Tales of the neigborhood

Woe to anyone who crosses her.

The other day, while catching up with our neighbor Gertie, she and I witnessed a heated discussion between neighbors. 

Evidently, the one (Blond, Bitchy and Big Boobs) who is a total bitch to everyone wanted her yard cleaned up.  So husband hired a yard crew to clean up and mulch down the yard that BBB could care less about.

They brought out their gasoline-powered blowers and proceeded to blow last's fall and winter's detritus onto the other neighbor's freshly landscaped and mulched beds.  When the next-door neighbor saw what was going on, she asked BBB to ask her yard men to stop blowing crap into her Zen garden.  

BBB, screamed back that "You'll have to ask my husband to do that," because ""He's the one who handles the yard."

Which prompted a "Seriously?" commented from the aggrieved neighbor. She had a point. I mean really, what kind of smack is that?

BBB then said, "I mean that Zen garden is just a giant litter box!"

And then she walked back into the house because that is the type of passive-aggressive Barbie doll that she is.

So her aggrieved neighbor did what felt good at the moment- but wasn't very Zenlike - she got out her husband's gasoline-powered leaf blower and blew the crap back into BBB's yard.  

"Oh," said Gert, "I think we are in for another bug tussle."

Now I was torn. Part of me found the aggrieved neighbors take no shit, take no prisoners attitude something I could cheer on. 

"We went through this a couple years ago," opined Gert.  "This just made for unpleasantness."

But we all know that revenge is usually a dish best-served cold. Yet another question was, why wasn't wronged party meditating on it, which is very Zenlike. 

THAT prompted BBB to storm out of her house and walk up to her gardeners, and based on her hand gestures (it was kind of hard for us to see through Gertie's hedge, and the machines in the yard were making an awful racket) order one of the men working in her yard to blow the shit back into her neighbor's yard.  

I think body language is pretty universal, and he essentially was telling her "I am not your champion." He shrugged his shoulders and walked away.  

SO, BBB went over to the fence and started screaming at the neighbor, who screamed back "I THOUGHT ONLY YOUR HUSBAND COULD SPEAK WITH THE GARDENER!"

Our neighborhood picnic and potluck is this weekend, so I for one am interested in how BBB is going to play this. On the other hand, I think that it would be best to steer clear of both of them. 

My cocktail with Blobby

 

Blobby is very real. 

Believe me, reader, when I tell you, the man and the myth lived up to the hype, fellow blogger Blobby everything and more. 

When I knew that I had some family things in Ohio that needed tending, I contacted Blobby to see if he would like to get together for coffee or a beer, and the date was set at the Van Aken District (VAD) Market Place. 

Blobby and I were both at OSU at the same time, but we never crossed paths.  That can happen when a student population is 60,000+.  I mean the University is so large it has its own zip code.  No, not the Zip+4, I mean 43210.  But we grew up in Cleveland's eastern suburbs, and I swear that it's a small town. 

We chatted about stuff, I had a lovely time, and I hope he did too. He got me to sit outdoors, which my Husband will tell you is near impossible, and we toughed it out until the sun sank behind a building. Upon finishing our beverages we left and went our separate ways.  I did invite him and 714 to come to visit us in Baltimore. 

Just as I got out to the car, some woman came running up to my car, jumping up and down and it was my lab partner from 8th-grade science. Now Cookie is known for spotting people, but the last I heard, she was in Cincinnati, so I never dreamed of seeing her, but there she was so back in I went.   We talked about our big project - making five gallons of wine and monitoring the fermentation process. But, being 14, our parents were there for the bottling and they got to keep the spoils. Could that really have been 46 years ago? Where does time fly?

I have to say this, I have had meet-ups with bloggers and they all go well, with the exception of a former blogger who tried shaking me down for cash. And we'll just leave it at that. 

But, Oh, Cleveland, how you evolve in the most wonderful of ways, and a big f-you to media outlets that continue to only focus on that sliver of bad that every city has.  Before I left I did tell the husband that if our old family house was for sale in the Lomond area Shaker, our move would come immediately, not later. 

But it was not to be!

So it was out on Thursday, driving in the rain, was no fun. This was not only my first long-range drive travel since the Pandemic began but since the cancer surgery as well.  Visited, ran into cousins, eat a disgusting amount of heavenly food, and left there at 6am.  I arrived back in Bawlimore at 1:00 PM.  Not bad for a six-hour trip with a breakfast break and stops to use the necessary here and there. 

It's good to go back home and to the place, we'll be living in 18-24 months. 

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