I hate the neighbors across the street

The following is a letter that I wrote to my neighbors across the street.  I'm still deciding whether or not I'm going to send it to them:

Dear Drivers in the Riley Family,

I am concerned with the parking situation I have found outside your residence.  There is consistently at least one vehicle parked outside your home at all times, day or night.  Often there are two or more vehicles present.  In the latest instance, the morning of Tuesday, October 20, 2009, all four of the vehicles owned or driven by members of your family (green Dodge minivan, light blue Chrysler minivan, red Dodge pickup truck, and grey Buick sedan) were parked on the street outside your residence.

This occurrence is perplexing to me since there is ample space on your driveway and presumably a two-car garage, which is customary in this neighborhood, in which to house these vehicles.  Not only do you run the risk of damage to the vehicles by leaving them parked on the street overnight due to reckless drivers and restless adolescents, they pose a threat to normal traffic flow through the neighborhood itself.  I understand that the central location of your home within the neighborhood means that the bypassing traffic is limited; however, there remains a steady flow of vehicles to and from the other residences surrounding your home.

In addition, the location of the vehicles is problematic to the drivers in the house across the street from you.  If someone from this residence wishes to exit their driveway, they run the constant risk of accidentally hitting one of your vehicles due to their location directly behind the driveway.  Regardless of the quality of their driving, they may be unable to avoid your vehicles due to blind spots and inclement weather hazards, which will become even more prevalent in the upcoming winter months.  What is further puzzling about this situation is that, somehow, the residents at the house across the street manage to contain 7-8 vehicles on their premises without resorting to polluting the street space.  Their driveway is also arguably smaller in size than your own.

Aside from being a nuisance to your neighbors, the location of your vehicles can disrupt the operation of other services, such as the daily delivery of mail by the US Postal Service; the delivery of packages from couriers, such as UPS and FedEx; the weekly collection of garbage; and, in the coming months, the collection of leaves and the plowing of snow.  These service providers should not have to be inconvenienced on a daily or weekly basis due to your lack of spatial planning.

Finally, when pondering this aggravating situation, one has to wonder the point of having so many vehicles in one household with so few drivers.  Out of the four members of your family, only two are legally allowed to operate a vehicle.  I understand your desire for versatility in owning a truck for hauling, a minivan to carry all members of the family, and a sedan for work purposes, but the second minivan?  I cannot find a logical explanation for this automobile.  Did you miss out on the Cash for Clunkers stimulus money?  Are you nostalgic for washed-up minivan models?  Please consider consolidating your fleet of motor vehicles or expanding your driveway space to accommodate the vehicles you presently own.

If this parking situation is not rectified, I will have to find alternative approaches to resolving the matter, such as egging your house on Devil's Night, suggesting a no overnight street parking regulation to be implemented in the neighborhood, or informing authorities of your disruptive parking habits.  I hope you carefully consider the points addressed in this letter and the effect your vehicles have on others in the neighborhood.

Sincerely,

Concerned Resident of the Neighborhood


I wrote this while at work and it was surprisingly therapeutic.  And if their house gets egged next week, it wasn't without provocation... not that I'd EVER do that.

Monday, Monday... can't trust that day.

Today was a "typical" day at work, which means that I had no clue what I was doing for most of the day.  It started out weird in that we had two employees at each other's throats at 8:15 in the morning.  Of course my supervisor, who is in charge of employee relations, was not there and wouldn't get into the office until 9.  I didn't know what was going on and gave out my supervisor's cell phone number to the manager.  As soon as the manager walked away, I was worried about having given out the cell number.  I was worried that my supervisor would be pissed that I gave it out.  But the person I gave it to is really intimidating and I was kinda afraid of telling her no.  This manager is pretty intense and demands things just with the way she speaks.  I didn't even think of saying no to her.  I wish I had that kind of power over people.  Or maybe I just don't have a spine...

Anyway, by the time my supervisor gets in, we are supposed to meet with two people who are visiting from the Wisconsin office.  They kinda have to do their own thing out there so they were visiting to get a chance to ask questions and learn things from the main office.  Fortunately for me, this meeting coincided with an interview that my supervisor was supposed to do.  Because of this, I got to do my first interview with someone.  It was actually pretty cool, although I think that has a lot to do with the willingness of the interviewee to talk.  This guy was really talkative, almost too talkative.  I went in there pretending like I knew exactly what I was doing though and I think it went well.  I had a list of questions to ask the person and he didn't really answer the first one, but did well with the rest.  I had to listen to a ton of technical jargon while the guy explained specific water purification processes.  I just nodded and pretended like I knew what he was saying.  I don't know how helpful my notes will be for my supervisor when she has to make a decision on this guy, but at least I have a little bit of interviewing experience now. 

We then took the visitors out to lunch, which took two hours.  I'm not complaining though because I didn't want to have to do anything.  It was also nice because I got a free meal out of it.  I thought it would be pretty awkward but conversation flowed fairly well.  After lunch I didn't do a whole lot.  I had a couple things that had to be done immediately, but otherwise I sat at my desk and watched the time fly by.  Today was one of the quickest days at work I can remember for a while.

I had my pilates class tonight too.  The instructor told us all about how she has to have her appendix taken out last week and had a cyst on her ovary that burst.  Yet she was still teaching the class today.  She's crazy.  She also decided to add some cardio to the class, which is a nice change up.  I like the class, but I wish that it wasn't all the way up in Cranberry.  Now that I don't have anyone to spend the class with, it's not as fun.  I get to have dinner with John though afterward though, so that makes it worth it.  Not to mention it's good for me. 

After the class, John and I went to Eat N Park for dinner.  While we were there, the day got even weirder.  I saw a coworker at the Eat N Park.  It was pretty weird because Cranberry is 31 miles north of the office and I didn't think there were many people who lived that far north of the office.  I only know of three other people who live out this way, and the guy I saw there was not one of them.  Tomorrow I'll have to look this guy up to see if he lives near me.  Luckily, I don't think he saw me, or if he did, he let it go just like I did.  He's not my favorite person so I wasn't about to go over and say hi.  It was strange to say the least.  

The rest of this week is going to be nuts.  Stay tuned for updates later this week on the next company picnic on Thursday.  It is "Autumn-fest" themed and I'll be bringing in a dessert for the decorating contest.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures of it.  I hope it turns out awesome.  Then I'm taking a personal day on Friday and John and I are heading up to Niagara Falls for the weekend.  We'll be spending Friday in Niagara and then Saturday in Toronto.  It'll be nice to get away, even if it's just for the weekend.  I need a day off of work.