I get a call from Rick, the fence guy stating the utility people are going to come to mark the buried lines. Fine. And I should paint white on my fence (dark red)…so,,,,
huh? I say, turn the telly off and ask him to repeat that.
Yep. I went out and nailed two dish cloths to the fence so the marker guys don’t mark up our rockwork in front, but concentrate their efforts on the fence line. Seems these guys don’t have to read a form—just follow the white flags.
Welcome to the world of bigtime construction.
I see now how bulldozers hit gas lines and create disasters. Somebody ran out of dishcloths.
A friend of ours was planning to dig up a small part of his yard to make a level place for an above ground swimming pool. So, he called the utility guys, they came out and marked up his yard, and he started digging. And hit an unmarked cable line that knocked out the cable to most of his neighborhood. But, because he had called to have the underground lines marked, the cable company had to fix it on their nickel. Whew!
Still have red, orange and yellow marks on my lawn and concrete walks. When I had FIOS installed a few weeks ago, the first thing to do was bore a hole from the pole to the house and pull the fiber-optic line. The way is was supposed to go had the great advantage of being well off to the side of the buried electrical and phone cables and at an angle away. They began by digging a shallow pit next to the pole. On the west side of the pole away from the direct line of sight from the pole to the “demark” and meter? Oh, no! They stomped their shovel right through my POTS phone cable! 🙁 The local technical supervisor I’d been dealing with sent out a truck and rather than dig the ends up again and splice them together, he ran 150′ of twisted pairs around the back side of the house to the demark for the day, avoiding crossing the driveway in front of the garage. 😉 🙂
Even funnier, I had a friend who is a ham radio operator call Miss Utility (the marker folks in Virginia) to mark out his yard so he could drive in an 8 foot grounding rod for his station. So, they came out, marked it, he found a good location away from the marks (there’s a fudge factor of 1 foot either way), and sank his ground rod. He got excellent performance on his station immediately, but a few days later, a knock on his door revealed some folks from Virginia Power. They said their ground system had been disrupted and they traced it to his location and could they inspect the property. Lou told them to go ahead, and he walked out with them. They found the ground rod and immediately were upset. That’s the cause, you damaged our system, and you’ll have to pay to have it repaired. Lou said, “Nope, I did everything I was supposed to do. It’s not my fault it’s not marked correctly.” Well, they threatened to sue him, and he just smiled. The crews came by a few days later, repaired the damage, repaired the damage to his yard and garden, and he didn’t hear another word about it.
On a side note, if the cable TV company doesn’t bury their cable 18 inches into the ground, they’re not required to. The telephone company, the gas commpany, the water pipes, all have to be a minimum of 18 inches below ground, but cable TV isn’t classified as a utility, so they’re exempt. I’ve hit telephone cables that were buried 6 inches down in my yard, in an area that is NOT within their easement, and they got mad at me….tough….if they put their cables where they’re supposed to and at the depth they’re supposed to, I wouldn’t have hit their misplaced line. All I was doing was tilling my yard so I could replant the grass seed that the building threw on bare, hard dirt……I’ve had the telephone company come out to fix their little terminal box at the back of my lot, too, because it got flooded due to their negligence. Then again, I’ve also had their repairmen voluntarily show me how to do stuff and then tell me that if they did it, they’d have to charge me $85, but them telling me how to do it is free…..;)
Yeah!
We just had all our potential help report in as unable to help us this weekend—sigh— so Jane and I will be dismantling the old fence and trying to haul disjointed 8 foot wooden fence sections into a stockade. It’s going to be brutal. We have to create a ‘defensive perimeter to safeguard the yard from intrusion until Tuesday. We don’t even know if we can lift the things. But we’ll do the best we can.
Any chance some of the good church folk across the street might be able to help (and gain good, Methodist or whatever “karma” points)?
Brutalizing one’s body, even if popping plenty of ibuprofen or whatever beforehand, is not recommended in the user’s manual we all come into this life with.
I so wish. We’re getting too old for this kind of caper.
Suggestion? “I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid” as the joke goes.
