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.....



The Bad, Part I

I alluded to some bad that has happened during my hiatus. Actually, a lot. First, here's some basics and a tiny taste of some of the negativity.

As I've mentioned, Boyfriend manages a small water company. It's a "mutual" so that means that all the customers "own" a piece of it. It's been run by the "good ol' boys" club for the past 40 years. They've never had a licensed operator to run the place and somehow managed to get away with it. Nothing was updated or upgraded. Band-aides were put on only when forced. Being so small, the state turned a blind eye. Until the last couple years. And the band-aides aren't working anymore.

Last year, the state finally inspected the surface water treatment plant and found some deficiencies - because it's 60 years old. Because of these deficiencies, when we have to use the river and run the treatment plant, we have to issue a boil advisory, per state law. Due to the drought, we've had to use the river to since March, about 4 months earlier than normal. We have 5 wells that, up until now, have provided adequate or near adequate water supply. But they are slowly running dry; two of them are dead in the water. One is consistent, and two are intermittent. If we don't get any rain this winter, by the first of the year we could be forced to use the river as our only supply. By law, we can only pull so much out of the river in a day; plus our plant is only designed to handle that maximum amount in a day. Any more than that and it just overflows and goes right back into the river.

Another problem is that when Boyfriend started, none of the customers were metered. Everyone pays a flat rate for what they believe is "unlimited water". No one has ever really been able to show these people how much water they waste. Earlier in the year, we instituted a strict water waste policy (well, strict for these people anyway), where if water was in the street, it's waste and fines are added to their account. We even made sure to take pictures to prove to people. They would argue about it while letting it continue to run in the street that they "pay their bill and therefore can use as much water as I want". Seriously.

A lot of changes have happened in a very short period of time. Boyfriend started last December, I started in April and the three Board Members have only been around a year or less each. They are all learning and have been surprised to learn how bad of shape the system is. They agreed to updating the water waste policy so that there were fines attached; they agreed to changing the due date (it used to be the 10th of the month and I suggested the 15th or 20th, they chose the 15th) and agreed that the due date should be enforced; they agreed to do public monthly board meetings, even though as a mutual, we don't have to; they loved the idea of a newsletter to go out with the bills; they want the water company to become a non-profit so we can pursue grant funding; they want meters installed.

All of us are aware that a lot of our customers have lived here for 20, 30 or even 40 years and they aren't used to the changes. They don't like and they don't want it. As one customer shouted during a special informational meeting about becoming a non-profit, "WE DON'T WANT METERS! WE DON'T WANT THEM!!" The anger over meters shocked the shit out of our panel. We had invited our attorney, our drinking water engineer from Ca Dept of Health, our waste water engineer from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and a gal from Cal Rural Water Association; who are all in favor of us becoming a non-profit.

So what are people concerned with? Rates. That's it.

They associate changing to a non-profit with rate increases. They associate meters with rate increases. They associate grants with rate increases. They associate loans with rate increases. They believe we are fixing the wrong things first. They believe we're spending money where we don't need to.

They want an all new system with a guarantee of zero rate increases. They want us to replace the distribution system first because the pipes are old. However, our drinking water engineer says that is one of the lowest things on their list to fund, while things like new surface water treatment plants, new wells, new storage tanks - those are priorities.

We actually had some guy who, even after the difference between a grant and a loan were explained, said he didn't want to pay back a grant and would rather pay back a loan. He believed that it's fair that he pays $40 a month for water and two people live in his house, and a few houses down there's a house with 10 people living in it and they only pay $40 a month of water. He didn't believe, however, that his bill would go up at all in order to pay back the loan(s).

We have people that tell us that meters are a complete waste of money and they are inaccurate. We've installed approximately 35 meters. In July, we found 12 houses that used nearly 1 million gallons of water. One house alone used 240,000 gallons; the previous owner's son tried to blame that on the water company - that my guys installed a meter and broke pipes and refused to fix them. But Boyfriend didn't some looking around and discovered that someone had purposefully set the toilet to run non-stop. Meters have also shown some people just how much they actually use. One guy, who has one of the nicest and greenest yards was shocked to see that in two weeks he had used nearly 30,000 gallons. After that we noticed he cut back a bit.

