Weird things you tolerate where you live?

[Loa]

Like in NZ I get alerts on my phone when there's an earthquake or volcanic activity nearby.

There's usually 5-7 earthquakes across the country per day but helpfully, there's a lot of activity in our local super volcano.

[Artemesia's Garden]

I hear a lot of gunshot where I live. I'm so used to it I don't notice it any more. Shooting (as in, the sport) is a big part of the local economy here. Also a lot of military aeroplanes from the RAF bases nearby. Poor adult literacy.

[glitterball]

1)
When I moved to our cul-de-sac the friendly new neighbours were welcoming but warned us of a newly-built house at the end that almost never got built due to controversy & concerns over the foundations being too close to an underground culvert...

Anyway, for as long as I can remember, there's always a water utility truck parked there some time during the week & water engineers doing "works"...  I still do not know what the "issue" is...

I am used to it now, but when I used to work night shifts and had to sleep during the day - it was impossible!

2)
Farmers muck-spreading: so yesterday was he hottest day of the year (so far, in the UK) and I opened the door & took in a deep breath of the morning air only to realise that the farmers had spread fertiliser over their fields & the wind had carried the "delightful" aroma of poop across the miles and through our neighbourhood. Ah, it's that time of year again...

[BlackCurtains]

People wearing whatever to cope with the heat. Seriously, the policy 'no shirt, no shoes, no service'? does not exist here. If I was braver, as a heavy person, I could go out in a bikini and not get a second glance.

Alligators. Not where I live now, but at my parents house. We had quite a few over the years in the swale in the backyard. Not very large ones, under four feet. One thing a lot of people don't know is how loud they are during mating season. They growl, splash, thrash, slap their heads and tails. At night during season it's all you could hear.

[Eskara1862]

Honestly, I could write a major television drama about the drug dealers two doors down and the vacant house directly behind me with squatters in it... I hate that I live a couple blocks away from a bike trail and I never walk it because of all the stray dogs and idiot druggies.

I wonder if I could go borrow some of Glitterball's neighbor's manure and make my area a little less palatable?

[LadyAmalthea]

I live less than a mile from a small airport that does tourist plane rides to bring in extra income during the nicer months. My house is right on the river, and it's probably quite pretty from the sky. So as early as 7am some mornings, I have to put up with low-flying airplanes over my house, waking up my kids. It's actually frightening sometimes...I've been outside and they sometimes fly so low they almost graze the tops of the trees.

I second the complaint about 'fresh' country air. My next door neighbor tries to grow a garden every year--I don't know why, because we live in the woods and don't get any sunlight, and he is unsuccessful every year. But he keeps trying it, which wouldn't bother me but for the fact that he dumps a bunch of manure on it, and it's right next to the property line, so it's a lot closer to our house than it is to his.

[Koudoawaia]

Can't think of anything from where I'm living right now since I rarely leave the house but where I grew up they would broadcast sun delays on the radio as in giving caution to drivers because there was too much sunlight.  Nowhere else I've lived has done that but I didn't think anything of it growing up so guess that's a thing I tolerated.

[Ponyfan]

Where I live tornado watches are so common that if you've been here for long you learn to ignore them because they happen so often.  Tornado warnings however are a different matter and should always be heeded.


Ponyfan

[Loa]

I FORGOT THE SEALS.

We have fur and leopard seals that sunbathe and breed in our town. When they come on shore on mass they STINK. Holy cow. Rotten fish smell for the whole day but they are both endangered AND the leopard seals get to be like a tonne.

[Ponybookworm]

I've seen dolphins off the coast here. Our dolphins are apparently the northernmost pod of Bottlenose Dolphins in the world

[Taffeta]

We have gunshot here too, in the fields behind the back lane. I am so not pro-gun, and yet I don't even think about it.

Low flying helicopters. We're not too far from a RAF base, but mostly it's the air ambulance, going to the hospital.

Geese. We have geese on the local ponds. Everyone stops for the geese. When the geese cross the road, everyone waits. The geese turn up on your garden? Well, tough. They're going to eat your daisies. They'll sometimes bring their babies to see you, too. They are so used to the people that you can walk past them and nod to them and they'll nod back and honk a greeting. The babies *run up* to people.  I love the geese though some people don't. We used to have swans, but not any more, sadly. They used to scare people more, though they were fine.

Barbecues in summer. If it's not one neighbour it's another. The smoke comes in my window

Our one (Scottish) neighbour yelling at his dog to shut up. He's louder than the dog ever is. But he's not a bad guy, really.

Our other (South African) neighbour and his interesting ideas on gardening. (Who uses a pickaxe to remove bamboo?!)

The random appearance of a horse and trap past our home.

A bus that runs 9 times a day, total, and not on sundays.

The weird house down the close who, when they have a party, you can just hear weird giggling late into the night O.o.

The boy racer who keeps changing his car for a new one, and revving them up and down the drive.

Stuff in Welsh. I live on the English side of the border, which is about 40 mins away. But some mad person still wrote 'ARAF' on our road, which is the welsh for 'slow'. We also see ambwlans quite a lot, and sometimes heddlu (police) and post brenhinol (royal mail). Our trains are 50% run by the Welsh govt,  and sometimes come into the station with the display stuck on the welsh name for the destination town, so knowing the welsh names for places is helpful.

...That's about it really.

[pinkkittywinks]

Honestly, I could write a major television drama about the drug dealers two doors down and the vacant house directly behind me with squatters in it... I hate that I live a couple blocks away from a bike trail and I never walk it because of all the stray dogs and idiot druggies.

I wonder if I could go borrow some of Glitterball's neighbor's manure and make my area a little less palatable?

Ick, I feel for you. I used to live next door to a drug dealer, there was a pot farm across the road and several half way houses for people just released from legal custody in the nearby streets. There was often high speed car chases around the neighbourhood, which were often shown on X-Cars. There was constant sound of ambulance, fire and police sirens. There was a lot of loitering, robbing and burgling and we once found a stash of weapons hidden behind our bins.

It was a stones throw away from a McVities factory and a brewery, so every Tuesday you'd get brewing smells and the rest of the time you got the smell of digestives being baked.

Love pkw xxx

[SunPony]

Pedestrian-unfriendly neighborhood design and behaviors.  On ALL the streets in my neighborhood there is always at least one house leaving their car parked directly across the sidewalk.  I always have to either cross the street or go up in their yard to go around the cars.  Saw a wheelchair user just going down the road, I mean what choice do they have? And our bus stop has no bench or roof, it is just a sign stuck into the ground and that is it.  Finally, there isn't a shop with fresh foods in walking distance, or even bicycling distance.

[Loa]

FYI: Penguins also smell.

[Taffeta]

Our bus stops are also just signs stuck in the pavement, although further up there is a shelter. One of them had a bus sign that was hanging at a dangerous angle for about three years. It's a miracle that a strong wind didn't blow it off and it didn't hurt someone. It's finally been replaced now.

On that same note, buses that don't stop at the stand the timetable or display says they should.