Recently in Neighbors Category

When I went for a walk to 7-eleven last night, it's now Saturday morning, so Friday night, I saw that one of my neighbors up the street from me was throwing out all kinds of stuff.
I think they bought the house, so this is all probably stuff left in the house from the last owners.
They bought the house as is, I do remember the for sale sign, the house was really cheap because of all of the problems it has.
The sign said it was just $89,900, and it also said in big red letters, "AS IS".
It has been through like 3 owners in the last 4 years, there's something really wrong with it to go through that many owners in so few years.
I do know that a few years ago, one of the big trees in the backyard fell on or through the roof, so maybe that's the reason or one of the reasons, the house sold for so cheap and why it's been through so many owners.

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice all of the stuff being thrown out because there was so much of it.
Boxes and boxes of magazines and books, a couple of cabinets for what looked like the bathroom, a weight lifting bench that was seriously beat up, some weights to go on it, a box of old sneakers, a big broken wall mirror, and one of those roller weight thingies, it has a handle on each side, a weight in the middle, it looks like one of those industrial hand wheels thingies except that it has a handle on each side, not just one side, and you are supposed to get on the floor, face down, grab the handles and roll back and forth, like doing a push up with it, but rolls.
I guess you use that when doing push-ups because it makes it easier to do push-ups with it, you just roll back with it underneath you to move your body up, roll it forward to go back down.
I've used one of them before, it does make push-ups easier.

I wanted to take it home with me, it was in good shape, not all beat up like the weight bench is, and I wanted to grab some of the small hand weights that I saw in a box too, but Mark was with me and he's not supposed to carry anything heavier than 10lbs, and so tomorrow if the stuff is still there, I'll have Sebastian take a walk with me and grab it and the hand weights too.
Both Mark and I can use the weights and stuff to help strengthen our cores up.
He's not supposed to lift more than 10lbs, but he can use some of the smaller hand weights and that roller weight to do push-ups, and he can start doing some exercises to strengthen his core muscles.
He's going to need to get his abs in shape for his surgery when they decide to do it, so we might as well take those weights that other people are throwing away and put them to good use getting our bodies in shape.
I need to do core exercises myself, and so sitting in a chair with some small hand weights, tightening, flexing, and releasing my stomach muscles with each rep can help tighten up my ab muscles.
I can't do traditional ab exercises anymore, haven't been able to do a real sit-up or crunch in years now, but doing some small but simple ab flexing muscles can tighten them up, I've done it before, but adding some weights in my hands and raising them up and down, doing curls with them as I flex my ab muscles, can help tighten them up even faster because of the added weight.
I can teach Mark how to do this, how to get his abs in shape without trying to do sit-ups or crunches which hurt the lower lumbar area really bad, hell, just bending over to pick something up off of the floor hurts the lower back, so he will be happy to see that he can exercise his abs without the pain that is usually involved.
And this reminds me, I need to teach him how to do an ab workout while lying in bed.
I did this for months after my first surgery because they said that I needed to tighten my core up so my muscles would be able to support all of the new hardware, but I couldn't do regular workouts, so I would lie in bed on my back, suck in my stomach as tight as I could while inhaling, and then on the exhale, push my stomach muscles all of the way out, as far as they would go, it would make me look like I was 9 months pregnant, (hahah) and then inhale and suck in my abs again.
I would do as many reps of those as I could until it started to really hurt my back muscles or feel like it was starting to tearmy muscles or tear at the stitches, and when I'd get back up after putting my back brace on, I could really feel the difference.
After about 6 months of doing that, I could tell by looking in the mirror that it was working very well.
No I didn't end up with a set of rockin' 6-pack abs, but my stomach was definitely flatter and leaner looking.
It felt really good too, it physically felt good, I could really feel that both my stomach and back muscles were tighter and stronger, and it also helped to relieve some of the pain in my lower back.
I really need to teach him that exercise, it may help relieve some of the lumbar pain that he has.
I wish I had remembered this sooner, it could have helped him be out of some of the pain that he's in.
Well, better late than never right?
I can teach him this exercise now, and he can start getting his abs in shape and tighten up his back muscles so he can be ready for surgery and be out of some of the pain that he suffers from.
I should start doing it again too, I'm starting to get flabby looking in my gut again, and it does help with the lower back pain.

This is a picture of one of my own rigged up home alarm systems.
It's actually one of those personal alarms, I guess you're supposed to carry it, but the extra piece that comes in the package with it is perfect for home security.

I have this one on the back door all of the time, we do not ever use the back door, so this one is always in place, and I test the battery every single month to make sure that the alarm is still as loud as it's supposed to be.


The way it is set up to work is that if someone tries to open the door or breaks the door in, that top wire you see in the picture, will come loose or out, and it makes the most deafening siren alarm sound you have ever heard in your life.




I warn the teens every month when I'm going to test the batteries so that they can plug their ears, it is that loud.

