{Names redacted so as to prevent identification of the people involved}

This week a friend of mine, stopped by with a little cheer for the holiday. We sat around and chatted for about an hour, it was lot of fun.

At one point she said "I just wanted to let you know that YOU are the good neighbours."

We were slightly puzzled at how we deserved this but she went on to explain that her neighbour had stopped by this week. Understand that since she (We don't know her real name. Let's call her Nutty for the purposes of this discussion. It's a common nickname.) moved in last summer Nutty hasn't really gotten along well with her neighbours. Nutty has complained several times about the cars in our friends driveway. Now our friend runs a business out of her house and clients will stop by so there are cars that come and go. On the weekends her kids and the grandkids often stop by. It's not like they have hundreds of cars there. Usually it's three or five, and that is the issue. Nutty finds it intolerable that anyone would have an odd number of cars in their driveway. Our friend could have twelve, but not three.

In an unrelated issue, Nutty has also been griping about the guy behind us that's building the new house. He planted a row of trees on his side of the fence line but there are three trees behind our friend’s house and only two behind Nutty's. That our friend has more frontage on the neighbours lot is apparently not an issue and you'd think that Nutty would like the even number of trees behind her house. Apparently that bias only applies to cars however. Nutty has filed many complaints with the city over that and other things (reports are they have a file of her complaints two inches thick, and I believe she only moved in in September.)

So when Nutty stopped by, our friend was slightly surprised. When Nutty announced to our friend that she was "the good neighbour" it struck our friend as more than a little odd. Nutty then went on to explain that she had done our friend and her husband a favour. As we understand it the conversation went something like this.

Nutty: "I hired a guy who will be coming by and he'll clean all the junk out of your back yard."
Penny: "OK, It's a bit messy but we don't think it's that bad and I don't want a stranger in my yard."

Our friend Penny is married to a professional handyman. He has his own tools and a truck and everything. If she wanted the yard cleaned she'd just say “Get rid of your junk" and it would be gone. It really isn't that bad though. We’ve seen their their yard and it doesn't bother us.

Nutty: "He's also going to cut down those trees along your fence. I can't see you when you're in the hot tub."
Our friend: Well I don't want you to see us in our hot tub. That's why the trees are there."

I should mention this is the Hot Tub that was at our house when we moved in. We gave it to the people two doors down, oddly enough the house where Nutty lives now. He never got around to setting it up and finally when they were moving gave it to our friends. It's travels are at long last over and we're just happy that someone is finally using it.

Nutty: "And all you'll have to do is pay him when he's done."
Our friend: "You hired someone I don't know to come in to do something I don't want done and you expect ME to pay for it??"
Nutty: "Oh, and you can't say no because you're open to the public."
Our friend : "I just did."

Our friend is a no nonsense woman. She knows what's right, she knows the law, and she isn't someone you want to go up against. You have to be tough to be successful in her business. She picks her fights and she makes sure going in that she will win so when she says something is or isn't going to happen that's the way it's going to be. She runs an office out of the garage. That's the only part that is open to the public. The rest of the house and yard is private. She made sure of that before she opened her business.

Amazingly enough, the conversation went downhill from there and ended up with our friend telling Nutty that if someone showed up she'd have him arrested for trespassing. So a slightly offended Nutty called the city and reported our friend for running a business without a license. This struck our friend, and us, as funny because her business licence is framed and hanging over her desk. The next day the guy with the city that handles business licenses, and complaints, and a number of other things (it's a small town) called our friend about it. He was laughing so hard he could barely talk. He knows Penny. He helped her with the paperwork to set up her business about four years ago. He knew the complaint was without merit. He just called to tell Penny that the complaint had been filed, let her know that Nutty complains about everyone and that it wouldn't go anywhere.

In the conversation with the guy from the city our friend did say "You know I think she'd be more sympathetic to someone that runs a business out of her house. I mean she runs that Dog Setting service of hers."
There was a bit of silence on the line and then the guy from the city said "Hmm, We don't have a business license for that address or that resident."
To this our friend replied "I didn't say anything, I wasn't involved, you didn't hear it from me."
This will get interesting.

It is also good to know that we're the "good neighbours".

Thought for the week: If Life Gives You Melons You Are Probably Dyslexic

Doug & Marsha


Pix this week: A pleasant winter evening with the snow safely far away.









They may look like icebergs but they are actually snowcapped mountains way down in Washington. The dense winter air is bending the light and magnifying the mountain tops so we can see them.


Here you can see the distortion a bit better. Some of the channel islands, normally hidden, are visible and appear to be floating above the water.
Living on the sea is fun.

I watched The Thing From Another World today. It's a Sci-Fi monster film from the 1950s. A group of military personnel and scientists on an isolated base and James Arness as 'The Thing' an alien vampire sort of creature that they have to fight off. I like mediocre B-Grade sci fi films. I was glad to catch this particular movie too. It takes place high up in the arctic not far from the North Pole. It was good to see blowing and drifting snow and have them needing parkas. Reminds me of how much fun snow is. Oh we did get a bit of snow a week or two ago, but it was gone in a day or two. Since then it's been temps in the 50s, light winds and a mix of sun and showers. It's kinda boring in some ways. You know I think I'll go to DQ and get me a Blizzard just to remind me of living in Minnesota.

Ah, Good Times.

We finished decorating for the holidays. More precisely Marsha finished decorating. As I mentioned before I try to avoid the whole thing. This is our main tree in the living room.


Momiji seems to like sleeping underneath the tree.



I haven't been completely honest about decorating. I did do a couple of things. I gave the dolphins in our greek rug a Xmas hat.


and this is my tree. It's the jade plant next to my desk. I put all of my Hallmark airplane ornaments there.


The second tree is in the family room. Where the big tree in the living room is Campbell Soup and Hershey's ornaments. This one is Hallmark ornaments and other things.


Marsha has put other decorations around too. I now have The Grinch staring at me at me all day when I'm at my desk.


The cabinet in the front hallway is covered with things. Let's hope Geiger doesn't jump up here. He loves to push small objects off of tables just to watch them fall to the floor. He could do a lot of damage here.


"The stockings were hung by the laundry room with care...."