Well, I did it. I finally got up the nerve yesterday to talk to my neighbour. Apparently crying in front of his wife on Wednesday morning had an impact, because he wasn't angry when we started talking like I figured he would be until I gave him the letter I got from my contractor and he had to face the fact that I wasn't lying. He was nice enough and not being angry at all that I started to cry about 2 or 3 sentences into what I was trying to say. I gave him the letter and Cheruby's and my names and our phone number in case there was anything else he wanted to talk about.

He told me he didn't want to be a bitchy neighbour either which I had thought. This incident just coloured that a little. In the winter, he shoveled the sidewalk in front of the house and this spring, he put some stuff on my cedars for me. Yesterday, he mowed the part of the lawn next to the street which is impossible to get with the push mower. That's what gave me the nerve - he just did something nice for us.

Every time during this thing that I started to get upset with him, I had to remind myself that he was a nice guy and think of all the things he's done for me. (Oh yeah, he pushed my car out of a snow bank last year, too.) And remind myself of his point of view and I always felt bad for the state of his basement. It was definitely the exception when I was calling him names and Cheruby can attest to that. He got into trouble for dissing the guy a few times. Of course, that was at the whim of my moods too.

After talking to him last night, I came back into the house and let the apparently enormous amount of stress I'd been carrying around out through the usual way. (Tears, you pervs!) And then I finally got a full night's rest last night.

And today, I'm not scared to spend time in the backyard (that was a surprise to me when I realized it) and in fact am feeling inspired to do just that.