And My Neighbors Think I'M Bad....

[blas]

The guy next door has a huge issue with my noisy bed......

The old woman downstairs will not tolerate one peep after dark......

At least I haven't done what my parents' neighbors have done in the past few months! NOTHING I have ever done to "upset" my neighbors has ever been this bad.

I used to say to myself "If they think I'm terrible, they should go live down by the university and see what real bad college aged kids are like!" but now I'm just going to say "If they think I'm bad, they're more than welcome to deal with my parents' neighbors!"

Across the street from my parents' house, there is a reddish brown house where a few guys aged 25-30 live, and next door to that house is a mustard colored house where an older guy (I think he is the father/grandfather to one of the guys in the reddish brown house).

A couple of months ago, when it was still winter (eww...*shudder*), it was...a Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (about 2 am, bar closing time). My parents were awoken by the sound of a loud truck, and a horn that wouldn't quit going off.

Dad gets up and dressed to investigate, and upon walking out the door and turning on the porch light, he sees that all of the guys from the reddish house are outside of the truck (horn STILL going off!) cursing and flipping out....you could tell that they were just shitfaced drunk. They noticed my dad and asked him to come over and help them turn it off.

Dad gets a flashlight and as he approaches the truck, he can clearly see that the truck has been in a huge accident. It looked like the truck hit a telephone pole (or some other kind of large pole, looking at the damage and how it went inward at such an angle, it didn't look like it hit another vehicle). The guys claim they had no idea how it happened, but they hit something (gee, driving drunk will do it!) and after they hit whatever they hit, the horn would NOT quit going off. The hood won't even open because it is crunched in so badly, so there's hardly any way that they'd be able to open it and disconnect the battery.

Somehow, one of the guys managed to get the horn to stop going off. After about 15-20 minutes of it. They are DAMN lucky no one called the police, because my Dad didn't, and he even stayed up for a while to watch the drunken idiots squabble outside about whose fault it was, and he never saw a cop drive by. He figured it was punishment enough that the truck was so FUBAR'd that it would take quite a bit of money to fix....not to mention that it wouldn't be hard for the cops to find who hit that pole if it was a telephone pole.

I got to my parents' house after work that Wednesday morning and Dad told me this story. I watched out the window as a tow truck came and took the truck with the smashed up front end away.

And now let's fast forward to this past Sunday....this time, the idiot is the guy who lives next to the drunken overgrown frat boys.

It was between 7-7:30. My mom was whining to my dad to go to the store and get her some soda. Dad walks out the door to get into the car and sees a very large fire coming from behind the mustard colored house.

Dad thinks to himself "Wow...that's a big brush fire....oh wait.....aren't we under a burning ban? Isn't it illegal to burn on Sundays?"

So Dad walks up to the front door and bangs on the door and rings the doorbell. No one answers.

Dad steps back and realizes that the fire has gotten even bigger. The brush fire is getting out of control, and obviously no one is home or no one is conscious.

Dad goes back home and tells Mom to call the fire department, and he watches in fear because right behind those two houses is a wooded area.....and if the fire department doesn't hurry, it won't be long before the woods are on fire!

Within minutes, the cops and rescue ambulance are there. Then the firetrucks.

The fire was so bad that it damaged the guy's truck that he had parked behind the house and it had spread a little bit into the woods, but thankfully, the fire department had it under control pretty quickly.

While the fire department was putting out the fire, the guy actually pulled up, saw that the side street was blocked off, so he got out of his vehicle and ran towards his house and admitted that he was the owner of the house.

So get this. He had originally made a little campfire for him and his grandson (a small kid with him) to cook weiners and marshmallows and whatnot, and he thought that the fire was out. So what did he do? Nope, he didn't throw water on it. He put the coals on top of a BRUSH PILE! Obviously, he didn't even check to make sure the fire was all the way out (even the coals) and he put the coals on top of a BRUSH PILE! Then he and his grandson took off to run an errand at Wal-Mart.

So yeah....Crazy Outdoorsman and Old Bitch Downstairs.....at least I don't drive drunk with my horn blaring and I don't set fires that could destroy the entire neighborhood. So kiss my fat ass.

[One-Fang]

As to the fire story, sadly that's all too common. People think once the flames have gone, a fire is out and the ashes and embers are "safe". They dump them in their brush piles, rubbish bins, and other silly places.

[blas]

I don't really see the point in dumping embers on top of flammable, dry things.

Well, so far, that's 2 crazy incidents for my parents' neighborhood this year.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Long story short, our neighbors (for a very brief time) at Pennsic started a huge bonfire and then left their camp. Large can of gasoline right there nearby.

Yeah. We handled it. Us and the camp of Vikings next door, some of whom were injured already from prior accidents caused by these idiot's stupidity.

Thank God security got down there when they did, or the Vikings would have literally killed those guys.

The next day, I sent a pack of my boys over there to take all their remaining firewood.

[XCashier]

He put the coals on top of a BRUSH PILE! Obviously, he didn't even check to make sure the fire was all the way out (even the coals) and he put the coals on top of a BRUSH PILE! Then he and his grandson took off to run an errand at Wal-Mart.

::grabs Blas' parents' dumbass neighbor by the scruff of the neck and repeatedly ::

How bloody stupid do you have to be to dump fresh embers on a brush pile?! You soak the campfire with water first, completely extinguish every trace of fire. Disposal of the ashes can bloody well wait until they're cold and dead.

I haven't been camping in twenty years, and even I know that much! Fire is nothing to toy with.

[blas]

That's not the first dumb thing either of them have done.

The overgrown frat boys don't watch their dogs, either. Nowadays they have a light chihuahua and a darker colored one, but they used to just have the lighter one and a Scottish Terrier (I think). They don't tie them up or even watch them when they send them outside. And a little over a year ago, the Scottish Terrier got ran over by a train.

[edible_hat]

As to the fire story, sadly that's all too common. People think once the flames have gone, a fire is out and the ashes and embers are "safe". They dump them in their brush piles, rubbish bins, and other silly places.

One time on a family camping trip, we were cooking a roast by burying it and lighting a fire on top. There was a sudden downpour which put the fire out, and to make sure it was really out we buried it in the sandy mud (or is that muddy sand?)

The next morning the sun was out and things were drying out so we decided to try to retrieve the roast. So we dug up the muddy sand. My dad felt some radiant heat from the larger coals so we fanned them until we got flames.

So yeah, it's possible to restart a fire that has been put out by rain and buried just by fanning the remains.

[BookstoreEscapee]

The difference, Blas, is that you have hypersensitive neighbors who can't deal with the fact that people make noise as they go about their lives, and well, idiots who drink and drive and set the neighborhood on fire.

[Dips]

I'm sorry, blas. It sounds like one my parents' ex-neighbors must have moved to Wiconsin.

Not only did he burn without a permit, he was also burning leaves which isn't allowed under any circumstances.

After he set the woods on fire, he then made a pitiful and unsuccessful attempt to put the fire out himself with a garden hose instead of calling the fire department. My father ended up being the one to call the fire department after he noticed giant fire in the woods.

To cap it off the neighbor then began bitching at the fire fighters for getting the rest of the stuff he wanted to burn wet because he didn't want to have to wait for them to dry before burning them again.

He also, I believe, called the fire department the next day to get a permit and was completely surprised that they wouldn't give him one.

[blas]

Thanks a lot, Dips

I'm just glad he isn't my neighbor. It's always been a fear in the back of my mind every night when I'm at work 15 miles away (or really, any time when I'm not at home) that one of my elderly neighbors is going to leave the stove on, or Randy is going to get drunk while trying to make a pizza and the whole building will burn down.