She's Doing What?

Funny How Life Can Change

For the last few years I have lived next door to my sister and brother in law. Now, right off the bat that tells you that this is going to be a tale of woe, right? Really, no one should ever live next door to family.

Well, brother-in-law got the bright idea to redo his lawn and put in grass. This shocked me out of my shoes as their yard had always looked like a garbage truck had turned over in it. But, he wanted a first rate lawn and hired men to clean it up. Then he decided that he wanted a nice little (or big, who knows) fence to run down the side of the lawn between our properties to grow flowering vines along. Since fences are expensive he decided he had better have the lot surveyed and found that the last few feet of the driveway that separates our two lots (a pie shaped wedge) is actually on his lot.

No trouble, right? Except if he puts his fence up, I will not be able to drive in my driveway. I mentioned this to them and that was when all hell broke loose. Well, everyone in the family thought it was ridiculous to make us put in a whole new driveway for a few feet of grass and said so. That was not received too well by brother-in-law. So, I offered to buy the pie shaped wedge. No dice. I offered to give him an equivalent amount of ground off the back of my lot for it. No deal. I finally gave up and told them to do whatever they wanted.

But, the family pressure was growing and he relented. He hasn't actually agreed to anything but he put in grass on every square inch of his lawn EXCEPT on the pie shaped wedge. Since we are not sure exactly what he's going to do, we are making plans to cut a new entry to the drive as soon as the ground is dry enough. But, in the meantime, we've had lovely soft rains and lots of warm days and his grass has grown and grown.

Today I looked out and there was brother-in-law cranking up his mower. It sputtered and moaned, would cut a few feet and die. After about thirty minutes of this he looked red, hot and sweaty and I could see that the joy of that sea of grass was quickly losing favor with him. I lurked around in the bushes watching as his frustration grew. I swear there must be an evil streak in me, because I could not make myself come back in the house. I planted herbs, cut on vines and picked up non existent litter for over an hour watching the drama unfold. He swore at the lawn mower, then he swore at the weather, and finally he muttered some really 'soap mouth' words at the grass before storming through his front door and out of sight.

I waited around a little while longer but he never did come back out. I guess he can always buy a goat to keep the grass down.