Shelley's Case: Good fences

Last week wasn't so much fun, what with putting the dog to sleep and not feeling good and being busy and stressed and all. Plus, there was that nice skin biopsy on Friday, right? And I already blogged about the letter from my neighbors demanding that I cut down limbs from my cherry tree.

Allow me to update you. The weather this weekend has been rainy and windy, much to my dismay, because I really want to garden. So today, in between wind gusts and deluges, I assessed the tree situation. There are two low hanging branches that I could get rid of right away - along with a lot of clematis and jasmine which they had encouraged to go onto their side of the fence. (My feeling: if you're going to bitch about the flora, you don't get any of it. Period.) So I took care of the jasmine and clematis and then went to work on the low hanging branches. One of them went into the neighbor's yard - I was working over my head and I am not very strong. Oops.

I called and left a voicemail apologizing for the limb and said we could either go over and take care of it, or they could.

The call I got back was not exactly what I expected. Instead of, "Thanks for dealing with this so fast - I know cherry season isn't for a few more MONTHS," or "Whoops, sure, come on over and get the branch" or "No worries, we'll take care of it," this is what I heard:

"You didn't get all of the branches. There are higher branches that still hang over our yard."

My response was, needless to say, colder than the wind and rain outside, especially after they "offered to split" the cost of a tree service. I explained - can you believe I had to? - that given the weather, there was no way I was climbing on a ladder to trim a branch when the cherry blossoms haven't even popped yet. They offered to "throw the branch over the fence" for me. Um, no, thanks. I have these things called plants in my yard that I actually value. And as for splitting the cost of a tree service, noooooo, but they were welcome to pay for one.

Geez f-ing louise.

Oh, and I haven't mentioned the best part of this story - allow me to provide a little more background. My neighbors are the people who put this sign in their business window when PETA started protesting their fur business in Portland. They decided to then sue PETA and had their case not only dismissed but thoroughly dismissed, and ended up having to pay PETA's legal bills. (And can I just tell you how happy I am that saga is over? I was half afraid their house would be fire bombed, and I was just so sick of the man of the house chain smoking in the backyard and yacking on his cell phone to lawyers and talk show hosts. Yes, dude, I can hear everything you say - I am only 20 feet away.)

Fabulous.

UPDATE: I didn't go over this afternoon (Matthew did) and good thing. They owned up to turning Norris in for barking - and then cited times of day that he wasn't outside! I do not think I could have left without kicking a little dog or three.