MORE YARD WORK!

Believe it or not, this is an improvement!  That's the second yard waste container I was on the way to filling...

Working all afternoon, and it hardly looks like a dent was made!  Now it's storming outside - following the storm I had with my next store neighbors to the north earlier this evening when I once again saw one of the sons blowing their grass trimmings into my gutter area.  They cut their grass and then "clean" their front yard by hosing or blowing their yard waste into the gutters in front of my house!  This has been going on for fifteen years. I've written about it from time to time.
Today, sweating, tired, sunburnt after hours working outside to improve my property, I finally had enough.  I was working out back when I heard a leaf blower going and I walked to the front yard, rake in hand, knowing what I would see.  Sure enough - there was one of the sons, blowing their grass clippings into my gutter area.  The gutter area that I cleaned three times over the past three days by sweeping and putting the waste into a yard waste container to be picked up on Tuesday.  I have done this, quite conspicuously, for the past fifteen years.  This is the very same gutter area that just this morning I swept out once again, as at least two (possibly more) of the sons next store pulled in and out of their driveway since 8 a.m. watching me work my butt off to make my front yard look nice!
To say I was pissed off would be the understatement of the century.
Let me put this politely - we are now officially at war.  The first shots were fired today.  I have a lot of ammo left in my guns.  A LOT of ammo.  I will fire another round tomorrow when I finally, after years of putting up with a wet mushy front yard and never saying a frigging word about it, file a complaint with the city against the neighbor's illegally discharging their rain gutters and sump pump onto my property.  They illegally unhooked their rain gutters and sump pump to discharge directly into my front yard, when they have a storm sewer hook-up available (everyone in this neighborhood has a storm sewer hook-up).  I know they've had flooding issues in their basement for years - every time we get a big rain, like tonight for instance.  Tee hee hee.  And so, like a good neighbor,  I looked the other way for years and never said a fricking word.  I put up with the wet conditions.  No more. 

They outnumber me - there's just me versus Mrs. Widow and at least a dozen children, all grown up now, including the a-hole I confronted today who used to pee up against the house when he was four years old, the same little a-hole who used to torment my dogs when they were still alive.  Vengence is a BITCH.  Just watch me now.

On a nicer note :)  I took some more photos - in a photo mood today, I guess.

Looking toward the west/northwest, I love this photo for the contrast that you can see between stormy skies and, far to the west, a bit of clearing (it's the white area near the horizon).

I wish I had one of those super-duper cameras (and knew how to use it) that would show the spectacular stormy skies that swept in as the afternoon wore on into the evening.  I worked while it clouded over.

When I sit back in my lawn chair, lean back and look up at the sky - this is what I see. 



It makes me dream, looking up at that sky with the trees and the clouds... 

Now we're just under a tornado watch and the worst of the big booms (three EXPLOSIONS were unleashed earlier tonight by Mother Nature that shook the house and rattled the windows, and I heard fire engines going off somewhere shortly after the first one...) seem to be over.  I'm going to wash up my poor, tired out sunburnt body and think about how much it's going to cost to get the front and back yards core-aerated and the rain gutters cleaned out.  And tomorrow, back to the office.  Oh Goddess.