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Post by 3piggles on Oct 23, 2019 20:42:11 GMT
Hahaha, your dad is a character We have one of those round clothes lines, so yes, we can hang the privates inside the longer less private stuff. It's just that the rules say we can only use the clothes lines at certain times, etc., and if the new neighbors are sticklers for the rules(please don't be), they might complain. So if we have a bit of privacy, there's nothing for them to complain about. Leaves are changing color closer to the coast, and most of our leaves have changed and are falling. There's one beautiful bush in a lot of yards around here, that turns a beautiful shade of red. It's almost perfectly round, too, so it's a beautiful red mound of leaves. I'd love to know what type of bush that is. Ooh, a Halloween party. Definitely pictures!
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Post by Bean on Oct 24, 2019 7:10:50 GMT
Good idea to have the trees hiding the washing line - if it's not so visible, you're less likely to get complainers. I know you're used to it from your last place, but it must be frustrating owning land, but not being able to decide when you can do things like put washing out. I hope your new neighbours are nice and relaxed anyway!
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Post by 3piggles on Oct 24, 2019 21:02:40 GMT
This place is sort of halfway between the last single house we owed, with 7+ acres or woods around it, and the condo we sold to move here, where we didn't even own the outside of our unit. We own the house, but not the land it's on, here, so we do have to follow the rules. The rules, generally, seem to come down to making the place look pleasing to the neighbors. Hubby has received a lot of kudos on the arborvitae evergreen bushes, and on the berm on the front lawn, so the neighbors are happy with what we're doing. The ladies who live across the street have apparently complained about something, with just about everyone they don't like, and it's hard to tell why they don't like some people. They're an odd bunch, anyway. So we know people have had trouble with complainers, before, and just want to be able to keep neighborhood relations good. It will be a few years before the trees grow up enough to block much view, but that's okay. Our neighbor on the side where we planted the long row of arborvitaes thanked hubby for doing her job for her, lol, as she gets the benefit of the grove of trees, too
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Post by Bean on Oct 25, 2019 7:20:38 GMT
That's great, when what benefits your yard pleases your neighbours too.
I think some people just like complaining, and if they have a lot of time on their hands, they almost look for things to grumble and gossip about. We used to have a neighbour like that, and at first it seemed really negative, but it soon became clear she was just really lonely and bored, and so fixated on whether people had trimmed their hedges well or taken their bins in quickly enough. She moved out about 5 years ago, to a smaller bungalow down the road. She walks around the area and still comes up our cul-de-sac every week, keeping an eye on what everyone's doing and complaining about anyone who's 'let things go' or modified their property in a way she doesn't approve of!
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Post by 3piggles on Oct 25, 2019 21:24:14 GMT
That's sad, because she doesn't make herself wanted, so people just avoid her. I think the whole idea of what that person thinks is right is so much more important than what everyone else thinks is right, that bothers me. The ladies across the street won't speak to the man in the house to their left. He has no idea what he did, and even tried to go to the house and ask. They complained about him every chance they got, for years. Seems as if they stopped when we moved in, so I'm not sure what that's about. They also seem to come out of their house with their yappy little dog, every time we leave the house or arrive home from someplace. Hubby jokes that they have some sort of notification system letting them know when we're out in the yard, so they can bring their yappy little dog outside. They've had the dog for several months, now, and still haven't established that they're the alpha dog, and he/she isn't. So the dog pretty much runs things I don't want to complain, but we have some new people in the neighborhood, who seem to leave their dogs outside barking. We have a rule against that, so I'm going to ask the people who run the park to send around a note asking people to remember to walk dogs, rather than leaving them outside to bark. Since there are a lot of dogs in the neighborhood, it won't be aimed at anyone, just a reminder of the rules.
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Post by Bean on Oct 26, 2019 8:27:48 GMT
A Man Called Ove is one of my favourite books, and there's a good film of it too. It's about a (now) cantankerous old man who's wife died some time ago, and how he coped (or didn't cope) with his grief. One manifestation is through a longstanding feud between him and another man on the complex they live on, the man who ousted him as Chair of the Residents' Association. He does his own unofficial patrols of the complex, reporting minor misdemeanours and generally making a nuisance of himself being a complete stickler for every rule and rubbing everyone up the wrong way - he's driven insane by the fact all these rules are not as important to everyone else as they are to him!
I really loved the character of Ove, and seeing his neighbours crack through his harsh interior, and I try to keep him in mind when someone's being really unpleasant about something seemingly insignificant to everyone else!
There are good reasons for many rules though, especially relating to noise that carries in to others' homes. I hope you can get the yapping sorted.
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Post by 3piggles on Oct 27, 2019 0:12:51 GMT
I don't have a problem with rules, but I do have a problem with people who push sticking to the rules, too far. We got a role rule change so we can now the lawn on Sundays. Depending on weather, a Sunday might be the only time we can mow. Also, the park owner's son can be hired to mow lawns, and he mows on Sundays. Yet there are people who reported others for doing the same thing.
The book sounds sweet, with the characters being so representative of human society. I wish more of us helped those who were struggling.
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Post by Bean on Oct 27, 2019 7:49:46 GMT
When we visited Switzerland, there were random rules about what could be done on certain days - no washing machines, mowing, power tools etc on a Sunday. People who lived grouped together (in flats for example) seemed to come to agreements in many cases, where they all decided it was okay for people to have their washing machines on. But if not everyone has agreed to relax the rules, and you have many people sticking to it but a few flouting it, I can imagine it'd be frustrating and could cause problems.
