Yardwork...again.

Just in case you missed it yesterday, I had a little bit of a run in with Weird Neighbor, who decided for whatever reason that he needed to mow my grass for me.

Now, before anyone decides to rip me to shreds and talk about how grateful I should be (again)...let me summarize.

~Alex has horrible allergies. He can't be around when I cut the grass.
~I planned to cut it this morning while he was at school in order to avoid him having an allergy attack.
~We pulled into the driveway after church to find Weird Neighbor mowing MY grass, unasked and uninvited.
~Alex wasn't even out of the van before he started coughing and horking and sneezing.
~Momma Bear instincts kicked in, and I basically told Weird Neighbor to get out of my yard.

There's more to the story than that, but those are the highlights. If you'd like to go all Judgey McJudgerson on me, please take the time to read the entire thread that I linked to up above - and make sure that you read all of the comments, including mine. Make sure you understand that I have been having issues with this man for a long time, up to and including him attempting to look in the windows of my house.

Also, make sure that you understand that I understand that he was most likely trying to be nice - but as a single mother who lives alone with her kids, I prefer to keep men that I barely know off of my property.

Anyway.....my pissedoffedness (yes, that's a word) went away a bit yesterday, although every time I looked at Alex's bloodshot eyes or heard him sneeze it came back. Then this morning, I went outside, just to see what Weird Neighbor did.

Remember the other day when I went out and busted my butt to clean up a bit outside? Particularly this - what my the sidewalk beside my house looked like until yesterday....

Yeah. I was pretty proud of that. But then he decided to mow Nice Neighbor's yard - including all of her day lilies that border my sidewalk - and this is what I was left to clean up today:

Then I walked around to the back side of my house, and I about lost it.

I have this flower bed back there. It's full of day lilies and irises. The day lilies were there when I moved in, but I brought the irises from my old house. I dug up some of the lilies and rearranged them and put irises in between and busted my butt to make that flowerbed look decent.

Until yesterday, all of those plants went the whole way to the sidewalk. That is, until he MOWED THEM DOWN. Granted, it's the end of the season and I will be cutting them down shortly - BUT he had no right to mow my flowerbed (or my grass). How did he know that I didn't have something else planted in there?

What would possess a person to go onto someone else's property, uninvited, and then mow down their flowerbed? This just boggles my mind.

Anyway....I had to get my mower out and get it fired up and running so that I could mow everything that he missed...

Now, before anyone gets all judgey again and says "OMG look at how tall your grass was!!! No wonder he had to mow it for you, you little Ghetto Queen!" let me explain. The ONLY tall grass in my yard was this stuff right by the curb. Don't ask me why. I don't know the physics of grass-growing. But literally - the rest of the yard was maybe 2" tall, then there were these random sprouts that shot up after the rain - probably something about the curb retaining water for them or something. That's beside the point.

See all of those clippings in the street? That's enough to get a citation from the city around here. So not only did he trespass on my property, but he also left crap in the street that *could* get me a ticket.

Do I think they'll come and try to nail me for it? Probably not. Point is - they could.

(Side note: See that camper in the street? It's been parked there for probably 6 months. He has someone living in it. Seriously. Someone is living in a camper with no running water and no electricity. In front of his house.)

Anyway.....enough of him. I cleaned up the yard (I didn't sweep the street though and I probably should) and I mowed what he didn't and I cut a bunch of branches and I did what I needed to do to make my yard look decent. And hopefully I got my point across that I do not need or want his help with it.

End of story.

Now, for the fun stuff...

Daniel wanted to ride his bike while I worked in the yard but the tires were flat. I couldn't find the pump, and then it dawned on me - I have an air compressor in the back of my van! I just figured that out recently (would have been nice to know about it during TMOART:12 when we were trying to blow up the air mattress) and I got out the owner's manual and figured out how to use it.

Serously? Best. invention. ever.
He played while I worked and we just had a great time spending the afternoon outside.

And of course, a day outside wouldn't be complete without some random wildlife visiting...

I was prepared to walk over to show him to Daniel, until he jumped off of my hand and somehow landed between the left lens of my glasses and my face - and then I immediately busted into some ninja-like moves to get him off of me. Ick. Bugs are cool and all, but not on my eyeballs.

The rest of the day was spent doing the usual laundry and cleaning and whatnot, and then Alex had his first "real" Cub Scout meeting tonight, which was fun.

After we got home, the boys went straight to bed - and then Alex's father showed up. As usual, out of the blue after being MIA again. Blah blah blah, excuse excuse excuse, I yelled at him, he made more excuses and promised to do better, lather, rinse, repeat.

It gets old. It really does. And the only person suffering for his selfishness is Alex.

But that's a whole 'nother story and I just don't feel like going there tonight.