I think the noise alone would scare off an unwanted intruder, it is ear-bleeding loud, and if the door actually gets opened and that alarm sounds, every single one of my neighbors within a good 2 miles would hear that noise and know that something was going down at my house. Ha Ha

I also have one for the front door, and I put it in place every single night along with one of those hotel room door bar locks, and the regular deadbolt, as well as a 2x4 jammed up under the doorknob.
Being a single disabled mom, I want any possible intruders to make as much noise as possible so that it wakes all of us up, as well as half of my neighbors. Ha Ha
But I really think that if some idiot tried to break in, the noise from that alarm would send them running for their lives, it would be so obvious to them and everyone else that a home alarm had just been set off and that the police were probably already in route.
I keep both of my cell phones fully charged, one is on my night stand, the other is on Mark's night stand, and the police is set at speed dial #1.
I also sleep with a 2x4 next to my bed, and Mark sleeps with a metal baseball bat next to his.
We've never had anyone break in or even try, but you can never be too prepared for a home invasion in these times.
There's some crazy scary things going on out there folks.
Watching the nightly and morning news is starting to be even more frightening than some of the best horror movies ever made.
Desperate people are starting to do very desperate things.

I've had a few friends stop by here in the last few days, and the first thing everyone says when they walk in is "OMG, it's so dark in here!"
Well yeah, I like it that way for starters, and it's also economical.

My local electric company has sent out little fliers in with the monthly bills over the hot summer months, that actually tells people to keep blinds and curtains closed during the hot daylight hours, to keep the heat out and the cool ac air in.
I have room darkening blinds, dark wooden blinds on the large front windows which take in all of the morning's sun rays, and heavy blankets on the boys bedroom windows, because their rooms take in all of the afternoon sun rays.
My ac bills in the summer have always been 3 times lower than my plex neighbors, and most of my surrounding neighbors as well who just 'love to let all that glorious sunlight in'.
Gag.

If I could afford to, I would install some nice  home theater lighting, so that when people come over, I could hit a switch, and little lights along the floorboards would come on to show them the way in, maybe some soft dim lights in the ceiling so they can see.
These same people complain about their electric bills all summer long, but when I go to their houses, they have all of the blinds and curtains open, and you just stand near one of their windows and you can feel the heat coming, burning through the glass.
The ac has to work harder to try and keep those interior walls and windows cool, and if they are sending heat in, well then you pay for it.

It's official, I have a cold.
I knew I was coming down with something yesterday after sneezing for like 20 minutes straight.
I have spent the whole day today laying on the couch and wrapped up in blankets and just resting.
I came out and laid on the couch before the teens left for school, and Sebastian covered me up in his big comforter, fluffed his pillows behind my head, and gave me his baby blanket and his Sully to sleep with all day.
It looked as though I was sleeping with all kinds of baby bedding.
It was wicked comfy too.
It really did look and feel like I was swaddled up like a baby.
Kali and Shahiro kitties slept with me almost all day, they love it when I lay on the couch with all kinds of blankets.

I hate having a cold or whatever.
It sucks.
My body already aches so much from surgery, to get a cold on top of that is just plain miserable.
The teens are going to go to the store and get some more juice, yogurt, pudding, and jellos for me to eat while they are at school.
They also need to pick up some regular Tylenol for their use.
Sebastian has had some small headaches for the last few days, and we ran out, so they need to pick up some more.

My old duplex neighbor stopped by a little bit ago, to see how I was doing.
She had just come from her doctor's appointment and getting her scripts filled at the Walgreen's by my house, so she was close enough to stop by and see me.
She said she really misses me, to call her if I need anything at all like giving the teens a ride to the store, or whatever I need.
She said I looked like crap.
It's not an insult, I really do look like crap today.
My skin is pale and clammy, my hair is a mess, I have huge bags and dark circles under my eyes, just miserable looking and feeling.

I hate how screwed up my immune system is, I catch everything, and flu season is coming yet I can't have a flu shot because it could make me sick because of my low immune system.
I'll probably catch it this year.
That will suck big time.

So the heaping pile of garbage was out there, and there were many trash-pickers all night long. Then at about 8pm or so, this crazy lady from down the street comes banging on my door.
She wants my permission to go digging through there, wants the old mattresses, the old kitchen table that she swears is antique.
She wants all this stuff so that she can fix up the duplex she owns and rent it out to unsuspecting tourists like it's commercial real estate.

She's standing in my driveway, made me walk all the way down to the pile of crap, and she's in a nightgown, no bra, no panties, could see right through it, and she's telling me about all the xanax she just popped, so sorry if she's talking so fast and stuff.
I tried explaining to her that she didn't really want any of that stuff, that it was pee'd on, and there were cockroaches, and it all smelled bad like mold and stuff, but she just kept saying that she could decontaminate anything.
She said she had gallons and gallons of bleach.
She was going to mix up a solution that was mostly bleach, and she was going to spray it all down and make it like new.
She had her "boys" come over and start hauling the mattresses and stuff, and then she's asking me if there's another rollerblade.
She only found one in the trashcan, she wanted both.
I must have told her 10 times that this wasn't my garbage, but go ahead, take what you want, but make sure the pile stays as neat as it can be because the garbage people are coming tomorrow.
Every time I tried to walk away, she would ask me another question.
I couldn't get back in the house fast enough.

