Crochet Me Crazy

I have a head ache.... we just got back from a long over due confrontation with our neighbor who we share a back fence with. We've lived here for 8 years and I first realized this guy might have a problem years ago when he trimmed our tree branches that were hanging over into his yard and threw the branches into our yard to pick up. Keep in mind, this guy is obviously extremely obsessive compulsive about everything in or around his house being absolutely perfect. One look at his house or yard shows that. He's out there at all hours of the night doing stuff in his yard, he pressure washes his roof, he has fake trees stuck into his trees to fill in the bare spots along the fence. You could eat off his garage floor. I swear he would know if a blade of grass was out of place. We've been in our back yard when he's shot his BB gun at the birds. (I think they must make a mess) After the 2nd cat we got turned up dead, we suspect he killed both cats after talking with other neighbors with the same suspicions. Another neighbor's cat has been shot with a BB gun several times. The evidence strongly suggest that he sprayed some type of exfoliate on our trees one time. We notice all the leaves on two of our trees which were right by our shared fence turning brown. When we tried to figure out what it was and Jeff looked over the fence, we could see where he had sprayed something up against the fence conveniently where our trees where. When we put our above ground pool up and Jeff build a deck around it, he put up an extra 3 feet of lattice along our shared fence just on the section where our deck was. The kids have reported him yelling at our little dog when she would bark and hit things up against the fence at her and Jeff has heard him yell at the dog for barking. Keep in mind, we've never really even talked to the guy or even seen him close up for that matter. He stares at us when we drive by his house though so he obviously knew who we are. He is not actually a neighbor but our houses back up to each other. All of our other neighbors in our culdesac we get along with great...more than great, actually. We are VERY close with at least 3 neighbors and have friendly relationships with all others and everyone loves our kids. I couldn't care less what the guy does or how anal he is but recently there was an incident when my son was out in the our back yard playing in his tree house. Michael is a huge fan of Ron Paul and had made his own signs and had them hanging in and around his treehouse. came into tell me that the jerk came out yelling at him and telling him to take those signs down. Michael was building a home made bow out of wood and he was yelling at him and telling him he better not shoot that at his house or he better not find anything in his yard. After that Michael was in his treehouse after dark (Jeff has lights up there for him) and he came in the house all freaked out saying the jerk had come out and just stood in his yard in the dark and stared at him. Now mind you, this man has never said one word to US about anything, EVER. I went out there that night fully prepared to say something to him the next time he came out. He never came out that night and Michael hasn't been playing out there recently. I had a feeling he was going to call the homeowners association on us...I looked to see if you could see Michael's signs from the street in any direction. I knew that if we got a letter it would have to be because he called them because they are barely visible. You would HAVE to be looking for them to see them way through the trees...not something they are going to see on a routine drive through looking at peoples YARDS...not up in the trees through several lots. Sure enough, today we got our letter from them! I was very angry and it was the last straw for me. Tonight we went our for dinner with some other people after the Senate District Convention and we got home after 10 o'clock. When we turned to our street we could see him talking to his neighbor in his driveway which is about 4 houses after where we turn to go to our street. When we turn, his neighbor turns around behind him to look at our car turning...I told Jeff he is saying something about us for his neighbor to turn around to look at a car four houses away turn down a street and he's staring at us. That's it....We drove in our driveway, and decided it was time to have a chat with him. He is obviously a coward because if he wasn't, he would have said something to us a long time ago if something was bothering him instead of yelling at our kids and dogs when we aren't around. So we walked around the block to see if he was still outside. I think we took him by surprise. The guy lied through his teeth and denied everything. I told him he's lying and I don't belive him but I'm wasn't there to debate that with him. I did my best not to be too angry but I'm pretty sure he was aware. By the end of the conversation, he had admitted to things he was denying at first in the conversation. He had denied yelling at Michael and even denied telling Michael to take his signs down. By the end of the conversation he did admit that he had flown off the handle and that he shouldn't have done that. I told him I am a very reasonable person and if he would have come and told me my sons signs were a problem to him even if I don't agree with it, I probably would have done something to alleviate his discomfort however because of his methods of dealing with things, I didn't have Michael take them down. I believe in holding my kids responsible and I expect them to be respectful of his property and if he has a problem, he needs to say so. I asked him if he had called the Homeowners Association on us and he admitted that he did. I told him that was a very un-neighborly thing to do when all he had to do was speak to us like a mature adult instead of acting like a butt to people he has to share a fence with. Now, if you know Jeff and I...we are not the kind of people to make excuses for our kids. Michael has had his problems but he's doing okay now and I think its a lot in part because we have always held him accountable. When he was 4 years old and took something out of a store (I think it was a pack of gum or something), we took him back up there and had him apologize to the manager and return it. One time he some holes in some neighbors pumpkin bags with leaves in them and when he told us he had done it because they "scared" him, we had him go apologize. I'm just saying, we do our best to teach our kids and to take the high road. I expect even more of "adults". He said the kids have thrown banana peels in his yard or leaves from our banana tree. I told him, from now on he needed to say something if that happened and we would deal with them. Regardless of how silly it might be to someone, that is his property and our kids are required to respect others property. So anyway, that was a long time coming and Jeff said that I "tore him a new one"...I did? Really? Wow, I felt like I was really holding back but I went there to say what needed to be said. Jeff said I had that guy with his tail between his legs because he knew I was right. Fine, but I am NOT a confrontational person at all. I guess that's why I let this go on for so long. He was never rude or didn't bow up to us at all...he denied, lied, and then finally admitted to *some* things and then went on a long narration about how if we hear him shooting BB guns, he's shooting the possums and that he's trapped a bunch of possums and raccoons and even a "cat" one time but he let it go. He laughed...I didn't. I didn't confront him on the cats but I'm pretty sure he went on that narration because he was out in his back yard today sweeping when I called Jeff on the phone to tell him about the letter from the homeowners association. I knew he was listening and I loud enough for him to hear. I was telling Jeff that if he wants to start reporting people for things then I can report him for shooting at the birds in our neighborhood which is a bird sanctuary and I mentioned the dead cats, too!! During this confrontation I did get confirmation that he really is a coward and that is the last thing he wanted was to actually talk to us. I think he would have went inside before we got there if we wouldn't have taken him by surprise by walking up when he least expected it like that. He even turned his back and started looking away when we got close...probably hoping we were out taking a stroll.... Well, in any case...hopefully that will take care of the problem and the guy will actually say something next time he has a problem and all of the childishness will stop. Maybe he'll think twice at least because I'm not waiting so long before I say something the next time.

Whew...I'm done with my rant now!