Offshoreonly.com - Got the police called on me last night for my loud stinky boat...

I grew up in my lake house. Nice upscale 1965 neighborhood. All families moving in there when it was new were lake lovers and most had kids. It was a fantastic neighborhood. I had all manner of loud stinky machines and ran up and down the cove ALL DAY LONG in my whaler without any of the neighbors griping or even caring. They had kids and they knew I was having fun and doing very little in the way of actual harm. I did ride mx bikes thru the neighborhood, but not as a racetrack - only to get to the areas outside the neighborhood where we made tracks and such.

Over time, the "new" neighborhood had developed some sort of social value. People began to move into there because it was THE PLACE to be (not because they loved it for the water and large treed lots). THESE people were gripers. Too much noise. Too many cars in the driveway. Can't make noise or go fast in the cove. It got pretty bad.

One side of our cove had remained a forest for years and was newly developed. The people who moved in there were STATUS conscious, not lake lovers. They called the cops on me and my buds constantly.

Nowadays that neighborhood is more laid back again. You can't get away with anything in the cove (mainly due to the "new" side) but I still make a hot lap of the neighborhood on occasion on a dirtbike or sportbike (It's a 1.4 mile lap).

HERE's the part that some of you can relate to:
I've got friends who live in a "trendy" neighborhood. Every kind of law and regulation imaginable. It's a 3400sf minimum, all brick or dryvit/stone, green mailbox, no flagpole, no boat kind of neighborhood. It is FILLED TO THE BRIM with @ssholes who want to prove they can afford that neighborhood. You can't break one rule without registered letters from the homeowner's association. Home prices are $425k to $675k. 9/10ths of them leveraged to the gills and living large.

I moved from my lake house in December (still got it for a "storage unit"). There were several new developments my wife was hot for. All of them had the "SMELL" of @ssholes. A bud of mine lived in the house we bought. When he approached me about looking at it, I was leery of the neighborhood. 3900sf minimum, brick clause, underground everything, boat/trailer clause, no parking on streets, etc.. Home prices significantly (double) higher than the other "trendy" @sshle neighborhood. Friend said, hey, nobody here has anything to prove... This is the phase 1 of the neighborhood and is filled with folks who are comfortable with who they are, don't feel a need to exercise power to show off, and enjoy life. Friend gave me seven phone numbers of people I didn't know that lived evenly spaced in the neighborhood. I called each and "interviewed" them about the personality of the neighborhood. I was shocked. "Most" even answered "Won't bother me" to the following question: "Will it freak you out if I ride wheelies through the neighborhood on my bikes?". One was concerned at what SPEED the wheelies would be, but that's all...

Obviously, neighborhood living demands some considerations. I don't want to use up the graciousness of the neighbors all in one fell swoop, but so far it's been really cool.
Much more so than the Phase2 about a half mile from me. I rode through there the other day with my boy on the R1 and we were just doing a "smoothness run" where we carry a lot of speed in and out of corners (but in top gear with the motor just gently purring - not revving) - and a guy ran down the driveway waving a weedeater at me. Hey, I understand that crap - I got kids too and do't want guys running fast blindly around them either, but I did get a chuckle out of it...

As far as your neighbor griping about the boat idling at 6pm?

God Bless my poor neighbors in 1978. I got my Hooker Headers on my Jeep at 2am on a Sunday night. Had to pull the tranny to do it. Also had to fire that mother up and listen to it with open headers. HEY! sounds like a P-51 fighter!. And DAYUM does it rev quick with no pressure plate on the flywheel! I sat out there 30 minutes at 2 am making like Garlits. I never heard a word about it from the neighbors (parents were out of town on a little Corvette club trip - you know the ones where they all wear those silver plasticy corvette jackets and the scarfs?).

mc