Vehicles and Neighbors

I am quite tired of Him, and would just as soon have this election over with, so he can go away and be quiet.

On another subject, wholly unrelated to, although I suspect they may vote for him, are my neighbors:

Across the street and one house over are the 1990s/2000s equivalent of the Brady Bunch. 6 kids - 3 from each marriage/parent.

That isn't the story.

The story is - vacations.

They have sea-doos and a boat, a large GM truck (and after four years of looking at it, I have no idea what type of GM truck), a smaller Ford pick up, and a couple cars. That isn't the story either, per se ... except - why do you need so many vehicles? You don't. Instead, it is a matter of want. You want these toys. Again, perfectly fine ... except our driveways are not in any way similar to the long winding drives you find on an estate or on farms. They are simple 20-30 foot concrete slabs that hold 2-3 vehicles.

So what then do you do with the overload? Park it on the street. Fine. You have a couple spots in front of your house. 2 in the driveway, 2 in front of the house. Any extra will park somewhere else.

The neighbor on my left has a large boat that he now leaves in another state, but two years ago, he had the boat in the driveway, his large GM truck on the street, his work truck (county truck) on the street, one car in the garage, one car in the driveway next to the boat, and a Ford Bronco on the street.

Visualize the number of vehicles between these two houses. Then throw in a few for me. The neighbor on the right (before they fled and abandoned their home) had a Lincoln Navigator, two other truck SUV types, one car, and his work truck - for two people.

Again, you can buy 100 vehicles if you have the money and interest. The issue I have is - what happens when people go to visit? They park ... in MY SPACES. With 2-3 vehicles, One space is always available and someone fills it.

When you intrude upon, and inconvenience others, when your vehicles are so large as to cause other home owners distress when pulling out of their driveways, unable to see because every large vehicle on earth seems to be blocking the roadway ... THAT is when it is annoying.

Having put that bit out there, back to the neighbors with the sea-doos.

They were going on vacation. All six of them plus two adults. The packing of the boat and the trucks. It went on for just over nine hours. Then, something happened and they unpacked the sea-doos and the truck that would pull it, and spent two hours unpacking that truck and just under three hours packing another truck that would carry the sea-doos. I never quite figured out what was going on with that although they switched trucks (they have a third truck and opted to use it instead). The morning they left, they spent another four and a half hours getting ready to leave. A total of 19+ hours to get ready.

They were gone for seven days.

When they returned, they spent five hours unpacking and at that point, everything was strewn across their driveway and lawn. Then came the spraying off of everything, the drying out, the folding and packing away - it has yet to end and it is eight hours later.

A grand total of 32+ hours (and it isn't finished yet).

Silly is one word that comes to mind.

32 hours of work, but that isn't all of it is it? When they arrived wherever it was, they unpack and then re-pack. How long? 8 hours or more.

40 hours of packing and unpacking to go away for 168 hours. More than 23% of your time is spent packing and unpacking.

Then the drive.

3 hours away maybe. Maybe more. 6 hours of driving, 8 miles to the gallon if they are lucky. 45 gallons minimum at $4.50 a gallon = $200 in gas.


40 hours of packing and unpacking plus six hours of driving plus $200 gas.



The dumbest people on earth (which means they are voting for Obama).


Honestly, I cannot even begin to grapple with the sheer magnitude of their dumbness. I understand everyone is entitled to do whatever they wish, but here is a suggestion.

Take 2 cars (they own two cars) and use less than half the gas. Drive wherever it is you are going and RENT everything. You would get 40 hours MORE at the site doing whatever it is people with boats and sea-doos do, besides yell at their kids to sit down and be careful and don't do X,Y,Z too fast or too slow, come in , stay out, zip up the tent, eat your food, don't throw it away or the animals will come, go to sleep and shut up.

Imagine all the time they could save. More time to spend DOING instead of packing and driving. Even driving would be faster because you would be in a car and not tugging boats.

I will see them out there sorting and moving things for quite some time yet.

What compels people to waste time like this? What is it that compels you to drag a boat and sea-doos, why not rent?

Why not fly off to Europe - you would be there and back in less time than it took you to pack. By my calculations, they could fly to London, return, and have spent 10 hours visiting sites around London, in the time it has taken these people to pack and unpack.



I need the moat and wall.





neighbors
(there have been a couple revisions: just when I think they are done, they pull something else out and wash it, dry it, fold it)