A few days ago I noticed a crew in the neighbor’s backyard. Then the next day the same bunch was back, making more noise and less progress.

I was out with the Chihuahuas, walked over to the fence, called to the laborers, “What company do y’all work for?”

One fellow came over with a company card. I didn’t recognize the name.

This morning they’re back to finish the job, a new privacy fence to shield parties at that address from critical eyes. At least that’s my theory for why they spent this money. There’s already a perfectly good chain link fence.

These people haven’t bothered me a bit. However, not long ago a different neighbor complained to me, “Did you hear the noise of that party last night? It was ridiculous. And, my word! What were they doing? I watched for a few minutes as adults in nice clothes chased each other around the back yard with a hose, spraying water on each other and screaming.”

“Wow,” I said, “I’d like to have seen that.” She looked at me suspiciously, sensing that I didn’t think the party sounded very bad.

I mean, come on. A water hose? It’s not like they were chasing each other with a meat cleaver. If adults want to get drunk and play in the hose while wearing party clothes, that’s OK with me.

Neighbor grumped, “Well, they’d better straighten up. I’m not going to tolerate the next episode. Seems to me they had another wild party not long ago, running around drunk and throwing plastic horse shoes.”

I simulated disapproval, but …plastic horse shoes? If they were throwing grenades, I’d get upset, but plastic horse shoes probably wouldn’t hurt anything.

Neighbor concluded, “I’m going over there to give them a piece of my mind. This foolishness has to stop.”

So now there’s a privacy fence up between her yard and that of the party givers. Next time there’s a party, she’ll just have to guess what bacchanalian horrors they’re committing. Tee hee.