I think my feelings about moving to the suburbs are pretty well documented in my blog. I wasn't happy to leave the city - the place where I grew up - for the suburbs - a place where I spent 4 years of my life during high school. In recent months I have started to change my mind about the suburbs and I really started to like living out here. Truth be told, it really isn't that far from the city (5 minutes) and I like the preschool that our 3 year old attends.
Today, I started a backward slide towards my feeling about the suburbs. It started at 3:00 this morning when the neighbor's dogs (3 very LARGE dogs) started barking and barking and barking. It's not something that's new and the buster has called the police on more than one occasion. This morning, it bugged me that the barking woke me up especially since I haven't been sleeping well lately. Then there is the family who live kitty-corner from us who have a pit bull and don't put the animal on a leash.
This afternoon, we took the boys for a car ride and came back to the neighbors burning garbage in their backyard. It wasn't just the burning of the garbage that bugged me, it was the fact that they were burning it so close to our wooden fence; the ashes were wafting into our yard and landing on my cloth convertible top; and the open flames were high enough that they were probably melting the power lines that they decided to burn their crap directly under. Suddenly, my head just started to pound and I felt sick.
We have moved to the suburbs to get away from the neighbors who let their dogs poop in our front yard and kids who were rowdy. Actually, that is why David wanted to buy a house in the suburbs. Personally, I didn't notice the dog poop - I would see people pick up after their animals - and rowdy kids riding their bicycles up and down the street made me think of my happy Chicago childhood. When I saw the large, open flame in our neighbor's back yard and smelled the melting plastic smell, I just lost it and I called the police.
My blood started boiling when the police officer showed up and stopped by the neighbor's house and DID NOTHING!!!! I spoke to the officer and it is legal for the neighbor to burn the garbage in the backyard. It's legal as long as it's in a fire pit and it's covered (which it wasn't when he began but was when the police showed up. Seriously, if David insists on staying in the 'burbs we are moving to another suburb where people frown on burning garbage in their back yards.
I don't know...maybe it's not city vs. burbs, but bad neighbors. I've been there. Bad neighbors are the WORST!
Posted by: Momo Fali | April 06, 2008 at 03:55 PM
come out by us, our village gives tickets for unleashed dogs and burning leaves, thankfully.
Posted by: Jennifer | April 06, 2008 at 05:50 PM
I've never heard of people burning their trash. Is that a midwest thing?
Posted by: Mary Anne | April 07, 2008 at 09:18 PM