I got myself into a heap of trouble yesterday...

We share a patio with our next door neighbor, who gave permission to a boy, who lives on the 3rd floor, to leave his bike downstairs next to the fire stairs, which is on his side of the patio. The problem is that he and his friend never leave their bikes there, but leave them in front of his slider, ours, or anywhere in between instead. Sometimes they also ride up on our patio right in front of us while we're sitting outside... we love that

When the good weather first arrived, I called the office, then Corey went down there, about one of the bikes after it was left on OUR side of the patio for 6 days without moving. We told the office what the boy's father looked like, and where we thought they lived. They told Corey they would send an email out, but nothing happened. Corey ended up moving the bike inside by the front entrance. Later, he ran into the father, spoke to him about the bike, and found out about the arrangement with our neighbor.

I have spoken to both boys very nicely separately, and together, several times. I spoke to the boy's friend Friday night (in front of his sister) after he left his bike propped up on my patio chair....

Last evening, while our blinds were drawn but open, we caught the boy upstairs trying to leave his bike in front of our slider, and his friend trying to leave his in the same place as the night before- against my patio chair. So, I went out to talk to them again. Unfortunately, I was PO'ed and HIGH at the time, and let "CUT THE S-" slip out at the end... UGH

So, the very angry mother from upstairs came down pounding on my sliding glass door to f'ing scream at me for swearing at her child, but she was a real piece of work, who refused to believe that her son had EVER left his bike on our side of the patio LOL... it's a daily occurrence. Ordinarily, I would have immediately apologized because I was in the wrong for swearing at children (and should not have been even talking to them while high), but you get what you give. So I yelled right back at her, and told her I'd be willing to go upstairs and throw all my s- all over her deck.
I did eventually apologize for swearing at the kids, and promised not to do so in the future, but I refused to back down about the bicycle situation. I said it was our own personal rented space, I would NOT be dealing with it all summer, and would call the leasing office and make it so that the boys would lose their privileges to park their bikes downstairs AT ALL (their not supposed to do so even on their own decks/patios) if it continued.

I have not heard from the other mother (YET). The father of the boy upstairs said he had spoken to her. Maybe she had already heard from her daughter that I had spoken to her son the night before, or maybe she knows that if another adult tells her kid to "cut the s-" there's a good reason for it (that's what I would suspect). IDK. But if she comes banging on my door, I'll handle it differently this time. I'll open with that apology. And I never even asked the other mother what the kids told her I said. Maybe they told her something different/worse. She just asked if I swore at her son, and I said yes.

I hope that the father speaks to our neighbor, the one he has the agreement with. He is also having problems with the kid leaving his bike where he is not supposed to. When I saw him the other day, he said he had spoken to him twice recently, and he knows I have spoken to the kids, too.

Later, we heard the father upstairs talking to the boys. Corey said he heard him saying I was right, it is our personal space, but I went about things the wrong way. And he went on to give them directions about not riding their bikes on, or leaving their bikes on, our side of the patio. So, hopefully something good will come out of my mistake, and we won't have to deal with this s- anymore.

Corey is understandably very upset because we moved to avoid problems with our old neighbors, and I just caused major problems for us. I hope this blows over without any future incidents. I've never seen the mother before last night, and Corey thinks she doesn't go out much, if at all. So, it's not likely I will run into her often. We will run into the father for sure because he's around enough, but he seems like a reasonable guy. Very odd tho, and Corey thinks he's on drugs. I'm sure we'll see the kids, but I'm just going to ignore them, and let them go about their business. I don't want to intimidate them or anything. If they start parking their bikes where they shouldn't again, I'll call the office... every single time. And I will take pictures.

Maybe it's because of how things were when I was growing up, but I don't really think what I said was THAT bad, but I know I still should NOT have said it. It was not my proudest moment. I really do feel worse for causing grief for Corey than saying "S-" in front of two 9 year olds who I am sure have heard a lot worse tho.

I'll probably hear from the office, and that's okay. I'll tell them exactly what happened, and exactly what I said. And I'll tell them that in the future, they can expect their phone to ring off the hook if the kids don't learn anything from what happened last night.

I should have been calling the office about this before it got to this point.