Good Blinds Make Good Neighbors

If you've never visited us at McNeil Manor, you don't know that the manor is actually two identical buildings connected in three places by rickety wooden porches. Complaints to the owners about said ricketiness are often met with the response, "it's wood, it's supposed to move." We don't really like the owners. The upside to that is that every door and window on one side has a match on the other. Since we moved two doors down in September, the opposite apartment has been vacant, which has given us a certain degree of welcome freedom. That all ended yesterday when two students moved in across the way. We greeted them in the customary fashion, by informing then that when they puffed cigarettes on the balcony in front of their door, the smoke was wafting into our apartment. Later in the day, we returned from a walk and they mashed out their cigarettes and scurried inside. Maybe they were done smoking, but we're ascribing it to intimidation.

There were more new arrivals today, but we're not sure exactly how many of them there are. There were about eight people total, including two small kids, unloading a U-Haul truck into one of the one-bedroom apartments today. We'll reserve judgment. Briefly.

In other news we think the building manager is dating up, having started a social relationship with one of our downstairs neighbors.