my neighbour stopped me when I was taking out my recycling, and said "when I park in front of your driveway and block it, and you leave a note on my car that reads 'please don't block my driveway', it makes me really mad." and I was just nodding like oh okay. yeah? huh.
he brought up that I should feel indebted to him bc he âcleared my drivewayâ with his leaf blower, but what actually happened is that he gathered every leaf from both of our properties and piled it in a calf-high mass at the bottom of my front steps, which I had to wade through to exit my house. I genuinely thought he did this as a calculated attack. it did not occur to me that it was a good deed.
there has been some change in behaviour for the positive, though. like he hasnât parked in front of my driveway lately, which is nice. and he stopped banging on my windows when I asked him not to. and he doesnât go in my backyard anymore because I said âplease stop doing thatâ and he said âI donât do that,â and I said âI was literally watching you,â and he said âI only wanted to look over the fence into the other neighbourâs yard.â and heâs stopped going on to my porch at night to borrow my shovel (mainly because he broke the shovel and threw the pieces into my backyard), and he hasnât taken my ornamental chicken statue and placed it in his garden again because I said âplease donât steal my chicken statue I can literally see it in your gardenâ. and he also hasnât broken my recycling bin again, presumably because the lid canât split in two any further. so weâve had some positive improvements.
important context to this is that the guy yells at his wife a lot, and yells at the female tenants living in his basement, and because he perceives me as a woman, I am slotted into the 'should cower in fear of his testicles' category. but I'm also 6'2 and constantly on the verge of a mental breakdown, so I can't really manage more than a dead-eyed stare when he tries this. just standing out there in my house slippers going "oh okay" until he pauses long enough for me to slip in a firm "but please don't bang on my windows anymore."
