May I PLEASE Be Allowed To Enjoy The Yard I've Paid For?

Well, you can't beeleeve, the lady across the street finally was standing next to my yard as i pulled up to our driveway, waiting for her dog to get through with his digging and rolling around on our grass.  She smiled at me, so i stopped and rolled down the window.  HI! i said.  I've been hoping he wouldn't have to keep using our yard anymore, okay? 

Her eyes got big, like she was very surprised.  She said, WHAT?  I said, Would you please not allow him to use our yard?  (of course, i kept smiling as i spoke)  She looked at me like i was a big dummy, who didn't appreciate the honor of  paying a mortgage, taxes and insurance to provide a toilet for her precious darling.

 Okaaay, she said.  The way she said it, sounded like Okay for YOU!

Is there any inoffensive way to tell a neighbor who obviously is unaware of the rules in this subdivision against allowing a pet into other peoples' property, to stop using our property as her dog's personal dump?  That we have not been paying for materials and doing backbreaking yardwork simply to see the entrance to our property decimated and destroyed by her blissful ignorance?

Well, i tried my best!  I just decided to take the opportunity and get on with it.  I've been stewing and boiling every time i looked out the window and saw her stopping on the way out with her dog and again as they returned, for months now.  So i finally looked her square in the eye and came out with it.  She couldn't believe what she was hearing, and i cannot believe i needed to say it!

Rose Quartz, Silver Bracelet in Leather-Wrap

This was a great Saturday morning to be relaxing inside a beautiful bead shop, nice and cool.  The humidity is one million percent today.  Anyway, this is my first leather wrap bracelet and it's comfortable!  It was fun to learn and gets your mind totally diverted into a creative mode.

Is It Me? No, It's You Alright

"I wish some people would get some manners."  When this remark is uttered it never fails to identify the speaker as the one who needs some manners - ANY manners.

On one occasion many years ago, i had a need to make a trip into the Florida Keys. A new acquaintance just happened to be heading down to Ft. Pierce, and invited me to ride with her. I accepted and very soon began to bitterly regret my decision. This lady fancied herself a talented driver. She needed help to stay awake, though. After we had been riding for a couple hours and my eyes began to droop, she slapped my arm and informed me that the whole reason she had wanted me on the trip was to keep her company and help her stay awake as she drove.

Suddenly she began to complain in angry tones about the car behind us, as the driver was tailgating. She sped up, then slowed, nothing would throw the driver off, but eventually the car exited the highway. She talked on and on about the unthinking, inconsiderate tailgaters who made her life miserable every time she had to drive somewhere!

The next car that she came up behind was probably going the speed limit or a little under. What happened next was just amazing, as my companion revealed herself to be a raging hypocrite. She drove up so close to the car ahead that I feared she would run up on the hood. There she remained, complaining and harping non-stop about the dumb, stupid, irritating person ahead who was DRIVING TOO SLOWLY. She never tried to pass the car; just stayed right on their bumper trying to force them to drive faster. She never thought about how irritated she was when being tailgated. She thought it was just fine to do something to someone that she hated having done to herself.

OH man, I could not wait to get that ordeal over with. As I sat there willing the trip to be over, I determined NEVER to enter this woman's car again and i never did, and i never forgot the lesson she taught me:

If you complain about something somebody is doing, don't do the same thing they are doing!

And if you expect people to display good manners when dealing with you, the natural thing is to have your own good manners ready to use, right?