Neighborhood blight - gone!

Our awful neighbors on the other side of Tim (who lives right next to us), have been living in that house for about two years. They were renters, which just makes all of us homeowners crazy. I always had suspicions that they were drug dealers because when they first moved in there was a steady stream of different cars and people that would stop on a nightly basis. Then we found out the couple (we never knew if they were married) had a four-year-old son with a heart condition. We would hear him and sometimes see him,and he seemed to have all the energy and vitality of a healthy kid. But he had to go in the hospital for sometimes weeks at a time for surgery and recovery.

And even though the traffic outside the house slowed down, the problems with them being loud at night started. The guy owned a tree trimming business, and would be out at 8 or 9 at night with his chain saw or a wood chipper. Then they would all be up, sitting outside the garage (which was at the back of the house), smoking cigarettes and trying to repair whichever of their vehicles had broken down that day. Hammering and laughing, laughing and hammering. Poor Tim next door's bedroom was right below their driveway, and he ended up having to move his mattress to the living room to sleep. And what wonderful conditions for the four-year-old to exist in. When we would go out to take Molly out for the last time around midnight, most nights I would hear the little boy out there too.

They were just bad news.

About a month ago I was walking Tucker past their house at dusk and there was a truck putting a flat-bed trailer pulled up to the front door and people were loading furniture into it. Hallelujah! I said to myself and started trying to call Jav. The next day there were new trucks that started appearing, and trash left in the driveway, some spilling out onto the driveway from the garage. We could see this because both garage doors were broken (it looked like someone backed into them), and they wouldn't close any more. There were two screens that had been removed from windows and never put back. Well, we decided that the mom and little boy must have moved out and left his sorry posterior there after a week went by and nothing much changed. Our hopes of him moving out too started vanishing after two weeks, and pretty much died after three.

But then, salvation in the form of the landscape guys that came (we think hired by the owners), for the first time after winter to clean up and mow the yard. Presumably they saw the sorry state of the house and told the owners that they might want to check in. (Who rents out a house and NEVER checks up on the tenants?) Tim said late that afternoon that the owner was storming around pointing out to the guy what he needed to clean up. They moved the rest of their stuff the next day, but it took them a whole week to clean up.

We didn't know all of this was going on until Tim waited for Jav to come home one night and gleefully told him the good news. We all did a Dance of Joy. And even though there's still some trash they didn't take, and a HUGE pile of wood he never got around to chipping or chopping, every time I drive by I do the Dance of Joy in my head all over again.

Now I can officially say I really love all of my neighbors!