I'm angry this morning.  I didn't wake up in an angry mood...but it came soon after.  Right now it's a good thing I don't have the neighbor's cell phone number or I'd call and be going off on him.  Having one of my knee jerk reactions.  Then again I feel like he deserves one of my knee jerk reactions.  It's due to the one thing I don't like about living in our awesome house....we share a driveway with him.

I feel like when it snows (like it did last night) we own 3/4 of the driveway and he owns a 1/4.  Any time his friends or family come for a visit it's the reverse. Ever since he moved in a couple of years ago this has gone on. It snows and he's out of here. Stephen ends up shoveling or snow blowing the entire driveway.  This morning he's out there doing it before heading to work.

Whew...where was I?  I just came back in from helping Stephen by doing some shoveling.  I felt it was a constructive way to get my anger out.  I did my "fuck you" by taking all the snow at the entrance of the driveway and piling it onto his side walk...nice and high.  I'm normally a compassionate person and will help anyone out the best I can.  There are times, however, when helping someone out can turn to them using you.  In this situation I feel as if we've done enough of this and he's now starting to take advantage of our helping.

The part that makes me so angry is this guy is in his early thirties.  His father and him own a painting business, so he really doesn't have to be at work at a certain time.  This dude is also buffed, and owns a huge snow blower (which he's never used).  Stephen is in his mid-fifties and works in the corporate world and is suppose to be at work at a certain time. I'm in my mid-fifties and had the snow started after Stephen went to work I would have done the snow blowing to help him out. I know it sounds like we're "old" although neither one of us really feel our ages.  I guess my point is you would think this guy would think about that.  Nope...

I remember when we first moved here.  An elderly woman owned the house next door.  When it snowed we gladly did the entire driveway.  We also did the walks around her house and in front of it.  She never asked...she didn't have to.  We did it because we cared about her and wanted to help her out.

I guess a lesson to me is not everyone has the same mind set as us.  Not everyone is a helpful neighbor anymore.  Some people will take and take without giving back.  I still may go over and have a talk with the neighbor guy tonight.  My anger will be mostly gone and not to the boiling point it was this morning......