Wednesday, September 17, 2008

What would you do?...

How is that for an opening? I have a situation...which haves a somewhat obvious solution...yet it is often easier for me to know the solution than it is to act on it.

I have this neighbor...his name is Jorge. He is from Mexico. He has lived next door for the past couple of years and has basically been a decent neighbor. Sometimes he even would mow or do small yard jobs for me...while I was away. He has had a number of people sharing the house with him, but they have always been nice enough. ....except a couple of weeks ago when the police were all around my neighborhood...on two streets. I found out that Jorge had let someone stay at his house who had molested one of the boys on the other street. Anyway...

A few days after that incident, Jorge came over to my house at 9:30 PM. I was in my pajamas and only opened the door to poke my head out. Told me he was moving in a few days and that his water had been shut off and he wanted to know if he could use my hose to wash up. I told him OK and after some small talk...which included him giving me a pile of firewood, I left him to use my hose. ...assuming that this was a one time deal or something.

Well, the next day I looked and saw that my hose was hooked up to his hose leading up to his house. I was a bit surprised and a little annoyed with that, but thought that maybe I had misunderstood him...easy to do when you don't both speak the same language. So thinking he would be leaving in a couple of days, I decided to just let it go. Well moving day came, and a bunch of his roomies moved out, but he didn't. Eight days later...he is still there, and so is my hose and water. He's been using my hose for nearly 2 weeks. This is because his water is off and he needs water. I believe his power is off too...as his house is always dark at night. Fortunately there are no extension cords going from my house to his.

So now I am getting quite frustrated with this situation. I spoke to him last week and mentioned it, he told me he was moving on Tuesday...Yesterday. Well, I don't see signs of moving.

OK...I know the answer is obvious. I could just go over when he is not home and unhook my hose from his and put it in my back yard. Or...I could go over and just talk to him assertively and suggest that he figure out how to get his water situation taken care of without using my water. It really shouldn't be that difficult, but it is for me. I HATE CONFRONTATIONS!!! Why can't people just be normal? You know? Who just uses his neighbor's water for weeks??? Perhaps that's what they do in Mexico, but we don't do that here. UGH!

So....any suggestions?...

1 comment:

Amy said...

If you don't need the hose right now, I'd let it go, but then give him the water bill.