At least it makes my house look good by comparison?

As you may (or may not) know, I do not live in a homes association. Therefore, when your yard excedes the typically acceptable 1 5/8" height by as much as a millimeter there is not a lawn posse that comes in to beat you senseless with a weedwacker. Which is good for us, as we are on the lax side of lawn maintenance. Our front yard usually stays under ankle-length, though there have been a few times (consistant rain, etc) where it gets pretty scruffy. Our back yard... has gotten pretty bad at times, I admit, with seed stalks shooting up to near knee high (on me). But no one can really see into our backyard, so it's only an eyesore for us.

And while we do not have an HOA, we do live in a city (albiet a lax one) and there are ordinances. I always wondered what it would take, given some of the lawns I've seen around our neighborhood, to get the city involved. Yesterday, we found out.

Our next door neighbor has not mowed at all this year, though I do understand why (more on that in a minute). And, finally, the City came by yesterday and left a notice. ( Here's a crappy picture I snapped this morning )

If you can't tell (it is a bad picture, it wasn't quite light when I left) the dandelions are easily knee-high and some of the seed stalks for the grass easily reach my waist (yes, yes, that's not that tall, ha ha).

Now, I do feel bad for the lady. Her husband died a few years ago, and she cannot take care of her house. Yes, she is older (though younger than the other old lady down the street who is always out working in her yard) but mostly she is really overweight. And, yes, again, I know I am as well, but I can walk out to my mail box. I'm not sure she could, honestly, do even that.

The year after her husband died, her son mowed the lawn. Last year, they had a lawn service. I'm not even sure she'll see the notice, because she lives in a split level and I don't know how well she can get from the garage to the level with the front door. Packages stay on her stoop for weeks.

Part of me feels like I should be nice and just mow her damn lawn, but the much larger (and lazy) part of me says I have enough to deal with in my own house (oh, we need new garage doors and openers, there's another ~$2K). Does it make me a bad person that I just don't want to be bothered? On the other hand, despite the fact that her yard is seeding mine with dandelions, I did not call the city on her, and probably wouldn't have unless rabid badgers moved into the undergrowth. And even then, I'd just have called animal control.

Ooooh, meme!

Put your music player on shuffle. Post the first line of the first 15 songs that play, no matter how embarassing*. Strike out songs when someone guesses the artist and track correctly. Google is CHEATING! Cheating gives you hiccups, don't do it.

1. Oh Thunderhead, you're a man with a problem - Thunderhead, WASP, guessed by Valonia
2. Here we go, vertigo - Test for Echo, Rush, guessed by Valonia
3. I heard there was a secret chord - Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen, guessed by Clare-dragonfly and Cazrolime
4. It's easy to fall in love
5. Why try? I know why
6. Oh this is America, the place to find a home
7. In the time we spent together
8. You and I, we are strangers by one chromosome
9. Somewhere in the distance, I hear the bells ring - Too Late for Love, Def Leppard, guessed by Valonia
10. I never thought I would get to know ya
11. Hit my snooze alarm for the twenty seventh time
12. I don't know just where I'm going, I don't know, it's been so long
13. Jessie is a friend - Jessie's Girl, Rick Springfield, guessed by Dancingleaf and Merencara
14. There's a sinister game the children play - Laughing in the Hiding Bush, Bruce Dickenson, guessed by Valonia
15. Out on the border line, somewhere between heart and mind

* I did have to skip over 10 instrumental songs and 2 songs not in English, but other than that, these are what played randomly.