Our next-door neighbor just freaked my shit out. I could have sworn I heard someone call a hello through the open door upstairs, and then I heard the chain-link fence rattling. Was someone in our back yard?
I went upstairs to the living room, closed the front door, and started peering out all the windows to try to see what I’d heard. Finally, looking out our upstairs bedroom window, I saw movement: branches of the overgrown bush that’s beginning to encroach onto our property from our neighbors’. I figured it had to be the neighbors doing some yardwork, but I had to be sure.
I put on socks and sandals (I know, I know) and headed out the back door. Sure enough, once I got into the middle of the yard, I could see him out there in his own side yard, with a tree pruner plunged into the middle of this straggly bush, cutting away. Of course, he saw me, so I had to say hello and make small talk: stupid shit like, “Decided to chop down that bush, huh? I heard noises out here and wondered what was going on…” and so forth.
Keep in mind, we’ve never introduced ourselves to our neighbors in the year-plus that we’ve lived here, so he was understandably perplexed to see me. He also wasn’t in the mood to talk—he was in the mood to kick the shit out of that bush. So, I wished him good luck and went back inside.
Nobody scoping out our backyard in broad daylight. Just the neighbor getting rid of the bush Aaron had been complaining about a couple weeks back. 🙂