Neighbors?

Anne and I pride ourselves on being good neighbors who want to befriend those who live around us. The challenge or opportunity is that we now live in a neighborhood where the tone is something less than friendly. We also have moved into a house, that unknown to us, has a history of ‘bad things’ happening in it. I know that after being a homeowner the last 11 years it is a little bit of a come down to be a renter again.

I admit that we have four dogs and people come over to our house on a regular basis. Yes we do have cars that park on the street. Yet, we don’t party until the wee hours of the morning or smoke dope in the back yard. So when there was a loud knock at the door at 8pm last night I was expecting Darious to be at the door not the neighbor who would complain about our dogs barking while inside our house with the back door open.

I understand the anoinence of dogs barking incessantly for hours without stop. Yet, my little bulldog Chihuahuas do bark but not all of the time. So is it unreasonable to go in my own backyard and talk, have music or allow the dogs to be dogs during normal times of the day? Once someone has made their mind up that any noise is unacceptable there isn’t much I can do to calm down the neighbor. We do want to befriend our neighbors but it is clear they don’t have any interest in being open to this. I know that the first time someone visiting parked in front of another neighbor’s house it elicited a quick confrontation to say MOVE your car.

I don’t want to have open warfare between neighbors who are tired of having a rental house next to them that is a two story which enables us to see the on goings of their nightly activities. I am keenly aware that we live in a diverse community where there is a school which most use our street as their walking path to school. Most of these moms and kids are non-white so I know that my neighbors have to be aware of the fact that this isn’t an all White Community. So when both Hispanic and African Americans come over all of the time it is normal not something to be suspicious about.

I don’t want to over react to my neighbor and make some snide comment like I can’t stand the cigar smoke that comes over into my air space at night. I know that once I get embroiled then my Anne will definitely lose it. So clearly God had us moved into our present house for a purpose and it is to relate back to our neighbors and ultimately love on them whether they reciprocate or not.

I think I might take all of them a pumpkin pie from Costco and see what happens.