Do You Have Good or Bad Neighbours?

I've got both.

Now, I think I'm one of the lucky ones that has neighbours that aren't bad to me directly, but they cause havoc for the neighbourhood. My 2 immediate neighbours are great. One of them snow-blows our sidewalk in the winter. Our other ones gave our daughter a teddy bear when she was born and have been very friendly.

But recently the guy across the street has been showing his true colours and I'm glad I've seen them before I got too close. He's outside all the time bugging the construction crew that re-doing our road and he gets in everyone's way. He doesn't get along with his neighbour, which we suspected a while ago because the fence between their 2 properties doesn't match either of their fences...

Anyway, my in-laws have had BRUTAL neighbours in the past, and it got me to thinking... What sort of neighbour am I? I haven't received any complaints, so I'd say I'm okay, but you never know. Maybe I'm the worst neighbour ever.

Here are some tips for being a good neighbour:

1. If you're in a band, ask your neighbours when a good time is to rehearse (if your space isn't very soundproof).

2. If you have dogs, be aware that their barking is annoying.

3. Mow your lawn.

4. Stain your fence.

5. Keep garbage off your lawn.

6. Say hi.

7. Don't borrow anything.

7a. Don't not return anything you borrow.

8. If you're having a party, invite them, or tell them to let you know if the noise gets too loud before calling the police.

9. Shovel their walk once in a while.

10. Offer to water their plants if they go on vacation.

11. After 3-5 years of gaining their trust, they'll give you their keys. Once they do that, wait until they go somewhere and rob them. Then say you saw some suspicious looking asians and say you tried to stop them but got mugged. Make sure you invite them over to your house to watch TV, and have something of theirs in your living room so they can say "Hey, that's my wedding ring" and you can say, "Uh, nope, that was here when we moved in..." And they'll say, "But the engraving says 'To Jeff, love forever, Janice', and that's our names." And you'll say, "Huh, maybe the people that lived here before were also Jeff and Janice."

12. If they ask you if it's okay for them to trim your tree because it overhangs on their back yard, say, "Go ahead, eh."

That's what I do.