One supposes you have a small dolly for taking out the trash cans? Put that under the bottom edge, lash the handle to the fence section (perhaps you’ll have to knock out a board on each side), and then both of you grab it by the top and wheel it away. Let the ground under the wheels support part of the load! 😉
Having no idea how your fence is built or what requirements you are trying to satisfy….can you do something that would basically leave the existing fence sections where they are, but disconnected, maybe prop them up with 2x4s or tie them to the existing posts? That way they can be easily removed but you don’t have to actually lift them. (Unless you are responsible for completely hauling them off?)
I know you don’t need us to tell you yo be careful…but…be careful!
You have to watch out for stuff like that, no question. Couple years ago my neighbor was having the top layer of her lawn removed so she could reseed. The little machine that the lawn company used hit the cap of the gas pipe buried in her lawn, jostling the (old) gas pipe. Cue strong smell of gas, calls to the gas company; out they come, and before you know it her lawn is completely dug up and so is my driveway, all so they could repair the old pipes. And of course the concrete repair to my driveway was crappy and didn’t last the winter, and had to be redone.
Good luck with getting your fence done, hope it all goes well!
The gas company here tells everyone to call two days before they plan to start digging – they’ll have someone come out and mark the pipe. (It’s a call to 811 here.) Construction equipment still hits the lines, but it does reduce how often it happens.
Way back, I got home from work one day to discover a fire truck and a giant fan at the end of the block. Seems the homeowner there had decided to take out a tree without checking where his plumbing was, and the gas line went through the tree roots. There was still a faint odor of mercaptan when I went by, although the leak had been stopped.
We’re clear with Permit, we likely get the gas/electric folk today.
We do have several dollies.
The fence consists of 8′ sections of 4″ cedar planks nailed to 2×4’s a foot from the top and a foot from the bottom. They’re going to be heavy. And worse, the posts are broken off of sections of them, so that when we release one, we may be releasing quite a length of unsupported fence. We need to move it inward and prop it up somehow so that our pond is still screened and protected—we live in an area that’s pretty exposed, right on the corner of a main street, and it does get some late night walking traffic and prowling. So I may sit up with the window open and just stand guard at night, which is going to play hob with days. I have a very wicked notion of employing the cat’s chase-laser should I see anybody nosing about out there, out of a darkened house….
Excuse my presumption: That is an exceedingly bad idea. Never point a gun–or anything that pretends to be a gun–at someone unless you intend to kill them. It’s rude. If the “prowler” happens to be a cop, you’re likely to be shot, or at least arrested for assault, which is the threat, not the action (the action being battery, in CA terms). If you see a prowler, call 911 immediately; you pay property taxes, no? You might also call the police proactively, explain that you’re going to have a temporary security problem, ask for advice and for them to roll by as they can.
Light up the exterior of your home brightly, if you can. Light up the living areas of your house behind curtains, remembering that light makes everything in the house very visible through clear glass. Lighting up your bedrooms will hurt your sleep. (You should really be doing this all the time: as we get older, our sense of balance reduces, just like and for the same reason as we lose high frequency hearing. Light provide a horizon and prevents falls.)
As far from your bedrooms as possible, turn on preferably two radios or TVs to talk r news shows (different stations) to simulate activity. They should be muffled, audible but not distinct, from outside. (This is also good for keeping the appearance of occupancy when you travel.)
Time to deploy Sooper-Shu again! He has a proven track record vs. prowlers.
Actually, would you believe t’s the marshmallow-who-walks-like-a-cat who caught the prowler? Seishi, whose dearest wish in life is cuddles and tummy-rubs…
Na Seishi knows he’s got a good thing and wants to keep it that way. Just because he’s a peace-loving fellow doesn’t mean he won’t defend his clan and estate against interlopers.
One is confident that Eushu would provide tag-team suppost with Seishi, should the need arise.
My two tend to make themselves scarce when strangers show up, they fuss between each other a little but cooperate and get along mostly. They double-team to get what they want from me. (Heh.) So I feel sure that if they felt their paradise was threatened, they’d do something. Even the Most Non-Assertive cat in the universe can be brave about some things, more so than his Always Assertive compadre, aka Trouble-Is-My-Business.
Oh! Please do! It would be priceless if prowlers called the police to report you!