The neighbors did come back and they hauled all of the crap to the end of the driveway where it now sits in this mountainous pile of moldy, smelly, craptacular heap of junk.
It's embarrassing.
And we've had 3 trash-pickers already.
And I keep cringing because the stuff, it's really junk, it's bad, it smells, the dog pee'd on it, and people are digging through it.
I filmed one of them.
I don't know why, but I filmed a trash picker digging through all of the shit.
I feel sick.

There's so much stuff over on that side of the property that I have no clue what we'll find when we take it all out to the curb tomorrow night.
They did give us a weed whacker, but there's this big box of stuff that looks like it might have some tools in it.
I wonder if he left behind his air tools.
He has a really nice air compressor tool thing, that could clean stuff, paint with it with a special attachment, it could pump up just about any size tire too.
When we take it all out to the curb, I'm going to look in that box.
I would love to have that air compressor, I could attach the paint tool, and paint all the walls in here in no time flat.

Because of the storm and my neighbors moving out, the trash will have to go out on Tuesday night instead of tonight, and I'll have to go find my box cutter so I can go cut up all the cardboard boxes they didn't use to move with because the city won't take them at the size they are right now.
They left a ton of crap behind, you can see it in the first link I posted, and we'll be taking care of it so the landlord doesn't have to come take care of it all.

I just can't believe they won't be coming back to take care of it on their own.
It's really not fair to have dumped it all on my trash cans and just leave all that crap behind.
But they are gone now, and I guess that's a good thing.

My neighbor, the lady who generally drives me crazy on a daily basis, the lady who has been calling me 3-4 times a day since they moved in a little over 4 years ago, the lady who said they are moving out in a few weeks, went shopping today for her husband and her son's birthdays, and back to school shopping, and bought the teens a ton of back to school supplies.
Pens, pencils, erasers a gazillion folders, a ton of wire bound notebooks, compasses, glue sticks, pretty much every single supply item they might possibly need including index cards, which I was told, if they end up not needing those, for me to just use them for writing my recipes on.

I was just sitting here looking at my list of things to do, when there was a knock on the door, when Sebastian opened it, in came my neighbor's niece, the woman we babysat for last night, carrying 3 large bags of school supplies.
I was shocked, I still am, and I went over to thank my neighbor lady, to tell her that she didn't have to do all of that, that I just had to wait a few days for my check, and then I was going to go shopping.
She said she felt guilty that they were moving out, that she wouldn't be around when I had my surgery, and that she knew I had a ton of things to take care of before my surgery, and so she wanted to take one of those burdens off of me because she felt so bad that she won't be here to help me during my recovery.
She said she's going to make sure I have her new phone number though, so that when I am in recovery, I can call her for anything, and if she can, she'll come over and help me.
I cannot get over how much stuff she bought.
There are literally 50 of those pocket folders, 50 wire bound notebooks, and a ton of stuff, just look at this pile of stuff.
It's every possible writing utensil they will need, colored pencils, highlighters, pencil sharpeners, roll-on white out things, eraser-mate pens, mini-staplers, stapler removers, scissors etc. etc.
Click for bigger.




She also said she's not finished, she wants to know what size shoes they wear, she wants to go buy them their new sneakers to go back to school too.
Shocked doesn't even begin to describe how I feel.
Seriously, if you knew all of the problems that she and I have had over the last few years with our kids getting into fights, her and I, the car parked sideways in the driveway, all kinds of incidents and disagreements between us, her doing all of this is so out of character for her.
It's truly out of character for her, it's usually her wanting stuff from me, me loaning her money so she could buy her son back to school items last year, me loaning her money to go grocery shopping, putting gas in her car, letting her son sleep over here on nights her husband gets drunk, my boys mowing their lawn or taking out their trash because her husband and son won't do it, it's never been her giving anything to us.
Maybe this is like re-payment for all of that stuff, maybe she finally realized how much taking instead of giving shes done over the years, and wanting to pay it back, I don't know.
I am greatful for all of it, it has taken a tremendous load of stress off of me because I was pretty panicked about how I was going to buy all of their supplies plus clothes and shoes, plus pay for all the upcoming doctors appointments and regular bills before I go in for my surgery.
My list of things to do and things I have to buy, is pretty freaking huge, so this is an amazing help, it's definitely helped me a lot, I just wasn't expecting it from her.

Maybe people can change, even those people you would never in a million years think they would, can change.
Heck, just the other day we got into a petty little tiff over the smell of gasoline getting into her house, she thought we ran our lawn mower and Mark put it away hot in the shed, but our mower is still busted so it wasn't us, the guy next door on her left side, was out there mowing his lawn and weed whacker, and he dumped some gas on the driveway.
She apologized when she realized it was him and not us, but it's things like that that have been going on practically since the day they moved in.
But whatever, it's a huge help, I'm really, truly greatful for it, it's helped take away one of the big things on my list.