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Monday, November 17, 2014

The Bad, Part II

(I know, I know . . . I took another hiatus! Shame on me!)

In part one I kind of introduced you to The Villagers (that's usually how we refer to them) and their sheer hatred of meters. And also their belief that we are fixing all the wrong things first. Case in point, I just had a gentleman in the office who was on the Board a few years ago who wanted to know "what hell was wrong with the generator" and why we have to spend money to fix it because "there's nothing wrong with it - change the oil and put a new battery in it". The generator in question hasn't run in a number of years and needs several things fixed. But I politely told the gentleman that I personally have no idea what may or may not be wrong with it, but that the guys would look it more in depth before winter hits and figure out what it needs.
That seems to have placated him for the moment.

As he left, another Villager called and spent the next 20 minutes telling me exactly who started one of the many rumors about those of us that work for the water company. We apparently need to make sure to wear our suits of armor because one of them is a "midget (I think the PC term is Little Person) with severe mental illness, who carries around a sword and a nigger-beater" and that her "husband/current boyfriend is a murderer" and that "they are both drug addicts". She believes that they've killed her cats because they accused her of doping their dogs when she took care of them after they over dosed on whatever drug of choice.
This has been my Friday afternoon.
And believe me, this is far from the worst of anything.
It began slowly, with Boyfriend talking to people about wasting water and issuing fines for doing so. A couple people started spouting off that Boyfriend has a bad attitude and he's menacing and harassing customers.
We took that with a  grain of salt. I mean, seriously, Boyfriend comes to town in the middle of the worst drought on record and tells people they no longer have "unlimited" water and that they can't wash their car in the street or water the road or drain their pool because they thought it looked crooked (yes, someone actually did that) or flood alley ways. Of course some people aren't going to like him. Duh.

The Board of Director's continued to tell Boyfriend to do his job and that if any customer gave him shit, to tell that customer that they could talk to the Board.

Part of this begins in May, when one Board Member resigned. According to our By-Laws, should a vacancy occur on the Board within 90 days of the annual shareholder meeting, then we have to hold an election. BUT, if the vacancy happens to occur more than 90 days from the meeting, then the two remaining Board Members can appoint someone to fill the empty seat. The appointed person would be confirmed at the next annual shareholder meeting.

One Villager expressed interest in being on the Board. The Board Members discovered that they lived outside of the subdivision and cannot be on the Board. In the end they appointed someone else. So this Villager comes to a meeting of the other water company and accosts us when we leave. He kept telling us we "can't do this to an American citizen". I think he thought that one of the reasons he didn't get on the Board was that he's a Cuban immigrant. We kept trying to tell him that the we had nothing to do with the decision and that he can come to our Board Meeting the following week and bring it up to the Board. Finally this Villager tried to push Boyfriend; when he didn't budge, the Villager then flopped himself against the wall and fell on the floor and claimed that Boyfriend assaulted him.

We both stood there like, "WTF? Are you serious??"

I lost my cool and said, "This . . . this here, is bullshit." And we left. And called the sheriff's department.

Later in June, Boyfriend and our other employee tell me that about 20 empty chemical buckets were stolen from the company. And not just from any part of the company - the wastewater treatment plant. My first question is, who in their right mind breaks into a wastewater treatment plant??? Boyfriend had kept the empty bleach tablet buckets to use for random things - carrying tools, hauling soil, or covered tomato plants so they wouldn't freeze. He had looked all over and couldn't find any evidence of forced entry to the treatment plant, which meant that someone must have either scaled the fence and made it over the razor wire or they had a key.

Of course, we're still dealing with the typical "you can't shut me off, so I won't pay my bill" customers; the "I pay my water bill so I can use as much water as I want" customers; the "You're gouging us customers to put money in your own pocket" customers; and my personal favorite, the "we're not in a drought" customers. You know, typical.

To be continued.....



10 comments:

  1. Woah it sounds like a big hazard where you work at the moment! I hope things improve!

    Would you consider sending an #airmailchristmas card in memory of Anna Basso? http://www.rebeccalouiselobb.com/2014/11/airmail-christmas-2014.html

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    1. I hope things improve as well. I'm tired of the stress these people cause. lol

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  2. Perhaps an idea would be to rent out the National Guard to help with bill collection...

    Honestly, I struggle to imagine how people can be so divorced from reality as to act like this. Then I think about Ferguson, MO. Or the 2008 and 2012 elections.

    How has mankind descended to this level of "my version of reality is the truth and screw yours" so fast?

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    1. At some point, people became a little better accustomed to the bill collection. They've moved on to bigger and better things, like stalking and wild accusations.

      And I have no idea how the world went to that mindset at all, it seems to have just happened. But seriously, common sense people, common sense. And the world will be a better place.

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  3. "I pay my water bill so I can use as much as I want"... round here we are charged for what we use. Seems to me the sooner you change over to that the better.

    People are stupid. I'm sure you've been to CW's... but there's a GREAT image/quote of Carlin that sums it up. :)

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    1. I honestly can't wait for the meters either. If only we had the money on hand; but we're waiting on a grant to come through. Although, for having no money, we've installed 51 out of 167. The folks around here have no idea how "good they have it".

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  4. It simply doesn't cease to amaze me the idiocy you and boyfriend are having to deal with. And that they refuse to see that you are only changing - or trying to change - things for the better. Wow. What a Double-Picard Facepalm.

    (btw, this is my new blog I'm writing from - originally "cats, coffee, and life at random")

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    1. Seriously. I'm pretty sure that the entire crew of the Enterprise is facepalming. lol

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  5. OHMY! That is awful. I'm sorry that happened, but glad to hear no one was seriously hurt. That guy sounds like he could benefit from talking to a professional, but glad no one was physically hurt. People are weird. It makes you wonder about the kind of person that doesn't believe in drought. Probably the same who don't believe global warming is real. You wonder if they REALLY believe that, or if that's just what they tell themselves subconsciously because they can't handle harsh realities and the outcomes that come with it. Sad. It's also sad they have to take out their frustrations on the people trying to bring them their actual water. And then to behave like overgrown children? UGH. I really feel for the people, like you and the whole board, that have to deal with the public at large. You really are heroes! People are crazy.

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    1. Oh and it gets worse. I just haven't had a desire to keep writing the horribleness.

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