We had an unpleasant incident with our neighbors yesterday.
Actually, I was feeling somewhat happy before that happened, which was unusual, since I've had some depression lately. I was in the mood to get out and was feeling good about it, until we heard them talking.
We didn't mean to eavesdrop. We had opened our inside door and my husband stopped short because two neighbors (actually one neighbor and one landlady) were talking very loudly a few feet from our door. We were just waiting for them to leave, so we could get out of the house without talking to anyone, but then we heard some things we didn't want to hear.
We couldn't hear the entire conversation because of a person using a weed whacker outside, but we could hear them complaining about various neighbors, including us, all while standing on our small front lawn.
We heard them complaining about our lawn and yard and about how it brings down their property values and makes it less likely that the landlord couple can rent to good people. Yeesh. It's not like our lawn is that bad. Sure, it doesn't look like it did before, when my husband's aunt was paying for the yard work to be done and was paying for toxic chemicals to be dumped on it, but it's not as bad as they were making it out to be.
What they don't know about us, and wouldn't care about anyway with their petty minds, is that we've had a lot to deal with these last few years - important people we've lost, my husband's heart attack and surgery, job loss and job search, and other things. We work hard to do the best we can around here. I do the winter shoveling, because my husband can't be out in the cold doing work. He handles the summer work, because I can't tolerate the heat at all.
My husband also has to deal with the fact that the loud, complaining man is almost always out in front, so close by, and my husband doesn't really enjoy working outside with an audience just a few feet away. I mean, the dopey neighbor and his brother are almost always out there, talking loudly.
Also, my husband works long hours and has the heart issues and his daily sinus headaches to contend with, too. Still, he does work hard to cut the grass, dig up weeds, and everything. It's just not perfect enough for these fuss-budgets.
Once they stopped their griping, we went to our car out back. What irked me the most was that the nasty landlady had the nerve to smile at us when we were walking to our car. I did not smile back at her.
We had a hard time letting go of our anger yesterday, though we didn't let it ruin our whole day. Still, the incident was affecting my sleep today, so that is why I'm writing.
I know that a lot of people just think of themselves and don't care who they are hurting, but it's really better to try and think before speaking. Whether they were just rude and thoughtless, or whether they hoped we would hear their complaints, it was nasty either way.
You just don't know what someone else is going through, so you might want to think before being rude and talking about people and judging them so harshly.
Luckily, we have some better neighbors around here. We like the kind and helpful people who live across the alley, and even though we are cat lovers, we do love their super-sweet doggies and pet them whenever we get the chance. There is another neighbor down the block who has been here as long as my husband has, and she is a good person, too.
I wish all people were like the good ones.