Beely Whin

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:59 am

Every week, if I am the first one to bring my wheely bin in off the street, I will also, as a matter of courtesy, wheel my immediate neighbours' bins in for them.

Now, if one of my neighbours goes out first, he or she will wheel his or her own bin in and that of the other neighbour but never mine. This is going on now for over 18 months since we moved here.

No, my bin doesn't smell. I wash it weekly and we are vegetarians so you don't get that rotten fish type smells from our bin.

Can anyone enlighten me about this?

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:31 am

You put me in mind of the Bonzos' song "My pink half of the drainpipe".
People living in close proximity sometimes get possessive and defensive about little things. In terraced housing, the drainpipe as a boundary and dividing line belongs to no-one - or rather, belongs exactly half to each side. So you may (only) paint your half pink. They may feel your touching their wheely-bin is an intrusion, whereas you mean it as a courtesy.
Their courtesy is to leave your bin alone.
Life is full of these little misunderstandings.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:40 am

That was really beautiful Innocent Bystander.
Thank you very much.

But,
why is it me and they?
we're all neighbours equally, aren't we?

Or are they the equal ones and I have only just been intoned?

Tyler · Post by **Tyler** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 6:59 am

Maybe they just don't like you, tal...

Innocent Bystander · Post by **Innocent Bystander** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:20 am

I missed the fact that your neighbour would wheel the other neighbours bin as well as their own.

In our little close of six houses, there is one "black sheep" who has managed to offend the rest. In our tiny pond, they are social outcastes. The rest, however, are on varying degrees of closeness. Our neighbour opposite often pops in to see our neighbour next door. We would not do such a thing (mostly because it would take us twenty minutes to get away). The point is, there is an invisible hierarchy. There are those for whom we would cheerfully accept parcels, and there are those for whom we would do so only with great reluctance.

It may be that your neighbour feels your are private people and prefer to be left alone (so they will leave your bin alone). It may be that they feel closer to the other neighbour - and that you feel closer to them than they feel to you.

I advise you to leave their bin alone. The fact that you mention it indicates that it has begun to prey on your mind. If you allow it, this could turn into a full-scale war, which would be very unpleasant.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:46 am

Tyler Morris wrote:Maybe they just don't like you, tal...

I don't think so.
They are always friendly to us.
Never got complaints about my daily flute practice, only compliments.
One of them lent me a mower when mine was at repair.
The other neighbours rake up the leaves from their yard
and share it with us for the compost bin and garden mulch.

Do you think the bin thingie is a home ownership league group cult activity? maybe?

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:06 am

Tal, I think that part of your problem is in the name "wheely bin". We don't call them that around here. We call them "dumpsters". Maybe with a new name your neighbors would be more accommodating. My dumpster is half full of refuse from the cat box, so my neighbors leave it alone.

At the last place where I lived, I rountinely brought in my neighbors dumpsters from the street. After the dumpsters were emptied in the morning they often got blown into the busy street before my neighbor got home from work in the evening. Since I was home in the morning when the city trucks emptied the dumpsters, I rountinely brought in my neighbors dumpsters as well.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:14 am

talasiga wrote:
Tyler Morris wrote:Maybe they just don't like you, tal...
I don't think so.
They are always friendly to us.
Never got complaints about my daily flute practice, only compliments.
One of them lent me a mower when mine was at repair.
The other neighbours rake up the leaves from their yard
and share it with us for the compost bin and garden mulch.

Do you think the bin thingie is a home ownership league group cult activity? maybe?

In view of the general friendliness, why don't you just ask? Perhaps they had a bin-labour arrangement in place before you arrived and don't even know that you are bringing the bins in. Each might think the other did it; it mightn't even occur to them that it was you.

Wherever I've lived in close proximity to others, very complicated arrangements have devloped whereby some of us will do things for others. Sometimes people gladly offer to do things but feel reluctant to ask. One elderly ex-neighbour of mine would happily do things for me but was very reluctant to ask, even when openly invited to and sometimes when ill or injured. Fortunately, when she needed help that I alone of her friends could offer, she'd turn to me. She probably thought that the balance of help was too much my helping her which simply wasn't the case.

djm · Post by **djm** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 8:21 am

When trying to do something helpful for someone without asking or informing them, I find it is better to say nothing and expect nothing in return. If it bothers you that you get nothing back, you probably shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

djm

chas · Post by **chas** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 9:32 am

Doug_Tipple wrote: At the last place where I lived, I rountinely brought in my neighbors dumpsters from the street. After the dumpsters were emptied in the morning they often got blown into the busy street before my neighbor got home from work in the evening. Since I was home in the morning when the city trucks emptied the dumpsters, I rountinely brought in my neighbors dumpsters as well.

ACK! You bring up painful memories. When we first lived in our current neighborhood, our trash can got blown down the street a couple of houses on a windy day. They "adopted" it. We got another trash can and it wasn't for several weeks that we found out it had just blown a couple of yards away, so there was really nothing to do about it at that point.

Doug_Tipple · Post by **Doug_Tipple** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 1:45 pm

chas wrote:
ACK! You bring up painful memories. When we first lived in our current neighborhood, our trash can got blown down the street a couple of houses on a windy day. They "adopted" it. We got another trash can and it wasn't for several weeks that we found out it had just blown a couple of yards away, so there was really nothing to do about it at that point.

If you live in a city where the city provides city-owned dumpsters, if a container gets lost or misplaced, you merely call the city department and a new dumpster will be delivered. However, where I presently live, the home owner must provide their own trash containers. Since they cost about $25/ea., it is a good idea to have your name on your container. There are a lot of brown plastic container out there, and they all look alike. College kids rent the house next to me, and I rountinely have to retrieve my containers from behind their house. Otherwise, I would have to buy new containers all the time.

talasiga · Post by **talasiga** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:06 pm

Wombat wrote:.......
In view of the general friendliness, why don't you just ask? Perhaps they had a bin-labour arrangement in place before you arrived and don't even know that you are bringing the bins in. Each might think the other did it; it mightn't even occur to them that it was you.

......

Thats very logical Wombat. Are you sure you're an Australian?

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:45 pm

I'm thinking that if you let them call you Tal, they'd bring in your bins

On a more serious note (I can be sometimes), I agree with Wombat. I'm willing to bet that they may not even know it is you who brings theirs in. I would just keep doing what you are doing. Kindnesses don't always have to be repaid to bring joy.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:56 pm

Hmm. I rather like the term "wheely bin". It's so much less nasty-sounding than "dumpster".

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Fri Dec 29, 2006 7:24 pm

It took far too much thought for me to figure out what ya'll were even talking about. Wheelie Bin?

Reading this thread makes me, yet again, glad to live out in the sticks where we have none of these things or the problems they generate. Heck, my nearest neighbor is far enough away to not be a problem most of the time. There was that instance where they were shooting a gun from their back porch toward one of our cattle fields........my husband had a little "talk" with them and that wasn't a problem again.