If you’re on my property without my knowledge or my permission, and you suddenly see a red dot appear somewhere on your person, you’d best freeze. I listen to the police frequency at night, so I would know if it were a cop. I have a very firm sense of property, this is mine, that’s yours. I leave your stuff alone, you leave mine alone, unless I tell you it’s all right to come over into my yard and retrieve your ball, frisbee, cat, dog, or the trash that blew out of your yard into mine.
I agree that it could be a dicey situation if it really IS a burglar who’s armed, but most people, when they see that red dot, will freeze, because it’s an indication that you’ve already got the drop on them. They don’t know if it’s a laser pointer or a laser sight, and personally, I don’t care if they never know. They’re where they don’t belong and if I scare the bejeebers out of them and they leave, no problem. IIRC, CJ does know how to shoot, too……..
Joking. Joking.
Tempted, but joking. I would indeed call the police, who are not far from us. Most of our prowlers are simply teens doing what I used to do, walking about in groups at night…I was NOT your well-behaved, frill-wearing young lady. So groups of teens can be curious: anything unusual is a beacon to them. And most don’t have mayhem in mind—though, honestly, the neighborhood near us is a bit rougher than makes teens strolling at night that safe.
So—we will cope. I should get the camel bells from the mud room. A burst of those for anybody trying to sneak past the barriers in dead silence could stop a heart…
The old D&D trick of stringing bells around the encampment for advance warning — as long as no one walks off with them!
The neighbors on one side are very casual about the property line; these are the ones who will let random trash escape into our yard. I’ve had to chase their kids out of the one plumeria tree, because plumeria branches can break without warning, and seen them cut across my yard rather than go 20 feet farther to their own driveway. I’ve also found what looks like BBQ leftovers dumped just on our side of the property line. If I didn’t think they would be trampled, I’d be inclined to start my xeriscaping next to the fence line, with something nice and sore like aloe.
Yew.
Yew has very impressive thorns. Don’t know how that grows in the tropics, but I’d think—fast.
That or one of the thornier vines: a nice trellis frame and some twine, and something pointy…and fast.
The water line emerges from that part of the fence line, so I want to wait until after I replace it before plopping shrubbery on top of it. Bougainvillea has impressive thorns too, is fairly hardy, and grows fast in our climate; either that or beavertail cactus.
Privet has thorns….so does bougainvillea….and the flowers are lovely in the spring…if you’ve never stepped on a bougainvillea thorn, you don’t want to, either……
Round Two of the Homeowner’s Follies commenced yesterday after some success, with the receipt of a letter from the civic club. Sigh. Including one claim that, as far as I know, has no basis in reality, but more in gossip; another that is just not true; and one that was given a patch repair after a tropical storm now about ten years ago. No phone number was given with the letter to reply, but I have the phone for the current president, and will look up the number for the letter writer. I want to speak to them by phone, as well as my written reply.
Oh, and then I reread the letter and realized one item had been addressed for months after the claim, before it (the yard) had trouble because of needing a yard service again. It’ll get solved.
I’m awaiting callback on a couple of things and want to get another couple of calls tomorrow, but so far, no great luck.
Funds to address things? No response yet on a call to withdraw funds. I’m presuming it’s in progress, and will check tomorrow.
But there are a couple of things that, no, I simply cannot address now or in the near future. I don’t have the budget for it. If the civic club will work with me, if they’ll be patient, those will eventually get addressed too, but for the next several months, it’s not going to happen. Too expensive. (Fence and A/C compressor. One internal home repair problem, I likewise can’t do. It’s a low priority because I have a backup, but it needs to be fixed.)
I’m hoping for sanity and cooperation instead of nonsense. I’m hoping to straighten out the nonsense parts of their claims and get the one that must be gossip solved. If there was a real problem with that, surely I would’ve noticed, and surely my two immediate neighbors and other next door neighbors would have contacted me to say something. (They’re claiming rats. Never seen one here. I’ve seen plenty of squirrels. If there were any rats, I’d expect neighbors would tell me out of alarm and concern. But neither immediate neighbor, either the friendly one or the on-again-off-again and sometimes-wacky-claims one would surely have said, or anyone else around me.)
