Are your neighbors insane?

[W2R]

I have never had a circular driveway, but if I did, and if people driving through it bothered me THAT much, then I'd just put a gate or two across the driveway with a remote control for the gate in my car.

Problem solved and with a little thought and planning, it could look very nice.

 

[skipro33]

I have a neighbor like that. Not only does she mow every 3 or 4 days, but she has to use a leaf blower every few days to blow any dust off the street, away from her property. Seems like she is always out there blowing or mowing. I've had normal conversations with her, and she is a nice lady. Once, she told me, unprompted by me, that she has a compulsion to mow and use the blower that she can't control. Sort of like hoarders, I suppose. Obsessive-compulsive.

That could be me. I love being outdoors and working around the house and especially gardening. I hate going to a gym to work out. I'd rather take the time to run my blower or mower more often, getting in that exercise, than using some equipment in some smelly gym that some other person has sweated all over. My efforts result in a very beautiful landscape that I'm sure at least results in keeping property values up if not provide a nice view for my neighbors.

 

[marko]

marko this is too funny, when I started reading this reminded me of my in-laws neighborhood. THEN, I saw the 'fires a giant cannon" Soo, in-laws live on the lake..and there neighbor fires the giant cannon too. Especially when he has his fourth of july party. Problem is everyone else on the lake is having their parties too lol. Even a house full of like 50 people mean mugging and he doesn't care he is so "literally" lit up. You can tell even his own guests cringe when he lights that thing.

I know what you mean. My guy doesn't need much of a reason. Super Bowl, Stanley Cup win, a Sunday afternoon, a Saturday night of drinking, 5AM one time.

Had a friend from California over once when he lit it off...my friend was absolutely horrified! He was literally shaking! "Why doesn't anyone call the police" We told him that the guy's BF, the Chief of Police was probably there helping him light it.

 

[robnplunder]

Before, we had a neighbor who seems to use power tools all the time. I used to comment to DW, somewhat annoyingly, "there he goes again." For the last two months, I have been working on a lot of DIYs and using power tools. Sometimes, I listened to music in garage while I am working on something. I may be the neighbor that all my neighbors are going "gee, I wish he stop making racket." No one has complained yet. No dirty looks. No police was called (I don't use power tools at odd hours). But I wonder if I became that crazy neighbor that everyone is rolling their eyes when they see me?

 

[kgtest]

Before, we had a neighbor who seems to use power tools all the time. I used to comment to DW, somewhat annoyingly, "there he goes again." For the last two months, I have been working on a lot of DIYs and using power tools. Sometimes, I listened to music in garage while I am working on something. I may be the neighbor that all my neighbors are going "gee, I wish he stop making racket." No one has complained yet. No dirty looks. No police was called (I don't use power tools at odd hours). But I wonder if I became that crazy neighbor that everyone is rolling their eyes when they see me?

Lol, was at folks for Mother's day. Beautiful afternoon, everyone in the neighborhood had kids visiting them (some back from college etc).

Neighbor on the corner of 3 converging streets decides it's the perfect time to run out the snow blower for the year. I'll tell ya, if I had to guess he certainly didn't drain it first.

 

[FIREd]

I am just now meeting my neighbors. I live in a large condo complex with over 150 owners. In general, the neighbors that I've met are decent people. But there are some (well known) lunatics as well. Statistically it is bound to happen. I got cornered by one last week. As I just moved into the building, he wanted to know my position regarding the overthrow of the current HOA board. He has proposed big (costly) changes in the past and they have all been voted down by a majority of owners. I don't see how overthrowing the HOA is going to change that. Perhaps if he wasn't so aggressive and arrogant his message would get traction, because some of his ideas were worth exploring. But he has annoyed so many people that the other owners just don't want to listen anymore.

 

[skipro33]

But I wonder if I became that crazy neighbor that everyone is rolling their eyes when they see me?

Create a fictitious Nextdoor logon and complain about yourself and see if you get any sympathy. May not even have to do that, just read what others have entered to see if anyone has complained yet.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Our Nextdoor is a mixed bag, with a fair to poor signal-to-noise ratio. Not worth giving up on yet, but I skim it much more quickly and less often than I used to. Too many people around here like to post about their home businesses, and for some reason the moderators ignore it, even though it's specifically called out in the guidelines as not allowed. We used to have the best neighbors, real estate agents and long-time residents, so they knew who to go to for everything. They eventually sold to a woman who was trying to leverage and flip houses, but she let her son deal drugs out of the one next door to us, so when she was foreclosed on, that was one foreclosure that was actually not a shame at all!

