Love Thy Neighbor

There are many things that might suggest we might live in too close a proximity to our neighbors.  We live in a townhouse that shares two walls (how many more could you share? maybe four if you lived in a box with no entrance or exit).  I might add that we are no longer trying to sell it in this downward spiraling market, so I don't mind disparaging our location for fear that a potential buyer might be reading.  

It used to be that we had a very pleasant family living behind one wall, and a set of grill masters behind the other.  We never heard a peep out of the pleasant family.  Then, they moved out and the house went up for sale.  Now, someone has moved in that has a very loud dog that likes to bark at the wind.  The other night, I thought we had a dog trapped in our closet who wanted out.  But no, it was on the other side of the inch thick wall.  

Then, we have the opposite wall.  One of the talents of this particular neighbor is that he seems to be fantastic grill master.  He uses his grill almost every day: rain, snow or sun.  That means good eats for them.  He has been using wood chips in the grill, like some kind of smoker (don't ask me, we don't have a grill, and we don't really know how to use one - actually we had one in Utah but when we were moving out of our house, we thought it looked too heavy so we left it for the new owners).  This smoker he sets up, lets off a good deal of smoke (obviously) and makes the neighborhood smell like campfire.  The negative side of this is that the exhaust hole for my dryer is right next his grill (and consequently all the smoke it lets out) and somehow, the exhaust hole has decided to allow this serious smoke smell into the hole, up the hose, and into my dryer which is usually drying some newly washed clothes.  The result, as you can imagine, is load after load of laundry smelling like we just came in from the great outdoors (which is rarely the case with us).  Even when there is no laundry waiting for an exit, the smell seeps from the dryer door and stinks my whole house.  I thought I could stay on top of this and do laundry at different times, but he seems to grill everything from his Cheerios in the morning to the bowl of ice cream after dinner.  

So yes, we might live too close.  If my neighbors were writing this about us, they would tell you that our toddler wakes up crying at least twice a week and wakes them from their peaceful sleep (as a matter of fact, Eli is screaming right now and kicking the [shared] wall, so he doesn't have to go to sleep tonight).  They might also mention that someone, and I'm not saying who, likes to sing at the top of her (or his) lungs immediately after watching an episode of American Idol or the Sound of Music or believes she (or he) has an extraordinary talent...