Sheesh

The weirdness continues.

For two or three years our neighbor, the WWII veteran, has popped over in the summer to discuss the retaining wall between our houses. He is uphill, so I guess the wall "retains" his yard, and yet it is part of our view. We are the ones that have to look at it. The timbers were pretty old and pretty much termite eaten, but it was not at the top of our "to-do" list. So every summer I would tell the neighbor, "We need to get estimates in winter. Landscape work is cheaper in winter because they are not so busy." He didn't seem to believe me, but would go away. Until the next summer. Well this summer, he actually sends his landscape dude over here with an estimate for $7500 and says the neighbor will pay $3000. Did you laugh too?
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Monday morning my doorbell kept ringing and waking me up and irritating the hell out of me. I do not get out of bed to answer the door. If it's someone that knows me they can call and if it's someone that really knows me they can knock on my bedroom window. If my house is on fire whoever is out there can dial 911. In fact, I'm thinking about putting a sign on the wood door that says, "If this door is closed, do not ring the doorbell or I may come out and kill you." When I get up every day I open the wooden door. We have a glass outer door. The wood door stays open until my husband goes to bed. When the wood door is closed, go away.
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I finally got out of bed around 11:00 because I was too irritated to sleep any longer. When I came in here, I opened the side window blinds like I always do and lo and behold the timbers were gone and there were workmen out there. I walked out front and said, "Hey what's going on?" The one who spoke english said, "We're replacing this retaining wall." I said "And he hired you?" while pointing at the neighbor's house. He said yes and I said, "Well, did you know that wall is on my property?" He didn't say anything and I said, "Well if he's paying for it, whatever." And I came back inside. I called my husband who didn't quite know what to make of it and I called my lawyer to see what he had to say. We finally decided it was a good thing.
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This morning I came in here in my nightgown and the computer is in a corner with windows on each wall about 10 inches out of the corner. We keep this side one closed at night but never close the one overlooking the backyard. So I'm checking my e-mail and all of a sudden a guy walks by like 3 feet from me, into my backyard. I jumped up and stood to the side of the window and lowered the blinds. So I had to sit in here in the (relative) dark. I kept peeking out watching them crawl through my bamboo bed to get at the timbers back there and was getting all irritated again, but I checked tonight when I got home and the bamboo is fine.
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Also there was this long phone message from the neighbor about how he decided to go ahead and do it and pay for it himself. That part was good. Also I was worried about the material and if it would clash with the stone on my bamboo bed, but it looks nice and is very similar. It looks like it will be finished by the weekend. We just think it's weird that he did this and we wonder if he knows that wall was on our property. I guess we shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but I hope he is not expecting any money from us. Oh, and I have to remember when I come in here in the morning not to open any windows.