 

[CoolRich59]

I haven't gone on Nextdoor for a while, but was prompted to do so by this thread. Lo and behold, it did not take long to find the crazy.

A woman created an account 2 days ago. In that time, she has:

• posted a rant complaining about our local police dept because: (i) she blew a red light and got a ticket; and (ii) she had her unattended purse stolen from her shopping cart at the grocery store and feels the police aren't making the theft a high priority.

• started a rant because the management of her mom's condo where she's now staying won't let her use the fitness center until she registers as a guest and gets a pass.

• asked for a ride to the local train station ("right now"), and seems put out that no one volunteered in time for her to catch her train.

Her police dept rant has caused a stir because other posters are noting that you when you don't observe the traffic laws, tickets tend to follow, and that leaving your purse unattended is an invitation for thieves. She takes issue with these responses and leaves long rebuttals.

 

[socca]

I recently had an intensely irritating experience on Nextdoor. I'd been on it for a year or so, and found it modestly useful once or twice.

I spend two minutes each day glancing through the NextDoor message digest. I use it for 'hyper-local, near-real-time' news. I agree that it's a rather noisy news channel (lots of lost pets & people promoting their micro-businesses).

 

[JoeWras]

The mute person/mute thread feature works well when things go sideways on nextdoor.... Kind of like ignore member here on ER.org.

People actually mute each other here? I thought we all held hands and sang happy songs.

There's also the inverse, people who have lived in a rural area but just on a small piece of land, who get bent out of shape when the land around them is developed. There was, maybe still is, a guy like that in Cary, NC, just outside of Bond Park. He had a confederate flag (even though I heard he was from Ohio), redneck signs, a cannon, a hanging gallows of some kind (or maybe just a noose), and signs complaining about how the town screwed him. Thing is, he had maybe 1/4 acre of land. If you don't want to be encroached upon, buy more land! Perhaps the town took away some land to build the park, but basically he's mostly surrounded by heavy woods, which seems ideal. They did widen the road from 5 lanes to 2, but again, buy enough land to build away from the road.

Still there as of February, according to google street view. He added a "Please Recycle" sign, so that's a good thing, right?

<Edit: got rid of the google link. Maybe not good form. But it is all there in street view for viewing.>

 

[RunningBum]

Still there as of February, according to google street view. He added a "Please Recycle" sign, so that's a good thing, right?

<Edit: got rid of the google link. Maybe not good form. But it is all there in street view for viewing.>

How about that?! Most productive sign I ever saw out of there.

 

[robnplunder]

Create a fictitious Nextdoor logon and complain about yourself and see if you get any sympathy. May not even have to do that, just read what others have entered to see if anyone has complained yet.

LOL. Nah, my neighbors would have let me know. The bond that was formed against the aforementioned crazy dude is pretty good. Our Nextdoor communication is good, overzealous at times. I also only make noises during day/early evening time when people are at work.

We do have renters, owners who let their lawn grow into a jungle, or feed the stray cats which have become a nuisance (cat poops mostly).

 

[JoeWras]

How about that?! Most productive sign I ever saw out of there.

I think it is sarcastic. He has built various doo-dads to decorate the front, all out of "recycled" material. The uneven arches made out of "recycled" brick are especially interesting.

 

[harllee]

While I have had crazy neighbors that I posted about above, I actually find our local Next-door site very useful. I have bought and sold there (much better then Craigslist, I never get any spammers on Next-door). I also use Next-door to find out about local events. Recently I found a set of keys on the sidewalk in front of my house and used Next-door to find the owner. On a similar vein yesterday a child lost her "blankie" and was reunited with it on Next-door, very touching. For some reason the Spectrum internet/cable on my street goes out frequently and I can usually find out info about the on Next-door whereas if I call Spectrum I just get into a call loop. I am a big supporter of Next-door.

 

[kcowan]

Mexico or Vancouver?

Mexico. Moving up to a bigger place closer to the ocean. So reason 1. But 2 and 3 hastened the move.

