Long lengths of silence...

Just don't exist around here these days. :(
 
Started July 3d when people got carried away with fireworks every night until July 7th. 
 
Daytime... Two houses across the street have just been sold. For the last week, one of the new owners has been playing with the bench saw every day, all day long. Replacing floors, cutting tiles... He's also decided to re-do the entire landscaping thing - which had been entirely redesigned last summer, incidentally. So they've been chopping trees and trimming crap using all kind of wonderfully noisy devices.
 
We had a day off yesterday, but this morning, I woke up to find out that the new owner of the second house has picked up where the other had left. Bench saw in the driveway, here we go again...
 
And if there happens to be a potential moment of silence, I can trust my next door neighbour who operates a business in his garage, building stuff using all kinds of power tools. I can understand a temporary, one-time thing. But if you do that for a living, permanently, shouldn't you rent a space in a non-residential area?
 
The same fellow also does some dog-sitting, occasionally. Though dog-sitting would mean actually taking care of them dogs, playing with them - whereas he just leaves them unattended in the backyard, barking for hours on end. I HATE chihuahuas...
 
Did I mention lawn mowers? It should be a criminal offense to have a lawn to mow in the middle of this desert! Rocks and cacti all the way.
 
Rent off...
 
 

If I lived in Las Vegas, Rain.... A rock garden would be tops on my list.

MakeShift
One word.....kids.

Working on it. ;) But yeah, that'll be the nail in the coffin.
 
Since we only rent this house, we can't do much landscaping-wise - though we have plenty of ideas. We'd rather wait until we find and buy our own house.
 
Truth be known, I love grass and trees - it's one of those things that's so refreshing when we drive to California, and the landscape changes to green. But here, I just don't get it. We have a neighbour who's house just looks like something that's been grafted here from Ireland or something, with grass and lush green trees. I am as far from a tree hugger as it gets, but there's something that just feels so wrong about it.
 
Not to mention that they do have to disregard the water saving regulations to maintain that luxuriant landscape of theirs...

Even if you have to live a little bit away from all the necessities of living, it can be very worth it if you can find a place with enough space between you and the neighbors.