walls and neighbors

welding the frame together

The great Tita wall is continuing.  The iron workers were here for several days installing the framework for the bamboo.  It’s incredibly built and I’m no longer concerned about wind moving it.  While they were working on it, a ladder appeared from my neighbor’s side and his head popped up.  The workers called me and I went out to try and understand what was happening.

My neighbors on that side have been very nice.  By that I mean that they always say hello, the wife welcomed us when we moved in, we talk very superficially when we see them and they have a well behaved dog. The wife has religious meetings at various times of the year, they met nightly during the build up to Christmas.  Lots of praying the rosary and candles in the front room, they leave the door open for air and at first I thought someone had died.  These were well attended events, with 15 or 20 people crammed into the small front room along with a big statue of the Virgen de Guadalupe and a lot of flowers.  The only other thing I know about them is that the husband is not very well, he goes off in an ambulance fairly often and he walks with a cane.

So, I was a bit surprised to see him on top of a ladder looking over our wall.  I could not understand anything he said.  This is how bad it was, the workers were “translating” what he said into more intelligible Spanish for me.   The upshot was that he said the wall belonged to him and that I was going to block his air with the new extension.   I called Henry.

Henry sent the job boss over and he went next door to talk to them.  He said that the neighbor wanted “a gift” for blocking his air.  He wanted all the crap in his yard cleaned out and a couple of coconut palms planted.   Meanwhile, work continued.

Henry is double checking the official plot but the wall is a shared wall and the extension we are adding is on our half of the wall.  OK.  We can take him the dimensions from the city and prove that. However, there is also the idea of good neighbors and the positive benefits I would get from having less debris in the yard next to mine.  In spite of his trip up the ladder, my neighbor is not in good health and no one has done much with that yard for years.  There are piles and piles of debris back there.  Not garbage, just plant material that has fallen as well as overgrown vines and weeds.   All of that is a good mosquito breeding area (and possibly shelters other vermin as well)  and I’d like to have it gone.

We are proceeding slowly in the usual fashion and who knows how it will end up.