There Goes the Neighborhood

Okay, I am going to try and do this in the most Christian way possible, but I feel I have to document this happening in our life and I also need to vent a little bit.

We have this neighbor, I'll call her B (that actually is the first letter of her name so I am not being mean). B has apparently had it in for us since the day we moved in (a little over a year ago). At first, I thought maybe she didn't hear us when we would say "hello" or that maybe she didn't see us when we would wave (I try to give people the benefit of the doubt that way). But after a year of not hearing and not seeing a person gets a little suspicious. I gave up after a few months and just pretended with her that we were not 10 feet away from each other in our yards or that there was not another person at the mailbox when we inadvertently met there. But Rich, being the kind, friendly person that he is still attempts to say "hello" to her. So, I'm not exaggating when I say that in a year, we've heard little more than a few "hmphs" from her. That is until last night.

Now you read in my last post that Rich has been preparing to put a shed on the back corner of our property. There is a part of her property that does not have grass and is dirt and rocks. That part meets up with our property and Rich is putting the shed ON OUR PROPERTY next to the dirt/rock part of her yard. So, last night Rich had some guy friends helping him put fill dirt in where the shed is going to be when B comes STORMING out of the house and proceeded to not just yell, but cuss my husband up oneside and down the other. Now, I was not outside when this happened (which is a good thing, because I probably would have launched into what my husband affectionately calls the "Listen here, Mister!" mode...but that's a story for another time). In other words, I probably would have not proceeded to stay calm and rational as my husband did. He put forth a valiant effort to discuss the issue with her...to no avail. This is what he was able to glean from the outburst. 1) She was upset that he had put some rocks on her side of the property line (in the dirt part). Okay, give her that...maybe he shouldn't have done that, he apologized and said he would move the rocks (and did so first thing this morning). 2) Something about diverting the flow of water onto her property? Again, the shed base is ON OUR PROPERTY. 3) Something about people who do work in the night are trying to hide something???? 4) Something about calling her lawyer and suing us???? 5) lots of choice words and name calling.

We sat in bed last night trying to figure out how we went from having a neighbor who doesn't acknowledge our existence to having a neighbor who apparently hates us and wants to sue us (just for the record I don't think she will really sue us, but who knows after that outburst). How do we get from here to there? I, trying to be gracious, said "I think B needs Jesus". My husband then responded that during her cussing fit she was wearing a T-shirt from one of the local Baptist churches. Well, make sense of that one if you can! I officially shake my head at this whole situation and now that I have vented my feelings I will try my best to love my neighbor and pray for my enemy, who sadly are one and the same.