School's Out!

Note: I worte this prior to going on vacation and forgot to press publish.

Now this is a fantastic day, the first day of summer vacation. I have two months to sleep in, let my kids walk around dirty, sunburned (just a touch-- we're not talking lobster red with blisters)and happy and just relax.



All this relaxation comes with good news. My car is all clean and sparkly. Half of my house is super clean (the kids rooms are all that is left) so I'll soon be able to have company over and not look around for toys. And I've landed a new writing series for our paper.


As a freelance writer, jobs don't just hop in your lap often. Perhaps I'd have more work if I actually looked for it, but I'm happy being a mom so unless the phone rings with someone who has heard about me via my column or another publication then I don't work.



This time I was gutsy and actually proposed my stories to my paper's editor, but I didn't think I'd have a snowball's chance in Hades at getting it. I proposed a travel series about the various places my daugthers and I go this summer. We're going to Burney Falls, Fort Bragg, Sequoia National Park/ King's Canyon, Montana, Yellowstone National Park, San Antonio, Texas, San Diego, Anaheim and who knows where else. I'm driving the girls and for many of the trips we are camping alone. Anyway my editor said he thought it was a great idea, so now I get to be paid for vacationing-- and I get a laptop!


When I have the chance, I will pop in and say "Hi." I hope you are all have a super fantastic summer.

If you're looking for roses, look somewhere else

These are not rosy times.

I have tried to be a patient woman. I have tried to be understanding, tolerant and good-natured, but my patience is not only wearing thin-- it's evaporating at alarming rates.

I know I am not perfect and that I have oodles of faults-- effectively biting my tongue is one of them. I tend to let people know when they have stepped over the line. And so, knowing this I've tried to get my husband to handle issues relating to neighbors, contractors and when possible teachers.

But I've reached the end of my rope and there is no safety net there to catch me-- fire season has arrived. I must deal with these people on my own-- or better yet through the attorney who said he'd take my case should it get to that point.

Here's the story to catch up those who missed the last couple posts. New neighbors moved in. Overall they are nice people. My instincts say not to trust them, but I'm not one to always follow my instincts. I really want to see the best in them. Anyway shortly after moving in they said they needed to drive over our new sod, tear down our fence and cut down our rose bushes so they could landscape their back yard. We told them to pound sand and eat a pickle.

And so, they proceeded with cutting down pine trees (this is their right, so I can't complain-- but I don't have to like it), taking down a retaining wall on their property that their housebuilder put there because their house basically sits inside a bowl. The result: my good dirt starts to erode into their backyard. Then their contractors took to parking in my driveway-- seriously. They broke the cover to my water meter when their cement truck parked on top of it. They blocked my driveway on a regular basis, making me late to meeting and making it extremely difficult to utilize my property. Plus, every time I went outside to work on my garden or just watch my kids, there were all these strangers walking on my property and cruising through my garden as if it were public property.

Since my neighbors started construction, there have been at least two accidents and many, many near misses because all the construction trucks line the road. With the trucks on the road, it is less than one lane wide and drivers must swerve around them onto driveways just to try to get around them.

The last straw occurred a couple days ago when these huge trucks, including a cement truck lined our street. The trucks were parked in front of every other house on the street and blocked my driveway (their drive was of course free of trucks). After the trucks pulled away, it was revealed that they had leaked oil ALL over the road (and primarily in front of my house).

We live on a private road, so when it fails guess who gets to fix it-- the homeowners. And since the spill is in front of my house, guess who will get to resurface the road when it fails-- ME (not if my real estate attorney has his way which he will).

Anyway, the cement people said they would pressure wash the street and they did, but it didn't fix the problem. I talked to my neighbors; they said it wasn't THEIR problem ( I informed them that according to the law it was their problem). The buck stops with them, and it is ultimately their responsibility to make sure their contractor and subcontractors fix the problem. They can file a complaint with the contractor's board (no company wants that) and force them to fix the street. They have more leverage-- all I can do is sue everyone involved which I don't want to do-- really let's not get nasty.

But these people just don't seem to care.

Yesterday my husband and her husband almost came to blows over the issue. In the 10 years I've been married to my husband, he has raised his voice maybe two times. It was odd to see him SO upset. And I won't say my husband acted sweet and meek and was an angel-- no he was PISSED (I don't like that word, but I'll use it because it suits the situation) OFF.

And so, I hope with all my heart that this situation either resolves itself or these nose in the air want the whole world to revolve around them Palm Springers move really soon. And may their freshly sodded lawn acquire a fungus and brown patches and may it burn around the edges.