TexasCHLforum.com

The Annoyed Man wrote:

BobCat wrote:So - how did this guy respond to your reasonable point that the leaves were not "your" leaves since you have no trees?

Yes, please do tell. I'm curious.

I'm one of those people who has a tree in front of his house that produces prodigious amounts of leaves on the ground in the fall. It is a massive Red Oak..... a beautiful tree most of the year around.....maybe even MORE beautiful when the leaves all turn orange and scarlet....but they sure do make a mess when they all come down.

Luckily for me, the neighbors can't blame all of the mess on their lawns on me, as they all have large oak trees too (Live Oaks) that produce copious fallout too; but the leaves from my tree seem to stand out because of color and quantity.

The last weekend of November, it was already a mess, and my wife and I spent the better part of a day getting it all bagged up. Then we spent the better part of 2-3 days recuperating and complaining about our backs and knees. Then, on 12/5, we flew to California for a week. When we got home on 12/13, we arrive to find that the wind had blown and knocked the last of the leaves out of the neighborhood trees. All the neighbors had already cleaned up their yards, but we had been gone a week, and our place looked like one of those homes that nobody in the neighborhood likes because the owners take such poor care of things.

Sigh....

My next door neighbor's son was home from Baylor for the holidays, and he allowed as how he needed some Christmas money. I was willing to pay someone this time instead of subjecting my body to another whuppin', and he got it all cleaned up and bagged for me. Best $35 I ever spent.

One time, his dad mentioned to me how irritating it was that the wind was blowing my orange red-oak leaves onto his front lawn, but made no mention of the fact that my driveway was covered in live-oak leaves and acorns from the branches of his live-oak trees that overhang my driveway. I only have one oak tree - that giant red-oak. I just smiled and nodded, and got about cleaning up my driveway. The dad isn't a jerk or anything. We attend the same church, and have been part of the same men's Bible-studies before. It's just that sometimes people aren't able to see beyond their own petty concerns to see the effect that their own lives are having on other people. They can only see what other people are "doing to them".

By the way StewNTexas, I'm not suggesting that this is the case with your neighbor. He sounds like a first-class snot, while my own neighbor isn't really a snot at all — he's actually a decent guy who is just a little bit self-centered and doesn't realize it.

The neighborhood Kabuki is certainly more complicated at times than it needs to be, isn't it?