I had a knock on my door tonight and opened to find two well-dressed strangers. They said they were my new neighbors next door. Which confused me at first, because my neighbors next door are a) not really new, since they were here before me and b) as far as I can tell, white. Okay... this is strange...
They then handed me a piece of paper and said that the construction would be getting noisy over the next few days and they just wanted to let me know. Oh, they are the neighbors in the other direction. Wow, that's kind of nice. I thanked them and they went on their way.
When I closed the door I looked at the piece of paper that they had handed me. It says "Dear Neighbor, We will start construction of the new Berkeley Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses this Saturday..."
Oh my fucking god. I am living next to a nest of Jehovah's Witnesses. Between that, the rumble of the BART trains as they pass under my bedroom floor, the ants in the walls, and the honking of the freight trains from over by the highway, this place just keeps getting better and better. I'm not sure what to do about the Witnesses. Should I paint the doorway with sheep's blood? Draw a pentagram on the door? Leave copies of the Book of Mormon on my doorstep? What can one use for Witness repellent?
*rocks back and forth* 5-minute stroll. It's only a 5-minute stroll to the BART station. (And I'm only here for a year.) A 5-minute stroll. *rocks back and forth*
I don't know if you have the same thing, but here we can explicitly ask to be put on a list of people who they are not to visit. But otherwise, they'll really probably be OK (no sheep's blood - that may just be a challenge ;). Be nice, but firm.
But hey, who am I to offer advice - I live way out in the country and have never been visited by anyone uninvited...