Not very nice

Okay,. it's come to this:

I hope my neighbors to the south get written up for their unmown lawn. The grass is at least 14" tall in spots, it looks bad, and grass that tall CAN provide hiding places for rodents. (It also looks like there are a couple fast food wrappers mixed in with the grass. No, I don't feel OK going into their yard and picking them up, nor should I have to).

I mowed my lawn last night. (The backyard, which is cooler because it only gets the morning sun, needed it more than the front yard). The policewoman next door mowed their yard. The guy across the street from me mowed the night before, the guy to the south of him mowed last evening. The person to the south of my southern neighbors had their service come in a couple days ago. So they kind of stick out.

Part of this is....sour grapes isn't quite the right term, but I feel like there's some fundamental unfairness that I got a "nastygram" from the city, which caused me a lot of worry and made me do work that probably wasn't necessary to be done RIGHT THEN....and then my neighbors just go about their lives, not mowing.

And yeah, I suppose it's possible my neighbors are overwhelmed, but it's been three weeks plus since I've been back (almost a month) and they haven't mowed in that time. It's also possible the mom is off somewhere and it's just the teen kids at home, and they don't pay attention to stuff like lawns - I haven't seen her around lately, just the kids, and while they seem to be decent kids (at least, there haven't been any loud parties or anything, which some kids would do in the absence of the parents), still...

And in a real emergency situation, you'd think a friend or someone would help out. I KNOW if I broke my leg or something someone from church would either call a service for me or send their son out to mow the lawn for me until I was better. 

I might be less irritated if it didn't feel like yet another instance of "person trying to be responsible, gets behind the curve a little, gets slapped" (me with the nastygram about grass that wasn't quite 8" tall yet in one corner of my backyard) and "other people flout all rules and social contract and it's just fine and dandy."

I also went back into the alley and cleaned up trash from my area and behind the policewoman's place. Someone had either dropped, or let blow in there, a few of those membranous plastic grocery bags and some fast-food drink cups. (people are PIGS. I'm sorry, how hard is it to hang on to your empty Sonic cup until you get home, and then put it in your trash? Instead, you make someone else go pick it up, or else it lies there forever being an eyesore)

I had to walk around the block to get there as the lock on my back gate does not work. I met up with the policewoman putting the mower away (their garage lets out on the cross-street) and I just mentioned that I was having to go 'round to get the trash because I couldn't open the gate. She said, "Wait a minute" and came back with WD-40, a crowbar, and a hammer.

We tried spraying the lock but that didn't work. So then she tried to beat it off the gate (yes, there's something kind of cosmically funny about an off-duty policewoman trying to break a lock) but it was too strong. (She remarked, "Wow. They don't make locks like this any more or our 'little thieves' would have a harder time.") So at some point I suppose I will need to get a locksmith in with bolt cutters. (They did not have them or she would have brought them). And get a new lock for back there, because as I told her, "I do want to be able to lock the gate; I don't want creepers to be able to get into my backyard easily" and she laughed and remarked that our alley was an unusually busy one. (So it's good to know that I'm not the only one who notices that, and that I'm not imagining things)

I do want to be able to open the gate easily; my gas meter and shut-off is back in the alley and while, in a real emergency, I could probably vault over the fence to get to it to shut off leaking gas, it would be easier to use the gate.

She also remarked on how good my backyard looked after the clearing out, so at least SOMEONE noticed all the work I did.