Sunday, September 23, 2007

Fences

Today's been kind of a weird one. My next-door neighbours are having a baby shower. The house is owned by Wayne and Ginny, and Andrew, their son, his wife April, and their kids all live their too. Anyhow, April is pregnant, and yesterday, Wayne mentioned that today is the baby shower, and did I know I was invited?
Here's the awkward part: right after we moved in, we told them that we wanted to fence in the back yard for Marlowe. They said okay, but they wanted us to get it surveyed first. Fair enough, but it's been bloody hard to get a surveyor to come out and do the work. (Halifax!!!) Finally, Wayne got a surveyor out to replace the missing marker pins. Well... it turns out that we have way more land than we thought, and they have way less. The rose hedge isn't even NEAR the property line! They are understandable upset (who wouldn't be?) but they've also hinted that Ginny is particularly upset at us for wanting to put up a fence on what they always thought was their property. I know what you're thinking--not really our fault or our problem, right? True enough, but who wants to feud with their neighbours? Plus, they are quite nice (a little odd, but they've been good neighbours) and I don't like the idea that they're upset with us, whether it's our fault or not. So. I suspect that my baby shower invite got lost under a pile of pissed-off.
I don't really like leaving things like that, though, so yesterday, Trent and I went to get a little baby gift, and today, I made a tray of crostini to take over. I stopped in, told them I couldn't stay because I have a big pile of marking (which is actually quite true), but that I wanted to bring over a gift and a snack. A few minutes ago, while Trent was outside digging post holes for the new fence, they came by to return my plate, full of goodies from the shower. I think we're good.
How's that for a day of construction? Trent is building fences, and I'm mending them. Good fences make good neighbours, right? (Oh, the cliches, the cliches!)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

to add an interesting twist... maybe they SPAT on the 'goodies' before bringing them to you....

just sayin.

Becca said...

Dammit! Why am I not more paranoid?!

Oh well. Brought them over to Mom anyway...

Nancin8R said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nancin8R said...

I might be dumb as a fencepost, but I think, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Move onward and upward before letting loose the dogs of war.
Also beware of Greeks bearing gifts. http://www.westegg.com/cliche/links.html

Becca said...

Ohhhh.... who deleted a comment? Was it naughty?

Nancin8R said...

It was me.. sorry, I no write good, then I publish with spelling errors. Then I wish for no one to know, so I try to pull sneaky delete. Ends up not so sneaky.. le sigh..

Becca said...

Le sigh indeed. I was kind of hoping it was naughty, and not just ungrammatical...