neighbors

I live in a vacation house neighborhood which means most of the houses around me are rented to tourists on a weekly basis so I don't know most of my neighbors, but I do know the owners on either side of my house.

On one side I have permanent neighbors, that's the guy that offered me his "friendship" and a kiss a few months ago. The least said about him the better.

On the other side the owners are a lovely retired couple from somewhere in England who visit twice a year, in the spring and fall, for 5-6 weeks at a time. The rest of the time their house is rented out.

The last time they were here it was October. I always see the husband outside, doing work around the house. The first question he ALWAYS asks me is "how's your husband?"

I've literally been dreading his visit for the last 5 months just because of that question. I knew it was coming some time after Easter because that's when they are always here.

There has been a lot of commotion over at his house the past few days, people from the rental company, the landscaping crew and the pool cleaners have been here so I knew it was just a matter of time.

Sure enough, there was a car in their driveway last night and this morning I saw him driving in from breakfast as Charlie and I were driving out of the neighborhood on our way to work.

So now I want to avoid running into the neighbors on both sides of me...something that's not easy to do when you have a dog that thinks she needs to go for a walk every 30 minutes.

Maybe it would be better to just get the question over with rather than try to avoid him for the next 6 weeks, but then there will be that awkward time after I answer the question where he feels bad and doesn't know what to say. People never know what to say. I certainly don't know what to say and I still can't talk about it without crying. That's embarrassing enough when it's someone you know but totally humiliating when it's someone you just have a passing acquaintance with. 

Or, maybe I can convince Charlie to use doggie diapers!

Yeah, probably not.