Sigh. I’ve got a polite, approachable reply written, and am waiting to see tomorrow if it still sounds good and not too defensive or hostile, before sending it.
Moral: Folks, you are suppoed to be neighbors, a neighborhood working together. If you have a problem with me, then gods-rot-it, talk to me first before invoking anything official, either the civic club or any city or other official. If you have a problem, you could also check with my neighbors to see if your claim is true and informed or false and rumored or misunderstood, before claiming it.
Like I need more complications, or like I needed to withdraw any amount from lower savings to do things. I couldn’t take out enough to solve every current debt or repair problem I have all in one go. I wish! But I’m trying to work on it within something awful called a budget.
And…I’m a homeowner and a neighbor. It’s far better to work with me, to talk with me, to resolve things, maybe even (golly!) to offer help and resources, than to make it so that I have to move or want to move out. I want to keep my home. I think I still can. But hassling me doesn’t make me feel good about things, or persons who haven’t tried to talk to me or the people next door to me.
seems to me that a civic club doesn’t have quite the same legal clout as a homeowner’s association. You could write them a very nice letter asking them for their legal authority in this matter, otherwise, I don’t believe they really have much pull. I used to belong to a civic club in Virginia Beach, we were specifically NOT an HOA, refused to become an HOA, and made sure people knew we were NOT an HOA. All we were trying to do was get the neighborhood awareness up concerning a planned set of low-income apartments that was going to be built right in the middle of our subdivision. All of it went nowhere, as the zoning for that plot of land allowed the building of those apartments, and the city was not going to change the zoning without a lawsuit and we couldn’t go to court.
I’d especially be upset with them for not coming to you first, but involving the city, which really would engender hard feelings on my part. I’d ask the city why they consider the civic league to be the “authority” in your neighborhood. IIRC, civic leagues are voluntary organizations, whereas in certain areas, HOAs are mandatory if you want to buy there. I don’t know all the facts, Ben, but I hope you get them resolved. AND, if you’ve been there longer than the civic league has been in existence, and they never approached you to join, then they’re out of line, IMHO.
@ CJ – I left an over-long, TMI reply to Joe’s query. It’s caught in the filter, probably for length. — Please simply delete it; there was too much there. Thank you, and I apologize for the inconvenience (and lack of using my noggin for other than a hat rack).
Well, I delivered a letter in reply to the letter, and thankfully found the letter writer and spouse at home. Oh, good! A chance to meet and discuss in person, to iron out any misunderstandings and plea for time to get things done as I can get to them.
And good, there was sense and some compassion, and an offer or two of resources (names of contractors or handymen). By the end of the conversation, as long as they see good faith and progress, they understand and will work with me. Oh, very good indeed, and much appreciated. I would so much rather that, than ill will on all sides, rumors instead of facts, and so on.
Aha! Finally got a call back, and this afternoon, a meeting with a man who comes with a good recommendation. Maybe even a lower fee than expected. I don’t know if that item will get done today, but as long as it’s done this week or next, everyone’s happy, and he gets a regular customer if so, so he’s happy.
Now if I can just get responses on other calls made, I’ll be on the way toward getting done the things I can do now, and tackle others as I can afford them, in some sane fashion…just delayed more than I’d like.
The civic club are happier and can begin helping to squash false rumors/gossip, which I will appreciate.
It’s still around three to four months before I see any improvement in my income. And then it’s up to how much the buying public like my work. (First font designs still in progress.) Ah, once I have those submitted, and once they go on sale, I’ll let people know, but it’s about three to four months, give or take a couple of weeks.
The lawn service owner…will make more than twice what I’d expected to pay for the initial service. Holy cow! … But he’s the only one who’s actually returned calls. It has to get done, for my own peace of mind and to satisfy the civic club.
However, the fees thereafter are less than half what I was paying either of two companies / people before, so in the long run, it evens out.
But… yikes. (I’ve more than paid the cost of a high-end weed eater with that initial outlay.) … I could wish for a goat, if they wouldn’t eat everything else too!
Sigh. Well, when ya gotta, ya gotta, I guess.