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Post by 3piggles on Oct 27, 2019 21:23:03 GMT
Here in the US, constitutional challenges have ended most attempts to make Sunday a special day. It's a christian day, not a Jewish one, or a Muslim one, of a Hindu one, etc. Since all religions have to be treated equally, Sunday can no longer be used as a day when stores have to close, or other things can't be done. I do think it's nice to have one day of quiet, that has nothing to do with religion. It may just have been a bad choice to pick Sunday. I don't know if people complained, but to ban mowing on Sunday unless we're hiring them to do the mowing wasn't a very good rule.
I agree that people living in close proximity need rules to make sure everyone is at least considerate of each other. I think we have the main rules for that, and it's best to not set specific days that conflict with someone's schedule.
At the condo, we had so many rules and regulations, it got ridiculous after a while. It seemed as if we couldn't do anything with the outside of the building, without permission, until it came time to pay to get an upgrade or repair, then we were supposed to pay for it? Apparently the property manager who rode herd on people mercilessly has been replaced. No idea what they have now, as the first property manager promised everyone everything, and did nothing. It's not a good situation, especially when there's no appeal process. I definitely wouldn't live in a condo again. I also wouldn't live in any group living, such as a condo or apartment, that didn't have covered parking. We had to clean off and move the cars every time it snowed, and I wasn't always physically able to do that, even though hubby was at work and couldn't do it. If I didn't go out there and do it anyway, they towed the car. I'm not going to be in that situation again.
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Post by amber89 on Oct 27, 2019 22:08:17 GMT
I do find it a pitty that in the US there is no such a special day. I see it specially from the point of view of the workers. How is it for Easter? Christmas?
Here all shops are closed on sundays. If you want to have your shop open on a sunday you have to pay some extra taxes and you have to pay the workers double. And a night shift on a sunday is payed by 200% more. There are quite some strict laws regarding rest days and over-hours, late shifts, night shifts.
Austria had recently a constitutional challenge to offering the Friday before Easter as a public holiday, but only to the protestants. The catholics contested it to the European Court, as discrimination. Now, no one has it as a free day... the protestants have to take an extra holiday day, if they want it free. I know that the protestants are really not happy and they are now pushing to have it again free. Since the new goverment is still centre-right and traditionalist, it might be that Austrians might get a new public holiday.
We live in an apartment building and, so far the rules here are decent...No loud noise after 8 PM and before 6 AM, generally no loud noises the whole sundays and public/religious holidays. These rules are valid everywhere, it's actually a law. We are allowed to wash and vacuum clean on a sunday (which i either way don't do unless it's an absolute emergency), but we wouldn't we allowed to drill holes or put new tiles in the kitchen.
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Post by Bean on Oct 28, 2019 10:14:15 GMT
I like the sound of all that. Especially the double pay for working Sundays. It was like that here when the Sunday trading first started, but they soon just incorporated it as another working day, with pay being the same.
I assume you get a bit of leeway if you have an emergency (water leak maybe?) and have to make unplanned repairs on a Sunday?!
We have Bank Holidays for Christmas and Easter. Most places close for the main days, but it's more common for everything to reopen on the Bank Holidays around them. Boxing Day is a massive sale day now, and Good Friday and Easter Monday don't seem to be much different to other random Bank Holidays. The focus is just on an opportunity to make money rather than people taking time to do something more meaningful than shop.
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Post by 3piggles on Oct 28, 2019 21:10:52 GMT
The problem with Sunday rules/closings, or Christian holiday rules/closings, is that they're only Christian. Jews celebrate the sabbath on Saturdays. In the US, they challenged the closing laws, as they lost two days, being closed for their sabbath on Saturdays, and Christian sabbath on Sundays, while Christians only lost one day of pay. Then other religions challenged it, as well. It's fine of only Christians live in a country, but the US is open to all religions equally, so the laws have to reflect that. We are not a Christian country.
Also, there have always been people who worked all holidays and weekends. Doctors, nurses, police, EMTs, firefighters, hotel and restaurant workers(restaurants are often connected to a hotel, so have to offer food to those staying at the hotel 365 days a year. In the big hotels, the cleaning staff and other also had to work.
My father worked for the electricity generating company, and it had to generate electricity 24/7/365, so the workers all had to be there 365 days a year. That means cafeteria workers, janitors, security guards, and the engineers. Only management didn't have to work 365 days a year.
When hubby first graduated from college with his computer science degree, he worked at a bank doing batch runs. Basically running dumps of all the account transactions, etc., for the day, week. He worked nights, after the bank was closed, and weekends when the big end of the month batches were done. Just because some of those times were holidays didn't mean the batches didn't have to be run, so he worked.
Not everyone works every holiday or weekend, but some people have to. It's always been that way. Now, because of the end of the Sunday closing laws, stores have gone overboard trying to be open as many hours as possible, and now on Thanksgiving, too. Many stores open at midnight on Thanksgiving, so people can start Christmas shopping.
While I think that's really pushing it, as some holidays are still family days, even if not religious days. But a lot of people need the money, and the extra hours give them a chance to earn badly needed money.
So there are pros and cons about everyday just being another shopping or working day.
Most stores, and all offices and schools, are closed on Thanksgiving day, Christmas day and Easter, but not all restaurants close, and all hotels are open, as well as airports, train stations, etc. So there are a lot of people working those days.
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