Part of my property includes this giant useless field that sits underneath power lines, where the options to do anything with are very minimal, because of the easement and by-laws and other bullshit that are tied to Georgia Power. Regardless, I am still responsible for my half of the field, and I do the absolute bare minimum in doing so, by paying to have my landscapers run the mower over it, so that the weeds don’t get so high any I have another neighbor try and anonymously report me to the county again, and have them threaten a lien on my property for something I had no idea was my responsibility in the first place.
Despite the fact that it’s legally my property, its ambiguity is still in question to everyone else in the neighborhood, who all seem to make the assumption that I once did, that the land isn’t private property, and that it’s perfectly acceptable for everyone to walk their dogs on, or for people to trollop all over whenever they want to.
Normally, I’m okay with the dogs and the occasional teen girl squad who want to take sunset selfies, as long as poop is not left there, and nobody litters. A few weeks ago, I came outside to see that a car had parked on the edge of the field and two teen lovers had laid a blanked out on my field and were just lounging out. It irked me, but I chose to not say anything about it, because I didn’t want to be the neighborhood Clint Eastwood always telling kids to get off my lawn.
Just recently though, I was coming home, and I spotted a golf cart sitting on my half of the field. I was like wtf, and it turned out to be this couple in the neighborhood that I recognized. I have no qualms with them, and we’ve been friendly in the past, so I didn’t think it would really be an issue when I came up to them, and explained that I don’t have problems with them walking their dog on my field, but if they would just not drive their golf cart around on it, I didn’t want them setting a precedent that other people would start thinking they could run vehicles on my yard, thinking it was public land.
Pretty immediately, the defense came up, and it was clear that they were not fans of being made a request of, and they immediately disputed the fact that it was my property, and that it definitively belonged to Georgia Power. They proceeded to bring up the fact that I was dumping tree debris from my fallen tree episode on company land, and that I had allowed so much tree debris to sit there for as long as I did because I have children and no time to clean up my yard whenever I want to.
It wasn’t a pleasant conversation despite both of us being able to keep it tensely civil, but I was thrown a tremendous amount of shade and passive aggression, with his wife chiming in that I should just build a fence, as if I have another spare $10,000 to erect a fence around the field, when I frankly don’t know how I’m going to pay off my credit cards at the end of this month.
Afterward, I felt all sorts of anxiety and disgust as most probably would feel having an unpleasant conversation, with a neighbor no less, and I did my best to keep my composure when I went back inside to my family and friends that were over for the evening. But there was no denying that it sat heavy on my mind, and was affecting me to the point where I felt that I should brog about it, because when the day is over, people seldom want to have beefs within their community, and as I said, I’ve had no qualms with these people in the past, it’s just seeing them drive their golf cart onto my yard like they thought they had every right to just irked me at the right time for me to feel the need to address it.
But when the day is over, I really don’t care about the field, beyond making sure it’s maintained to the bare minimum standards that will keep the yentas and gossips in my neighborhood from feeling the need to report me to the county again. They weren’t hurting anyone with their golf cart, and they weren’t doing anything unsavory; they were watching the sun setting. Sure, it is legally my property, but frankly, it’s not worth having beef over with neighbors, if they wanted to do what they did, especially considering the fact that it wasn’t a common occurrence.
I felt regret over confronting them, and frankly embarrassed that I let such an unimportant thing bother me to the point of having an unpleasant conversation. It wasn’t a matter of who was right or who was wrong, or if it was or wasn’t legally my property, it’s simply being good neighbors in a community that I want to be a continue to be a member of, in harmony with others.
I had intentions of apologizing to them, and planned on carving out a little time to go to their place to apologize in person, because when the day is over, I don’t want beef with anyone in my hood, and a golf cart riding around on a piece of land I don’t give any care to, shouldn’t be a reason for having any.
But then next time I was on my phone, saw that I had a notification in messenger, and the husband of the couple had reached out to me. Apparently, the conflict was sitting in mind as well, and he had gone so far as to go to the county records to look at the property lines, only to realize that I wasn’t full of shit, and that it was my land. He apologized for the misunderstanding, and said he wouldn’t drive the cart on my yard in the future, but I didn’t hesitate to apologize to him for having the uncomfortable conversation, and that it was fine, because a field I don’t even care about, is no reason to have any issues with neighbors.
I appreciated him reaching out, and I was sincere in my apologies, but I still feel like I should do it in person the next time I see them out and about, because otherwise I don’t feel like it’s going to be a truly closed matter between us. I don’t like having any quarrels with my neighbors, especially in this community in which I actually like being a part of, however at the same time, seeing their behavior when initiating a negative interaction was a little bit telling and could lead to some awkwardness in the future. Given when I can surmise about their affiliations and beliefs based on the things they have displayed on their property, I can’t say that I’m that surprised, but outside of politics and beliefs, I often believe there’s a human capability of anyone on the basest of neighborhood levels, and as long as we remain neighborly and respectful, we can still live in harmony.
All the same, really it’s just annoying as fuck that this goddamn field is a part of my property in the first place. If I had a substantial amount of blow-off money, I’d do something with it in order to really solidify that it’s private property, and then a lot of this kind of shit would just solve itself, but I don’t, so the door will always remain for nonsense like this occur again in the future, so the onus is really on me to keep a cooler head and remember to pick my battles, and that it’s probably not worth having issues with the people in my community over some poorly maintained land.
