Um, Er, Well... What the Hell?

It's not often that I'm struck speechless twice in the same week. I like to think of myself as a fairly open person. Sure, I have my moments of making snap judgments of people, but I really try to be welcoming and nice.

Well, in this blog installment, allow me to explain why I'm trying to figure out how to stop being quite so welcoming and a little more mean. And it involves a new fence.

Yes, it's true, I cursed that fence just a few days ago. I wasn't sure it was entirely necessary to tackle this summer - particularly because the kitchen is not yet finished. Sure, Benny can both run out into the alley and into the front yard freely. And he can run fast. But, if we keep an eye on him, it's not such a problem.

Today I have been convinced that we need a fence as soon as possible. The convincing had nothing to do with Nate's persuasive power or Benny's speed. It had to do with our neighbor's complete and utter lack of boundaries.

The neighbor in question is sweet. A nice lady who talks to us (a lot) from over the chain link fence. She has violated the boundaries of neighborliness before. All me to provide some examples:

1. Hitting one of our friend's car that was parked in front of our house. If you've been to my house, you know that there aren't a whole lot of cars parked on the street. There were at least two car spaces between the neighbor's car and the friend's car. This was the neighbor's fourth accident in about six months. She was slightly worried about her insurance. You think?
2. Crashing a dinner party. Last summer a different friend was visiting and we were sitting outside, enjoying the lovely Colorado summer. Said neighbor walked around our house, sat herself down at the patio table and proceeded to talk to us and ignore the fact that we were entertaining. Nate went inside for a beer. She chirped up and said: "Yes, I'd love a beer."

These are just two of many examples. I'm trying to establish a pattern here. We don't want to be mean, so we allow this behavior. Today, however, today, the neighbor did something truly strange. Benny and I had been playing in the front yard while Nate worked in the backyard. Benny and I made our way to the backyard to see how Nate was doing and we see the neighbor walking into our yard, decked out in her crocs, her sun hat, and a huge, flat dish thing. She came over to root through our newly dug dirt piles for marbles. That's right: marbles. I was dumbstruck. I didn't know what to say. Nate was inside and said that she had talked to him about it. He was too dumbstruck to say what the hell, so he said OK. If we had a fence, this sort of thing would not happen. So, I say, bring on the privacy fence. Make it big, make it tall, and make it impenetrable by the snoopy neighbor. I am fully supportive of this yard project!