On Sat, 12 Jul 2008 14:50:25 +0200, ChattyCathy
> wrote:

>I don't miss living 'cheek by jowl' with the neighbors that's for sure.
>People always find something to moan about. Heh. I was on the 'committee' at
>the last complex I lived in so I used to get people knocking on my door
>(five or six times a week at least) complaining about their neighbor's
>dogs, cats, loud music etc. One resident even used to complain about the
>smoke from outdoor grills wafting over onto his property from the
>unit 'next door'. There was nothing in the 'house rules' that stated
>outdoor grilling was banned at that complex, so what the heck he expected
>me to do about it, I have no clue. Oh, and the arguments about who had what
>parking spaces (especially for visitors' cars) was always good for a bit
>of 'stimulation'.

You got what you signed on for. If you didn't want to deal with those
issues, you wouldn't have been on the board. It's called acting like
a grown up. <shrug> My dad got stabbed with a screwdriver by a
fellow condo owner when he was on his board (this is no slum either,
it's the ritzy part of N Lakeshore Dr. in Chicago between the zoo and
downtown). He still lives there and he's back on the board at 80+.

>These days I need field glasses to see my nearest neighbor's house;

<shudder> As a kid, I lived in the woods and didn't see anything
except trees and wildlife. Oh, it was next to a large lake and my
family owned over half of the surrounding property. The neighbors
were two (summertime only) camps that, combined, owned the other half.

>I can park wherever I want to on our property

I have a garage. Whatta concept! Lots of street parking too and the
streetcar is half a block away, so I don't have to drive if I don't
want to.

>and I can play my music as loudly
>as I want without 'disturbing the peace'. If I want to grill outdoors,
>nobody else is close enough for the smoke to bother them.

Me too, except I don't like loud noise, so loud music is out of the
question. I also know how to bbq without neighbors summoning the fire
department.

>I like it that
>way, and I personally don't find it boring; on the rare occasion that I
>voluntarily want to be in an overcrowded area, I can get in the car and
>find one. So I would rather describe living here as 'peaceful'
>versus 'stressful' on no acres - JMHO, of course...

Stress is what you make of it. There's good stress and there's bad
stress. If you didn't want any stress you wouldn't have gotten on
that "board", for starters.


--
I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number of carats in a diamond.

Mae West