, just freaking great!  He told me that he told my neighbor that they have to build a fence over there, but it hasn't been done yet.  Now, since I talked to the manager, things have actually gotten worse.  When I came home from school the other night my neighbors big black dog was in the yard unchained.  I sat in the car for a while, looking at it, because I'm afraid of dogs.  I finally, after 15 or so minutes, willed myself to get out of the car and trek the 10 or so yard to the house, when the dog ran at me.  I bolted for the house, dog barking at me the whole way.  I was scared out of my mind.  Then, when we came back from the grocery store the other day, that same damn dog was off his chain, in the yard, and tried to attack Matt.

Okay, so, I'm going to have to talk to the manager again, but I'm worried about doing so because he's friends with the guy who lives over there.  Will it get worse?  When I come home will both of the big dogs be off the chain?  I don't think I should have to sit in my damn drive way, too scared to go inside, because my neighbors dogs are loose and might attack me.  It's ridiculous, I pay my rent and shouldn't have to deal with this crap.  I told Matt he should go with me to discuss this with the manager, but he doesn't seem particularly interested in doing so, so I'm going to have to go alone again and I don't think it's going to do much good.  For my part, I've resolved that next time this happens, next time I find myself sitting scared out of my mind in the drive way in 30 degree weather at 9:30 at night, all because my neighbors are jerks, I'm calling the cops and the humane society.  Animal control can come and take their flea bitten mutts away for all I care!!

It's getting to be ridiculous!!  I'm going to go talk to the manager again tomorrow and hopefully something will get done.  I'm at the end of my rope with the jerks who live next door!!