There goes the neighborhood

About 6 months ago our next door neighbor had a satellite dish attached to the wall that separates our backyards. (This neighbor is now known as "The Dish Guy" or "The Satellite Dish Neighbor" in a formal setting.) The bad part was that the dish faced into our yard. So technically the dish was actually IN our yard. See the picture? That is taken from my back door. Isn't that pleasant?

We left a perfectly nice note on his door informing him of the problem and asking him to move it. No response. We then called the association and they "sent a letter". A big scary one I'm sure...Not. No response. So then we started putting things in front of the dish to both block the signal, and block the view of the dish. Which worked when we were home but when we were gone the neighbor would just move the stuff. So finally Larry just turned the dish around so it faced into their yard.

Keep in mind during all this time the neighbor was really mad at us and yelling swear words over the fence when he knew we were out there. Or honking as he drove past our house. Or putting his trash in our driveway (allegedly). Stuff like that. But never once did he come over and actually talk to us. Even when we were trying to be understanding about it. After the note he could have easily come over and apologized that they installed the dish there and offered a solution. He chose to ignore us instead.

So one day I hear some loud noises coming from next door. I look out the window and the dish is gone. I thought he was actually moving it. Then I look out about 5 minutes later and it's back. So I go outside. I can't see anything, I have no idea who is on the other side of the fence but I figure this is my chance to get this resolved.

"Excuse me. Please don't put that dish in my yard."
"It's not in your yard. It's in his yard."
This is when I realize that I'm actually talking to the dish guy. Not the neighbor.
"No." I say grabbing the part of the dish that is in our yard. "This right here is in MY yard."
I don't remember the exact details of the rest of the conversation since it was several months ago. We went back and forth several times but I wasn't backing down. Finally he agreed to move it. And it is now moved.

A reasonable person might think the war of neighbors was now over. I did. I mean, we had lived next door to each other for over a year without incident. I figured this would blow over.

It did not blow over. The drama has continued, on his part anyways. We have just been ignoring him completely. Then about two weeks ago Connor and I were walking from the van to the front door just as he was leaving. He honked and gave us the finger while he drove past our house. He did not realize until it was too late that Larry was standing in the doorway. For some reason he is scared of Larry. It's perfectly fine in his world to give the finger to a woman and a 3 year old child (as you drive away with the window rolled up). But he won't even show his face if Larry is around. It's kinda hilarious.

Larry has been looking for him ever since the middle finger incident. He just wants to talk to him, Larry has never threatened him in any way. But "the dish guy" is no where to be found. He hides. No joke. Just the other day he had parked across the street and was leaving just as Larry was coming back from getting the mail. He started across the street, noticed Larry, and then turned around and went back inside. He waited until Larry was in the house to leave.

I told you that whole story in order to tell you another story... but now this post is too long. So I'll finish tomorrow.

Stay tuned.