I get along with pretty much all of my neighbors. We’re not BFF or anything, but when I see them outside, we exchange pleasantries. This holds true for everyone but the older lady who lives behind me. I have never talked to her, and only see her when she’s out riding her lawnmower or letting her dog outside to do his business. She has lived behind me the entire time I’ve lived in my house. A while back in the early spring when I’d start to cut my grass, I noticed her dog was crapping in my yard. This is something she had to have done on purpose, because when I’m outside grilling or something, she keeps the dog close to the back door. Where my yard starts is pretty far from the back door. I flung everything back into her yard. This would go on the whole summer, and then each spring. She used to have a pine tree and an oak tree in her backyard. After Katrina, half of my oak tree (it was like a big V) kept the bedroom side of my house from suffering the same damage my kitchen side did. A pine tree in her yard fell towards my house, but my oak tree saved my house. I picked up everything from her trees that fell into my yard and hauled it out to the curb. She took care of everything that was in her yard. Her oak tree over the years has since died. It had one measly branch on it that had leaves, but the rest of it was dead. My neighbor and I were outside one day talking about how her family was going to get a fence, and we commented on the old lady’s tree and how it looked horrible and she should get it cut down. I told my neighbor about how the old lady lets her dog crap in my yard, and while we were out there, the old lady came out with her dog. Seeing us outside, she kept the dog close to the back door. She knew we knew. The tree thing though bothered me a lot, because I was always afraid it would fall onto my house.

Fast forward to three weeks ago, and there was a heavy thunderstorm that came through. I looked outside the next morning and the top half of the oak tree had toppled over and most of it landed in my yard. I went outside and threw every bit of it back into her yard. There was no way I was picking up a rotted tree that’s been in her yard for 4 years, esp since she’s never shown me respect on anything. A few days later the rest of the tree fell cross ways across her yard. I wasn’t going to have to worry about the tree falling onto my house anymore. The tree was laying across her backyard. After a week or so, grass started growing up around the tree. She never even went out to pick up the little pieces. This morning I looked out and it appears she rolled the log closer to my yard so she could cut her grass. If she needs help picking up the tree, I would go help her if she asked. Maybe she’s waiting to see how long it’ll take me to get to a point where I just call up one of my friends with a truck and haul the tree off myself. It may get to that point, but I’m going to wait her out to see if she can take care of it herself. It isn’t really helping anyone with this standoff, but she knows I know and I’m sure it’s part of her plan.