I think I am officially the neighborhood crank. Let me explain. We live on a street that is pretty quiet. Most of the time. And the neighbors on each side of our house are awesome neighbors. However, the day we closed on the house last summer, our across the street neighbor was having a get together. We were invited over to meet the neighbors, who were almost all sloshed, and were promptly told that a) we needed to cut our grass, b) we paid too much for our house, and c) the Catholic neighbor's sister had married a Jew. Awesome.Soon, we were invited to the annual neighborhood block party. We went, and made our introductions to more neighbors, then after an hour or so, we left to go shopping. We got home several hours later to the party still going, but it was pretty quiet and harmless, so we did not mind.
Then....the winter came. And the parties continued. During one party, a neighbor hit my car. My husband happened to go look out the door, so the next day said neighbor told us what happened, and made arrangements to pay for the damages, provided we not involve insurance.
Parties continued all winter. And we noticed that people were cutting through our yard to get to the house across the street. I found this incredibly rude, first of all, and second of all, I did not want to be responsible for any bodily harm that befell them on their drunken sojourns. So finally, one night during a snowstorm, dressed in sweats, slippers, and wrapped in a blanket, I angrily confronted the neighbors about cutting through my yard and told them to stop. Since then, it has been quiet, but we have pretty much been labeled as the town cranks.
So tonight, we get home, and yet another drunken party is going on, complete with blaring music. I was livid, because we do not have our air conditioners in yet, so the only relief from stuffiness is to have the windows open, which is hard to do when music is blaring at 10 pm. We finally get them to turn the music down, and the next thing we know they are setting off firecrackers. It is Good Friday for pete's sake, not the 4th of July. I am so angry, because I feel like we can not even enjoy our home.
Am I in the wrong here? Should I just ignore this? I mean, yes, we are the new neighbors, but we are straight laced, we do not drink, we do not bother anyone else, so why should we have to put up with this? I just am very frustrated, and do not know what to do. I desperately want to get a fence for our yard, but that will only solve part of the problem. Do I just stop trying to reason with these people and call the cops? And, do I need to fear retaliation if I do?
Sigh, have I really become this much of a crank?
