I live at the end of a cul-de-sac. Three neighborhood yards back up to my triangle lot. For over 30 years we have been friendly and aware of each other’s idiosyncrasies about family visitors, going out of town, etc. The concrete wall separating us is approximately 8 ft tall on my side.
When things fly into my yard, I pretty much know which house they came from based on where I’ve seen the item or if it is a child age-related toy. Sometimes I have received a note taped to the concrete wall asking for something I haven’t noticed to be returned. Sometimes a person comes to the front door asking for an item. Once I caught a neighbor using a fishing pole from his treehouse to catch a suncatcher that flew over after a storm. I’m conditioned to return what comes over the fence.
In 2023 I noticed that the middle house was unusually quiet. They have a little child, and I regularly heard childish joy and fun. I checked online and saw that the house was up for sale. It was overpriced and sat for more than a year without new owners.
In July 2024 we came back from a trip and I noticed that the house was a different color. Soon after came a new roof and air conditioner. The pool fence was removed. The wooden jungle gym was torn down. I kept seeing people’s heads seemingly wandering in the back yard.
In September 2024 after TBC, we came home to see a basketball goal in the middle of their yard. Weirdly, it was positioned so that the balls would go directly into the pool if they missed. I kept hearing more work being done in the backyard and could directly see the faces and torsos of the workmen. I realized the neighbor’s side of the concrete wall was no longer 8 ft high. It was about 5 ft high or less. The house next door to it tore down their chicken coop.
In November 2024 the mailman sadly gave me a certified letter stating that the house behind me was now a vacation rental home. There are many in my neighborhood but none are so close. Of course, I had to be nosy and looked it up online. They had installed a pickleball court as part of a basketball court and junked up the backyard with a putting green and firepit as well. They turned the garage into 4 full bed bunks to house large groups in addition to the existing 3 bedrooms. It opened for business in January 2025.
From January 2025 to June 2025, I returned pickleballs, basketballs and golf balls on a regular basis. When I didn’t see the toys quickly enough, strangers were hopping over the concrete wall to retrieve them. Only teenagers did it more than once during a rental, but people thinking the 5 ft wall would be easy to get over and get back with an 8 ft wall on my side got a startling and painful lesson on the abrasiveness of concrete. One young man learned the hard way that dropping onto sharp rocks in his bare feet was not conducive to an enjoyable vacation. We installed a video camera in the backyard.
After a rowdy Memorial Day group and subsequently active Father’s Day group, I had enough of the Airbnb. 8 basketballs littered my backyard just a couple of hours after I had returned several. The Airbnb owner told me he put up a sign to not climb the fence. When I heard a ball hit my house at midnight and woke up to more basketballs in the backyard, I strongly suggested either raising the concrete wall or installing some sort of netting to keep their toys in their yard.
The owner installed netting and thanked me for returning the balls. It’s hot now, (temperatures in the desert of Phoenix, Arizona are now reaching the 110’s…) so the netting isn’t going to get a workout for a while. It’s a very loose weave. I would have been happy with tennis court quality netting to block the view, but I should have expected what they installed when the real estate sellers described the ‘sprawling oasis of greenery and the serenity of nature’ (i.e. my trees).
I’ve always said to my children “Not everything is going to be your favorite.” Not all food, every chore, job situation or even friends will be their favorite. Unfortunately, this applies to me too… It’s not my favorite to have an Airbnb behind me. It’s not my favorite to have revolving groups of strangers to interact with by returning toys, roof spotlights that shine into my house until all hours of the night, shrieking girls exuberant in their pool play that cause the neighborhood dogs to go crazy, and it’s not my favorite to have to wonder what the next rental will bring.
I can’t help but observe the similarities between the new strangers in my quiet neighborhood and the constant changes happening in our technological environments:
- New software is introduced – has it been tested?
- New threats bombard the platform – is security preventing abuses?
- Am I prepared for security and data encryption that has moved from the background to a major investment?
- Is the monitoring of my environment up to date?
- Do I have enough ‘boots on the ground’ to make the systems work as well as they can?
- Do I have a plan to keep my environment running as expected?
Balls and strangers invading my backyard are nothing compared to the threats we regularly face in payment processing and other crucial infrastructure in our technological environments. Your NonStop software vendors can help you ensure all is well or soon will be well to continue your fault-tolerant continuous computing. We hope you join us at our former Technical Boot Camp renamed the HPE NonStop Technology and Business Conference in The Woodlands, TX on September 15-18, 2025.
That Airbnb behind me only has 4 rentals scheduled thru the end of the year. I feel confident more groups will sign up, but my neighbors and I are more prepared for the possible turmoil. I do feel bad that the one neighbor removed his chickens. They were a fun addition of the ‘serenity of nature!’
Stay safe, stay cool, and see you in September!
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