We live in a pretty cool old neighborhood.
Basically it's the same sort of neighborhood I grew up in since it was built about the same time in the early 1960's. The only real difference is that it is in eastern Tennessee instead of Lower Alabama.
Today most of the houses are occupied by older widow ladies whose husbands have already gone on to Glory, with the balance of the houses filled with second and at most third owners.
The sad thing is that what was once a giant vacant property between our street and the Pike has been filled in over the past twenty years with professional offices and townhouses, and there's a string of duplexes and quads which anchor the streets at each end of our street and they've apparently seen their better days because they're becoming more and more a bit of an eyesore because the freaking Mexicans have moved in.
Don't get me wrong here Ladies and Gentlemen...
In spite of my past ranting, the Libertarian in me says that a property owner has the right to rent his property to anyone he wishes to that pays the price he asks...I just wish the said property owner would also police his property and make his tenants not treat the exterior and lawns like a junkyard.
Closer to home, we have a delightful Mexican family next door who are the HOME OWNERS.
What an amazing difference ownership makes when it comes to the appearance and standard of care regardless of the native nationality of the owners.
Then two houses down in the other direction there is something going on in the form of a rental/lease deal and if you count the number of cars in the yard there are eight adults living in a three bedroom 1-1/2 bath house.
Apparently one of the "Hispanic" men there fancies himself an auto mechanic so you can almost guarantee that the hood is up (or off of) at least one of the cars night and day most of the time.
And one or more of the women is either running a daycare center for the other area immigrants (legal and illegal) else there is a giant band of midget Mexicans living in the crawlspace (because there's not room for them in the main house.)
Behind that house on the next street over is also a band of Mexicans or Central Americans and word has it that they own that property, and other than having a half dozen vehicles parked in the driveway and on the street out front they are pretty good neighbors, EXCEPT...
they have these two little shit yapper dogs--a little Chihuahua named "Odie" and this other wire haired
So any way, they can't weigh thirty pounds in total, but these little bastards are the scourge of the neighborhood.
If a leaf falls off of a tree at night...
...they bark endlessly.
If you walk outside in the evening to get something out of your car or smoke a cigar...
...they bark endlessly.
And the most annoying thing is that the owners let the little pack of mongrels out of their pen occasionally to run around and rape and pillage and reek havoc in and on the adjoining properties.
Odie comes over and lifts his leg and pees on everything in sight when he can.
And Pat caught "Terror the Terrier" trying to drag one of my "yard shoes" off the carport a couple of weeks ago.
She yelled at him and he dropped it.
Then after being out of town for ten days and leaving my yard shoes sitting alone outside unguarded, yesterday when I went out to stake and tie up my tomato plants...GUESS WHAT?
Yep...I only had one old dirty tennis shoe sitting there by the porch swing.
So now I'm forced to wear my "back up" yard shoes...the really stinky nasty ones I usually reserve for doing stuff in the mud and things like running the weed eater.
Dang it, I don't care if a bus load of Mexicans move into the neighborhood because the flood gates have already opened, but I just wish that they could miraculously overcome their "cultural issues" because in the end...my problem is not racial...but more of a clash of a cultural nature which is very difficult to overcome I'm afraid.
Is it just ME?
