Tides are Changing....

Occasionally it seems like life has a way of telling you "Get ready I am about to shake your world up as you know it." It gives you subtle hints like all of the sudden it seems things are going as smoothly as they had once before. Or there are signs that have one thing in common, and therefore subtle directing you to go this way, not the other.

Well I am starting to wonder if that is what life is doing to us right now. Getting ready to throw us a curve ball. We have lived in our current place for nearly a year. What drew us to the house was the fact that 1) it was a house, and we have the whole top floor to ourselves, own entrance. It was like we were borrowing the house to see how we like it and if we want to make a commitment one day to buy. 2) It has this really nice front porch to sit out on. 3) Washer and dryer which was the main selling point for me.

The man downstairs does a really nice job on the garden and we know he gets rent knocked off for that. Paul was all excited about having and herb garden in the summer. The landlord said this shouldn't be a problem he could ask the old guy and he could give him a small plot. Well we moved in late summer last year so it was too late to do anything we wanted.

Since then we have come to the conclusion that the old guy below, is a bit odd. He has complained to our landlord that we are too loud in the morning. I have to get up for work at 6am. I tip toe around cause his place is below our kitchen and bathroom. We have carpeting in the kitchen to muffle noise; which is disgusting. I make toast and eat while checking email at the other end of the house. How much less noise can I possibly make? One night because we have carpeting in the kitchen, we ate dinner and it was about 5:30pm so I decided to vacuum. We got a call from the landlord, the guy says we are making too much noise. Paul tells him we were eating dinner just the two of us in the kitchen and then we vacuumed? Sorry for being clean?!

Then this past week Paul approached the old guy about having a small space in the garden. He tells Paul sure no problem. Paul goes and buys all these veggies and herbs to plant. Then approaches him yesterday to tell him what he is going to do. The guys says, he changed his mind. He is entering a contest for a $50.00 gift certificate. If you saw the size of our yard, and the patch Paul was asking for, it wouldn't cause him any harm in winning trust me. It was a small 3X3 at the end of our porch. Paul was furious, I was not surprised. I can just tell this guy is not playing with a full deck most days. So Paul decides he will call the landlord and see what he says. Well the landlord couldn't see what the big deal is, and offered to talk to the old guy. Last night we get a knock on our door at like 8pm. It's the landlord, he said that the guy said okay he could have the space but he wanted to talk to us about other things. I was like "here we go". Old guy starts saying how we make too much noise in the kitchen, and asked us if we use the kitchen a lot. No more than anyone else does. Then he proceeds to say the vacuuming is an issue. That we vacuum to early. I asked okay what is a good time them cause right now I vacuum at 11am or later. He says well that should be fine. I explain to him. What else can we do? We are frustrated because we really can't make any other changes. Oh and then it got real good. He told the landlord that we had people over until 2:30am, after I just finished telling the landlord I get up for work at 6am! I was livid. I said to the landlord, "We had friends from out of the country that stayed for two nights with us, one night we were out on the porch till like 10:30pm which is no where near his end of the house. But in bed by 12am since I work everyday at 7:30am. The landlord did sort of allude to him being known to get in these moods where he complains about everything. But since he has lived here forever we have to deal with it I guess. Apparently he complains a lot about the other guy that lives below us and next to him as well. Who by the way we have maybe seen twice since we lived here.

After stewing over it all night, knowing that there is nothing we can do about it, anytime soon. We both decided we refuse to let this guy dictate how we live our lives. We will keep going as we go. Also we realize wherever you go you will always have to deal with the odd ball neighbor. If nothing else this has got us seriously saving up for a house in the future. Where we can plant what we want, upkeep how we want.

Today being Mother's Day and all, I called all the ladies in my life, Aunts, Nan, Paul called his Mum, it made me miss my Mum. Also today would have been my Mum's 62nd birthday. So I decided to do something special in memory of my Mum and sort put a bright spot in the day for me. So I walked down to the local hardware store which had a cute little garden centre going. I found a really nice hanging basket for our porch. I forget now what type of flower they are, but they almost look fake. They are this gorgeous red colour and have a waxy look to them. Then I have this blue planter I want to put on the steps to our place. As an homage to my late mother who's favorite colour was yellow I found these really pretty hybrid daisys that were a real sunny yellow, with purple and blue centers. Then to contrast those I found these really cute little flowers called Blue Hawaii, homage to Elvis...lol. You can't have Mother's Day without some Mum's! So I got some cute orange and yellow Mum's and contrast with orange and yellow pansies.
Already things were looking up. I make my way to the register which was set up outside. A lady comes up and points to money by my feet, which wasn't mine. I don't usually carry cash. I know terrible I love debit what can I say. I find for me it makes me have to really thing about making a purchase. Cash I find I spend faster. Reverse psycology whatever. So I said "Oh, looks like someone dropped their money,not mine, and I picked it up. It was like 15 bucks. I set it on the table for the cashier to deal with. The woman behind me says "What are you doing?! I will just take that right there!" Then stuffs it into her pockets! I was in shock. Once again humanity disappoints me. How do you know that, that person didn't just step way and realize they lost the cash? Maybe I am just naive and stupid. Or just always expected people to be a bit more respectful, instead pretty much everyone is out for their own gain, and will do whatever they have to do to get what they feel you owe them. Needless to say I am feeling a bit heavy hearted about the world today. Maybe even a bit disappointed in this place too. We came here not sure, but then it turned around and we were pleasently surprised. But now it seems as though the tide is changing again. Where will it take us next?