Beautiful Weather

You would think that a nice warm, almost summer like day would be great to get out of the house and do all those nice outdoor things. I was all set to work in the garden, it needed to be weeded out and cleaned up a little. And I succeeded at that mission. I also wanted to sweep off the front porch and wash down the chairs and tables. Almost made it through that project, when oh no...you guessed......she struck again. (insert doom filled music here!!!!) You guessed, MS. CONWAY STRIKES AGAIN!!! And this time she is grumpy. While I did not have the opportunity to capture a real picture of her, here is a nice cartoon depiction of the attitude she had today!!!

Now Brandon called earlier and I had told him that I was going to go do some yard work and maybe run some errands. It was just to nice to stay in. And we laughed about how I was going to have to hide from the crazy neighbor if I did. As I came around from the backyard I saw her car was in the garage and the door was open. Oh no I thought, there is no avoiding this one. I went on to wash down the chairs on the porch, and I heard her talking to the neighbors across the street. I knew my time was coming, but I had my Ipod on so I was hopeful I wouldn't hear her!! No chance of that. She comes moseying across the road yelling all the while, "Nicole!!! Are you okay??? Nicole!!!". I figure about this time anyone within a block is now looking my way to see if I am bleeding on the front lawn or something. I dropped what I was doing and went down to the driveway to talk to her. I told her I was fine just working. At which point she cut me off and told me how she never sees me anymore, and I am never around before it gets dark and how is she supposed to see me when I don't spend time at home when it's daylight. Ummm....it's called a job Ms Conway!!! Crazy lady. Well, let me tell you she has had the worst 2 weeks ever, and you will not believe all the issues and problems she has had with her house, and can you believe all the upset she has been through??? Sure I can believe it, I will feel the same way when this conversation is over!!! Well it all started when she decided to walk around her house yesterday, whichs she never does you know, and she noticed the vent on the side of the front door was missing and it was just a "big black hole you know". Most of our houses don't have basements to there is a crawl space underneath the houses and they have these vents every few feet that are usually covered with some type of screen/grate etc. Well, "Poor Emily and Donnie (her kids) if I have to call them one more time about problems that I am having with this house they don't know what they will do. They just keep telling me that I have to get out of this house or it will done give you another heart attack." Oh my goodness......neighborhood watch might be moving???? Shocking news I know. Donnie thought she had a dead raccoon under her house and she wasn't pulling it out, nor was Donnie. So they called the city of Chesapeake who wouldn't come out either, and if they did she would still have to dispose of it. "Can you believe we had to call a company to take care of that and they wanted to charge me $250 to take out that animal. Isn't that absurd!!!" To get to the end of this story quicker, basically Jeff another neighbor who she harasses all the time came over with his long heavy gloves on and pulled out the raccoon-which turned out to be a cat. But "you just can't understand how much pressure that puts on an 88 year old woman, and you just don't know about all the problems that you can have." Thought I might get away with listening to that story and making a run for it. Oh no.. she looks at the garage where our extra washer is, "Did your washer break??? You know they don't make them like they used to." No Ms. Conway, it's an extra. Getting cut off again, she promptly proceeds to tell me that "the oil man overflowed her oil tank a few days ago and it was such a mess, and can you believe that happened, they had to call someone else to drain it down, and how much more can one little old woman take???" "It's different when you are by yourself and have no one to help you out with these things you know???" She continued out about how she has back and leg pain and will have to have an epidural for that and how I just don't know how good it is not be old and have these problems. At about that time the neighbor Jeff walked by and I waved, and he just kind of smirked. Yeah buddy I know what you are thinking....glad I am not the sucker who is stuck listening to the sagas of like as Ms. Conway! That was another issue Jeff has most likely sold his house and she doesn't know who will help her out now if he moves, she depends on him so much. I think Brandon might have to change his cell # to long distance so she doesn't start calling him again. I was being nice and friendly up until the point she told me about how she had to spend $200 to have her gutters cleaned by the handyman, and then proceeds to look at mine and tell me that I better get Brandon to work on clearing those out because they are full and they need to be done. And she has told me more than once that she has a 12 foot ladder he can use. I told her I know they need to be done, and cut off again, she totally lit in to me and told me that he better get a move on doing that before I have problems to deal with. And that is when I lost my cool and told her that Brandon is not here and when he comes home I am sure he will promptly get on clearing out those gutters but since he is in Bahrain at the moment, I don't think it's high on his list of things to do. She then said, "Oh I didn't know he wasn't home, but he really does need to take care of that." LADY ARE YOU KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW??????? UGH!!! So much for my nice Saturday afternoon outside to relax. And get this, she went on to tell me when her husband had to go to war and she was alone with her 2 year old daughter without a car, she had to mow the lawn for her house and the lot beside it and she had to do it with an old push mower, and she had to walk everywhere with her daughter, and we all have it way to easy these days. I guess that was her hint that I should break out the ladder and clean my own gutters since she did all that lawn mowing alone. I think the next time I talk to Brandon I am going to tell him that I am going to go out and clean out the gutters and we will see how he feels about that!!! Anyway, I put in my good deed visit with her and hopefully that will keep her happy for a while and out of my hair. She is a piece of work I tell you. But my garden is weeded and my porch is clean, the price you have to pay I guess!!