Helping, and Ranting
Well, we have survived the massive snow dump on the Twin Cities. We pitched in and helped some of our neighbors with snow moving, and a few neighbors helped us. I love how the neighborhood rallies together, and the sounds of spinning tires pulls people out of their yards and into a group task of freeing the stuck vehicle. I had offered to help free a tow truck, and Terry followed, and I turn around and here come two more men trotting up with shovels. Too cold to stand around and chitchat, but judging by the smiles I think we still had fun. Freeing a snowbeached vehicle can be so rewarding when it achieves forward motion. :)
Dan's car was parked in a snowbank, due to lack of anywhere else to put it, so it was quite the chore to get it out, and a friendly neighbor helped quite a bit. The bottom of his car was sitting on snow, so tires were just not touching the ground. Five minutes after we got it free, another truck was parked there, because it was a shovelled spot at that point.
I enjoyed the good bit of winter exertion, and found myself grateful that my car was still in the shop after hitting a deer Thanksgiving weekend. I did, however, completely lose it and started yelling out my doors when I saw the shovellers of the empty house next door blowing the *entirety* of their driveway's snow into the alley and into my driveway. I was completely astonished by their behavior, and at first could barely believe it. Then they stopped the snowblower, grabbed shovels, and proceeded to move snow from their driveway to ours, shovelful after shovelful. I leaned out our upstairs back roof door, in my bathrobe and bare feet, and proceeded to scream at them:
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MOVE THE SNOW OFF YOUR PROPERTY, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO MOVE IT SOMEWHERE ON YOUR PROPERTY! PEOPLE NEED TO DRIVE THROUGH THAT ALLEY, I NEED TO SHOVEL MY DRIVEWAY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!!!!
Their response was to not say anything, stop shovelling into my driveway, but they kept putting more snow in the alley. I get back inside, turn around and find Terry with that "you're so cute when you're angry" smile on his face. I laugh and observe that I'm turning into my Dad, who has quite the reputation for screaming at idiot strangers.
But they've now succeeded in making their load of snow the problem of the neighborhood, and of us. There was not an inch of snow anywhere in their driveway when they were done. I was still pissed, so I leaned out the front door, and had to yell over their snowblower out front, telling the guy in charge what his workers had done. I didn't cuss this time, just reported what I had seen. His response? "Are you trying to start a fight with us?"
WTF?
Ya know, while these same guys worked on fixing up the house, everyday during fall they took a leafblower and completely cleared the property of leaves.... by blowing it into the neighboring yards... our yard! They didn't bag or compost a single leaf. It was frustrating to look at their completely clean property with a serious pile of leaves just on our side of the property line. But I bit my tongue, didn't complain, and looked forward to getting new neighbors, in the hope that we neighbors, north and south, wouldn't have to shovel that sidewalk this winter, as we have for the last two. But this snowfall was a serious crisis, and I wasn't going to stay silent while they dumped on us some more. Their behavior was both illegal (alley dumping) and uncivil (dumping across the property line.) His accusation seemed to me to be victim blaming. Yeah crazy lady, just shut up. And threatening.... he's a big guy.
He then proceeded to tell me that he works for the city, that he takes care of 20 properties, and that we're all supposed to shovel into the alleys because then the city will come along and plow. That if I *think* they added more snow to my driveway, they'll snowblow mine the same as they did theirs. I gave up trying to talk to this idiot at this point. I didn't *think* they added to mine, I *watched* them do so. And his offer to make the alley even worse by doing my driveway was competely unacceptable. Like I want my neighbors pissed at me? And just where does he think they put the snow when they plow?
Later that night we watched a high riding 4 wheel drive truck get snowbeached the moment it hit the area they had dumped into. Terry went out and explained what happened, and they decided that was why they were stuck. Took three guys pushing to get them through.
So. Snow in the forecast this week again. The house next door has a buyer, but the closing won't be til mid-Jan. Am I going to have to deal with repeat performances of this willfully ignorant idiocy for the next month? Is it going to be worse because I got upset and called them on their behavior in a voice loud enough to carry to other neighbors? I have a VERY sensitive button when it comes to victim blaming. I really don't like being told that my anger is the problem when the situation deserves my anger. My Dad suggested I call the city and report them, so I did. The lady at 311 got upset at my story, and demanded his name three times. Unfortunately, I don't have it. She was upset because when people add snow to the right of way, this makes it even more difficult for emergency services to get to people who need help, and people died this weekend due to unpassable roads. She told me to call if I see it again, and to call the police if it happens in off hours. She also said that she would have been standing next to me, screaming with me.
My hairdresser suggested I call the real estate agent. So I did. She tried to duck responsibility, but I had called her agency first and they had told me that she's the one who hired them, so I stuck to it and told her that I didn't want to see this happen again and since the guy didn't want to listen to me I'd be calling the police next time. She relented and said she'd call "Jim" right away about it. Ironically, she was at home, snowed in, unable to drive through her alley.
So my little, nay large!, snit about their behavior has mostly run its course. I've complained to all the relevant people, I've taken pics of our driveway (fully shoveled with a mountain of snow against the fence) and pics of the snowplow wall still sitting on theirs, so if they decide to move it across the property line I have evidence to take to their agency. Cuz you see, the police and city can't do anything about them putting the snow on our property. That's a "civil matter". We'll see how they deal with it, and the next storm.
