I spend a fair amount of time on my back deck in the summer, and over the years I’ve used this time to make observations on my neighborhood/neighbors. Lots has happened since my last update, but the more it’s changed, the more it’s also stayed the same…..
Starting with my neighbors to the northeast, they still have their adult (early 20s), high-school dropout daughter living with them. Over the past few years, she’s cycled through a couple of boyfriends, and apparently a couple of very part-time jobs. Earlier this year, I thought she may have moved out, but it turned out she was in some type of rehabilitation facility for a few weeks.
So much for the rehab, because police and ambulance vehicles rolled up to the house one recent Sunday morning, as she laid on the front lawn in some stage of unconsciousness. My neighbor will gladly tell me what happened the next time I’m outdoors, but I’m sure it will be only a minor variation from all the past substance abuse-related emergency vehicle visits. He’s embarrassed by his daughter’s behavior, but never enough to make her accountable, so nothing changes.
Meanwhile, my widowed neighbor to the east said goodbye to her delinquent granddaughter long ago, but now has her grandson living with her again, after his stint of more than a year in prison. I was led to believe his incarceration was due to multiple impaired driving convictions, however, there’s more to it than that. I know this because a couple months ago, in a strange Google deep-dive, I discovered he is currently on the state of Iowa sex offender registry! It’s not great to have your neighbor’s house as a dot on the sex offender registry map, but that’s where we are.
Upping the ante, he now has a less-than-fully employed girlfriend and her five-year-old son living with him in the house as well. It doesn't seem like a great situation, living with grandma, but the worst of it is that yard has become trailer-trash central. The widow is rarely seen outside these days; she doesn’t really know or care about the property condition, and neither does her son who lives nearby. Meanwhile, the grandson and girlfriend just leave everything outside (bikes, coolers, chairs, toys) where they last left it. Alas, the grandma doesn’t make them accountable, so nothing changes.
Unfortunately for me, the lack of accountability by my neighbors does change one thing – it keeps my property value below where it should be.
