Friday Flashback - What was he thinking?

Have you ever had the neighbor from Hell?



Did you let him get your goat?



ba-ba-bad neighbor.



In 2005 I moved from the midwest to CA after marrying my high school sweetie. Well sorta. (Another story, another day maybe.) We actually married in 2004 but I had to recondition and sell my condo and a daughter needed to graduate before moving. Very hysterically complicated, but all worked out ok, but it wasn't so fun being married and living 2500 miles apart for the first 6 mo., lol.



Anyway, back to the silly picture. When it became obvious to my neighbor that I was moving, he began to display some VERY strange behavior. I don't know if alzheimer's begins to display this way or not, but he was very odd with his actions.






His sitting room (a bedroom he used for television and reading, etc.) windows faced the parking lot, and was directly in front of where I would park. That room was along side the long wall that connected with my condo. (His 2 sitting windows on the left, my 2 kitchen windows on the right behind the tree). He had mini-blinds on those 2 windows and in the evening he would turn on a bright stand-up lamp, place it on the far side of the room, and proceed to sit on the sofa in his white cotton undershirt and boxers. Oh..did I forget to mention his outfit included the lampshade, ON HIS HEAD, the entire evening as he sat to watch TV (which was also blaring because his hearing was poor). It would be very dark outside, his miniblinds drawn at 45-degree angles (opposite of course) by pulling only one string of the system, and sit in all his glory for friends, visitors and prospective buyers to see. He left the blinds like this all day while I had it for sale. Now go back and click on that last pictures to get a load of those blinds, you can't see it if you don't click, lol.



Normally, Silly Billy, was a fastidious guy. His flowers were the talk, his unit was stunning. He'd redone the entire place, and it was gorgeous.



What could possibly have been his motivation?

1) He maybe thought the next neighbor could be worse than I was?

2) He wanted to pull his property value down? Hadn't he recently tried to sell?

3) He really didn't want me to move? Before he got goofy I had made applesauce from the apples from his tree for him...baked him cookies...shared veggies from my garden.



I had to contact the HOA who sent him a stern letter about "being a good neighbor" and most of the silliness stopped for a bit.



This picture was taken as my movers were packing the moving van, and the last day we day we saw Bill.



Poor Silly Billy, I wish him all the luck, he was so sick. You have to pity a man who tries to make the world as grumpy-at-heart, just to make himself feel better.