 

[HFWR]

Insane? Possibly. Annoying? Definitely...

 

[Scrapr]

I know what you mean. My guy doesn't need much of a reason. Super Bowl, Stanley Cup win, a Sunday afternoon, a Saturday night of drinking, 5AM one time.

Had a friend from California over once when he lit it off...my friend was absolutely horrified! He was literally shaking! "Why doesn't anyone call the police" We told him that the guy's BF, the Chief of Police was probably there helping him light it.

not gonna lie....I wish I could do this

then yell Prepare to be boarded matey!

 

[misshathaway]

One of my neighbors is actually mentally ill. I've known her since we were both children. She's a hoarder but it's all inside the house. She doesn't bother anyone.

The new "sane" inhabitants of the McMansions sprouting up all around us, who get on the neighborhood Facebook group and type FU - they are a bother.

 

[Cobra9777]

This was fun to read.

For the most part, our neighbors seem fairly normal, although we don't socialize with them. We live in a semi-rural subdivision with about 120 homes on 2-3 acre lots that are heavily wooded. Our immediate neighbors are all retired and most in their 70s and 80s. We rarely see each other unless we happen to be gathering mail, walking the dog, or taking trash out at the same time. Smile, wave, how-ya-doin'... that's about the extent of interaction.

We have one neighbor that DW and I nicknamed the "Racist Lawyer." He's a nice guy in his early 80s, but seems incapable of getting through a 2-minute conversation at the mailbox without a racial slur. Then there's the prepper a few houses down. He's a bit creepy and has tried to "recruit" me into his prepper group, which I politely declined.

Nextdoor.com is fairly civil and uninteresting here. The usual lost pets, cable outages, snake sitings. One exception: we have a retired airline pilot who I think has "control issues." He headed the HOA when the neighborhood was first built in the late 1960s and 70s. But by 1985 it had been dissolved. Yet he still tries to organize resistance to things he disapproves of. Everyone ignores him.

 

[Spock]

In my neighborhood Nextdoor is a swamp of stupidity. People post "urgent" safety alerts every time a drop of rain falls, ANY body walking in the neighborhood is posted as suspicious, and anything that goes bump in the night is posted as "did you hear that gun fire just now".


Apparently its a world wide trend...
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-22/world-getting-increasingly-dumber-study-finds

 

[Dtail]

My neighbor just moved out. Very nice couple, but had 2 barking dogs, so mixed blessing.
Not sure if the owner will sell or rent. The houses are fairly close together from the sides (although not in the back), so who your neighbor can matter.

 

[robnplunder]

In my neighborhood Nextdoor is a swamp of stupidity. People post "urgent" safety alerts every time a drop of rain falls, ANY body walking in the neighborhood is posted as suspicious, and anything that goes bump in the night is posted as "did you hear that gun fire just now".


Apparently its a world wide trend...
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-22/world-getting-increasingly-dumber-study-finds

Ah, that's what it is. I thought we live in the same Nextdoor.

We have strangers driving by the neighbors due to various reasons (Uber, deliveries, carpool, ....) and they often get reported: "A car is driving around the block," "parked car with a person inside doing nothing," etc.. But I appreciate their being alert.

 

[Amethyst]

Those people and attitudes have always been around. People who miss nothing, and get excited, or at least act excited, over every little thing...it tends to run in families.

It's just that they now have social media to enable them and link them to others of their ilk, where before, they had to go yell over the back fence or gather in knots on the sidewalk.

In my neighborhood Nextdoor is a swamp of stupidity. People post "urgent" safety alerts every time a drop of rain falls, ANY body walking in the neighborhood is posted as suspicious, and anything that goes bump in the night is posted as "did you hear that gun fire just now".


Apparently its a world wide trend...
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-22/world-getting-increasingly-dumber-study-finds

 

[Amethyst]

It's funny that you used raindrops as your metaphor of choice.

It reminded me of growing up during the middle of the baby boom, hearing kids playing outside all over my neighborhood, and when a little shower came along, hearing those same kids shrieking on all sides as they ran inside for shelter.

I was taught to take a little rain in stride ("you won't melt") and I only ran for the house if I saw lightning, or it was a gully-washer.

People post "urgent" safety alerts every time a drop of rain falls,

[l]