All the talk about the fence problem with the bully reminded me of an event in my neighborhood. My neighbor,Bob, 75 years old was putting up a 4' fence along the lot line. He had the house built 30 years ago, had a survey and knew he was back about a foot from the property line. The young neighbor next door, about 6'3" and 250 lb., who didn't own the house but rented...came out and started yelling about the fence. My neighbor told the guy to mind his own business. The young bully made some kind of threat to him about, "Watch your mouth old man or you could get hurt." The old neighbor goes into his garage and comes out with a shovel and told the guy to get back in his house or he'd get the shovel across his head.

The bully runs in the house and calls the cops. A woman officer shows up and listens to the bully's story and she breaks out laughing. She said, "If this ever went to court the judge would throw it out in a minute if he could ever stop laughing long enough." She told the renter to stay in the house and if he had a problem to call his landlord and let him handle it.

For Christmas we hung a big shovel on the neighbor's door with a big red bow and a sign that said, "Merry Christmas to Bob the Shovel." People just drove by and laughed like crazy.