i hate mean neighbors

remember good fences make good neighbors? to recap, i completely paid for a new fence and one neighbor has given me nothing but grief each step of the way. i have tried to distance myself the best that I can and yet there are still two potential points of conflict and contention that lurk on the horizon.

the first being finishing our side of the fence. we are using an oil based stain which has the consistency of water, dark water mind you. i did a sample section of the fence and ran into three concerns any of which will send her ballistic. (1) great care will have to be taken so the stain doesn’t run over the top of the board, (2) the stain could leak through knots which are open enough and, (3) stain bleed through if there is enough gap between the boards. I can meticulously stain her section of the fence, yet I fear the smallest mistake will send her ape shit, yet again.

i also plan to put pavers under the fence to hopefully minimize wicking of the water from the bottom of the fence. i would like to straddle the fence line for better protection. she doesn’t want the pavers on her side of the fence so she has asked that the pavers not extend beyond her side of the fence board. the fence board itself is only a half-inch thick, so i even plan a quarter-inch set back, hopefully limiting her opportunity to complain. I fear that complain she will. she’ll simply look at the pavers and ever though they will not extend onto her side, she’ll defy the laws of mathematics and claim that they do. she’ll have another opportunity to go ape shit, yet again.

maybe i’m awfulizing, but her history indicates something different.

li feel a little how dorothy and her troop from the wizard of oz felt. even though they seldom saw their wicked witch, that constantly lived in fear of her. i have my own wicked witch to the east. i will currently live in fear of her and her next dispatch of flying monkeys.
The fear runs strong. I felt tired at 10:30, which is a rarity, came to bed and immediately started to worry/fear about her next response, what her next flock of flying monkeys will attempt to do. it nears 3:30 and still can not sleep. i know that she doesn’t deserve this power but her history as a bully frightens me.

until i finish this fence project, am able to splash water on her, click my heels together three times and return to my kansas, free from her evil domain, she will continue to hold way too much sway over me.

screw wicked witches! they suck! let’s burn them at the stake.

fences, neighbors-follow-up

i still have some faith in human kind. Mary talked to our other neighbors it which we share a fence line. let me recap, it’s another long one.

good fences make good neighbors?

robert frost almost got it right; good fences make good neighbors-only if you have good neighbors.

we are in the process of replacing our fence, for which we paid 100% of the cost. we have a neighbor, I would guess, doesn’t particularly care for us or she’s a bitter women. want proof? easy peasy.

isolation is like a chicken egg

in the same vein of forest gump’s life is like a box of chocolates, i say isolation is like a chicken egg. you’re likely saying something like bipolar sojourner, you sure must be crazy. where’d you come up with this hair brained idea? let me explain.

have you ever tried to hold a chicken egg in your hand and tried to crush it? my guess is you didn’t succeed. that’s so mama hen can lay on her eggs without crushing them.

your “rat park”

my friend shared with me about some crazy scientists and their experiment. they started with rats and put them in a standard boring rat cage along with a choice between water and a water/heroine mix. the rat got use to the heroine and made regular trips to his “hit”. the rats would seldom if not at all visit the water spigot.

chicken yorkshire

eeh by gum, take a gander at the calendar, don’t get flummox, but did you flippin’ ‘eck knoe that august 1 is yorkshire day.( the the previous sentence is loaded with yorkshire-ism.) neither did i until by blogger friend lauren hayley, who happens to live in yorkshire told me. I told her about about our family recipe for yorkshire chicken. Mary and i introduced it to your friends down the street. they liked it so much,  it has become a regular on their christmas table. lauren asked for the recipe and instead of trying to shove in a comment field, I decided to post it here, for all to see. so, without further ado, the recipe