The day of dread has begun.

One of the neighbors came over this morning to talk about our common fence.

I was a little bit surprised actually. He is the cheap one. He's also the one who has a bad rep in the contractor rumor mill.

Contractors all seem to know each other. And they all have their own little clicks. Which - I don't even want to get involved in. I don't care that much. I have too much crap going on. I don't even know if the rumors are true. But he did something to make them spread non-payment rumors about him.

Normally the idea of replacing the fence which was broken when we moved in (two years) ago - would make me super happy. But the whole thing sort of fills my head with static.

He wants to get quotes. I mean, I think he wants me to get quotes. He will probably want the lowest one. Which, I'm fine with. But the only guy I trust who does good work at a reasonable rate, wants to be paid in cash.

Since my neighbor is turning in an insurance claim for the fence due to the recent storm, I don't really know how that is going to work. And yes, it isn't lost on me that the he is probably committing some kind of insurance fraud. I told you - I don't care. I'm tired. He's probably been waiting for a giant fence wrecking storm to get someone else to pay for replacing it.

At any rate - I'm nervous to pay my guy to fix the fence, and hope the neighbor pays me. I'm also nervous that if I pay our half, the neighbor may never pay my guy for his half.

And, I need my contractor. He's a good guy, and a hard worker. I'm not doing anything to alienate that relationship.

Then finally - I'm a little neighbor overloaded. You know I have two sets right? So having my neighbor privacy taken away for a few days by having the fence down doesn't appeal to me right now.

I should note - except for the whole dog thing, the neighbor has been really good to us. He even gave us some quail he'd shot for Christmas. (No - I don't live in the country.) But it was a nice neighborly gesture. I guess. Right?

And - Oh yeah! I don't want his fucking dog camping out in our yard.

Update: I swear - I spoke too soon. The dogs always know when I'm running on no sleep. Cheap neighbors dog has been howling for ages. I'd share it with you if I knew how to embed audio files in my blog. But, I'll just slowly go crazy instead.