Shake my head.... last snow emergency I went and dug out the snowplow wall from their path to the street, because I'm that kind of helpful neighbor. I won't be lifting another finger for that property until there's a new homeowner living there. I have declared them "unmutual."
Dan's car was parked in a snowbank, due to lack of anywhere else to put it, so it was quite the chore to get it out, and a friendly neighbor helped quite a bit. The bottom of his car was sitting on snow, so tires were just not touching the ground. Five minutes after we got it free, another truck was parked there, because it was a shovelled spot at that point.
I enjoyed the good bit of winter exertion, and found myself grateful that my car was still in the shop after hitting a deer Thanksgiving weekend. I did, however, completely lose it and started yelling out my doors when I saw the shovellers of the empty house next door blowing the *entirety* of their driveway's snow into the alley and into my driveway. I was completely astonished by their behavior, and at first could barely believe it. Then they stopped the snowblower, grabbed shovels, and proceeded to move snow from their driveway to ours, shovelful after shovelful. I leaned out our upstairs back roof door, in my bathrobe and bare feet, and proceeded to scream at them:
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING???? YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO MOVE THE SNOW OFF YOUR PROPERTY, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO MOVE IT SOMEWHERE ON YOUR PROPERTY! PEOPLE NEED TO DRIVE THROUGH THAT ALLEY, I NEED TO SHOVEL MY DRIVEWAY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!!!!
Their response was to not say anything, stop shovelling into my driveway, but they kept putting more snow in the alley. I get back inside, turn around and find Terry with that "you're so cute when you're angry" smile on his face. I laugh and observe that I'm turning into my Dad, who has quite the reputation for screaming at idiot strangers.
But they've now succeeded in making their load of snow the problem of the neighborhood, and of us. There was not an inch of snow anywhere in their driveway when they were done. I was still pissed, so I leaned out the front door, and had to yell over their snowblower out front, telling the guy in charge what his workers had done. I didn't cuss this time, just reported what I had seen. His response? "Are you trying to start a fight with us?"
WTF?
Ya know, while these same guys worked on fixing up the house, everyday during fall they took a leafblower and completely cleared the property of leaves.... by blowing it into the neighboring yards... our yard! They didn't bag or compost a single leaf. It was frustrating to look at their completely clean property with a serious pile of leaves just on our side of the property line. But I bit my tongue, didn't complain, and looked forward to getting new neighbors, in the hope that we neighbors, north and south, wouldn't have to shovel that sidewalk this winter, as we have for the last two. But this snowfall was a serious crisis, and I wasn't going to stay silent while they dumped on us some more. Their behavior was both illegal (alley dumping) and uncivil (dumping across the property line.) His accusation seemed to me to be victim blaming. Yeah crazy lady, just shut up. And threatening.... he's a big guy.
He then proceeded to tell me that he works for the city, that he takes care of 20 properties, and that we're all supposed to shovel into the alleys because then the city will come along and plow. That if I *think* they added more snow to my driveway, they'll snowblow mine the same as they did theirs. I gave up trying to talk to this idiot at this point. I didn't *think* they added to mine, I *watched* them do so. And his offer to make the alley even worse by doing my driveway was competely unacceptable. Like I want my neighbors pissed at me? And just where does he think they put the snow when they plow?
Later that night we watched a high riding 4 wheel drive truck get snowbeached the moment it hit the area they had dumped into. Terry went out and explained what happened, and they decided that was why they were stuck. Took three guys pushing to get them through.
So. Snow in the forecast this week again. The house next door has a buyer, but the closing won't be til mid-Jan. Am I going to have to deal with repeat performances of this willfully ignorant idiocy for the next month? Is it going to be worse because I got upset and called them on their behavior in a voice loud enough to carry to other neighbors? I have a VERY sensitive button when it comes to victim blaming. I really don't like being told that my anger is the problem when the situation deserves my anger. My Dad suggested I call the city and report them, so I did. The lady at 311 got upset at my story, and demanded his name three times. Unfortunately, I don't have it. She was upset because when people add snow to the right of way, this makes it even more difficult for emergency services to get to people who need help, and people died this weekend due to unpassable roads. She told me to call if I see it again, and to call the police if it happens in off hours. She also said that she would have been standing next to me, screaming with me.
My hairdresser suggested I call the real estate agent. So I did. She tried to duck responsibility, but I had called her agency first and they had told me that she's the one who hired them, so I stuck to it and told her that I didn't want to see this happen again and since the guy didn't want to listen to me I'd be calling the police next time. She relented and said she'd call "Jim" right away about it. Ironically, she was at home, snowed in, unable to drive through her alley.
So my little, nay large!, snit about their behavior has mostly run its course. I've complained to all the relevant people, I've taken pics of our driveway (fully shoveled with a mountain of snow against the fence) and pics of the snowplow wall still sitting on theirs, so if they decide to move it across the property line I have evidence to take to their agency. Cuz you see, the police and city can't do anything about them putting the snow on our property. That's a "civil matter". We'll see how they deal with it, and the next storm.
Shake my head.... last snow emergency I went and dug out the snowplow wall from their path to the street, because I'm that kind of helpful neighbor. I won't be lifting another finger for that property until there's a new homeowner living there. I have declared them "unmutual."