We have not decided on a rate structure; that will probably happen sometime next year once meters are completed. We've been using a nearby water company's rate structure as an example since they are smaller than us. We've discovered that some people's bills would actually go down; some would stay the same, and yes, some would go up. But we're finding there are people who don't think it's fair to pay for the water that they themselves are using.

While this is just some of the negativity, there is more. Much, much more.

Facebook Asshatery - Over Cute Dog Pics - Seriously

So, I went onto Facebook and was informed of my "notifications". Four of those notifications were for the water company's Facebook page (it took about 3 months, but we're finally getting a couple of likes). So I went and took a look at these comments from some random person whose name I didn't recognize.

The first one I went to was a post that I put up on Tuesday. I had a picture of Libby and was being a bit silly with the post and in all honesty, who doesn't enjoy a random dog picture? Apparently the woman commenter doesn't. (I'm dog-sitting for my parents this week while they are away for their anniversary).

 

Come on, who doesn't love a cute dog pic once in awhile??

"Libby's Random Water Fact: There are over 59,000 community public water systems."

This woman's comment was, "Dogs Like Water Toooooooo......."

Well, yes, they do. Just like us they need it to survive. I was a bit weirded out by her comment but I moved onto the next. The next post she commented on was from earlier in July when I posted a friendly reminder about a board of director's meeting that night.

"Friendly reminder - our regular monthly Board of Director's Meeting is tonight at 7pm at the Community Center on Blah Street."

Her comment was, "Is everyone invited? Maybe not......"

My response was, "The regular monthly meeting is open to the general public for comments, questions or any concerns; however, business and any voting is done by shareholders. The next meeting is August Blah at 7pm."

Now, prior to the current board/staff, not all board meetings were public. They also weren't always posted publicly. For the record, as a Mutual, we are governed slightly different than a normal water company. I've done some homework. It appears that anyone who wishes to attend a public board meeting is supposed to RSVP. Seriously. They are supposed to call in advance and let us know they plan to attend. Also, we don't have to have public meetings. However, we want our residents to be better informed of what's going on. They all believe they know more about the system, how to deal with the issues, how to replace the 60 year old infrastructure and in what order, yadda yadda yadda. What they fail to realize is that they are part of the problem. In the past 60 years this system has been around, no one has ever invested anything in the infrastructure. Anything that was repaired or replaced was done because they were absolutely forced to - as in, they had no other choice. Here's another picture: For the past 15 years (or more) one of the two river pumps has been broken. They've never replaced it because they had a working one. What they failed to realize is that if that good pump had failed, they wouldn't have been able to deliver water to their customers in the summer. Also? Similar situation with one of the two pumps at the treatment plant - one works well and the other one leaks oil like crazy, so we can't use it. If the good pump failed - again, no water would be delivered to customers in summer. We've replaced both. Well, one of them is at a pump shop, but the one is already replaced and working well.

Anyway, only shareholders are allowed to conduct business at the meetings. But we do open the regular monthly meeting to the general public so they can ask questions, share any concerns they have, or comment on what's going on. And, the agendas for the meetings are now posted one week in advance in 4 locations, plus it is now in the newsletter I started up and began putting in with bills in July. Can't tell me people aren't notified.

 Moving on, the next post she commented on was the one the day after the board meeting. The meeting got a bit out of control.  The meeting had garnered a lot of interest as I had started putting a newsletter in with the bills, we'd made some changes to the rules, and we were enforcing the rules. This had ruffled a lot of feathers. Residents kept interrupting with their questions so that it was difficult to get through the agenda. When we tried to move on, people would shout out, "We have questions!! We should be able to ask questions!!" Seriously. Even when we explained that would get to them at the end where it says, "Public Comment" at the end of the agenda. Then we'd quickly get off topic because one question would lead to another that would lead to another and so on. Even I had to shout to get people to be quiet. Once more than one person starts talking in that room, you can't hear anyone - it echoes horribly. Trying to decipher shit from the recorder was very interesting. Anyway, here's my post:

"We would like to thank everyone that came to the Board Meeting last night. We had an excellent turnout - approximately 25 people (which by the way is a huge turn-out as we usually have zero). While we understand all the topics discussed were "hot items", we would also like to remind everyone that those who come the meetings should always be respectful to everyone at the meetings - Board, Staff and Customers alike. All of us care very much about the Water Company and want only the best for it. Please remember that. We are happy to talk with any of our customers who have questions or concerns about any of the changes or problems with the Water System - but again, please be civil and respectful. Rudeness helps no one."

My reason for such a post was that folks were quite rude that night. I spoke with a couple customers the day after the meeting who were upset by how the meeting was handled - by everyone involved. I told them that yes, it could have been handled better and that I would speak with the board members about some basic rules of conduct for meetings and such and that hopefully, we can all learn from that meeting and move forward. They agreed and we very happy that I took time out of my day to meet with them and hear their concerns.

Her response was, "Civil....Respectful....I think that considering the circumstances a little rudeness may be appropriate here. I live in NC and already am aware of the lawlessness involved in the way you run this company. Go back on disability for heavens sake and give your community a chance!"

My response was, "We are not "lawless" as you claim. We're attempting to make up for things have not been done for 40 years. By getting things accomplished, we are ensuring that we can get grant funding to upgrade an ailing and aging system. We realize that all of us (board and residents) could have handled our last board meeting better. We can only move forward and hopefully become better. None of us are "going back on disability" because we weren't on it to begin with."

It took me a few minutes to wrap my head around this comment because the last bit really makes absolutely no sense. Firstly, I totally understand that the residents at the meeting had every right to be upset. What no one enjoyed was them trying to run the damn meeting, talk over each other, yell at all of us for something that happened two years ago when none of us were employed or on the board at that time, attempt to throw us under the bus for things previous board and staff did or didn't do, or tell us how to do our jobs. Now, not everyone was a "Negative Nelly", we did have supporters in the crowd. But the naysayers were the loudest. Granted, members of the board could have handled things differently . . . or better . . . but like I said, it's something that we can learn from and hopefully improve. The last dig about "go back on disability for heavens sake and give your community a chance!" - that's what is confusing. If we "go back on disability" (which ain't gonna happen), and leave, the company will go under. Without a licensed operator (Boyfriend), the state will more than likely step in and take over and their rates will quadruple at best. The board has told me that more has been accomplished in the 7 months since Boyfriend's been employed than in the history that they know of. They same the same to me about me in the 4 months I've been at the office. But just up and leaving, we risk condemning the company to utter failure and ruin. And we care too fucking much to let that happen. Also, the "lawlessness"? I'm the one that discovered our company had been operating without worker's comp insurance for a year and a half - previous board/staff allowed it to get canceled due to non-payment. I had to haul ass and fix that shit fast. We're covered now, just an FYI.

And my personal favorite. I had posted this on Monday - again, I'm dog-sitting and often when I have the dogs, I will take them to the office with me so they're not stuck at home all day (except for Wednesday, because I had to go to the other water office and I couldn't take them with me, plus I had to run to town for deposits). They make me get up every couple hours to take 5 minutes or so for a quick walk outside, but otherwise, they don't disturb me and prevent me from getting my work done.

 

Sleeping on the job. But they're cute.

"I have office buddies this week! So far, Libby has been a good "alerter" of knocks at the door, but otherwise, they're both kinda sleeping on the job! lol "

Her response was, "Hey W (meaning Boyfriend), or your girlfriend or your mother......Is this really what Lewiston CA residents pay you to do? Time to get back to business. Do you not realize or appreciate that your community is in crisis? Ummm...."

My response was, "Office buddies or no, things are getting done - business was not interrupted. If you're curious about the things that have been accomplished, we'd be happy to let you know. You're welcome to email us at abcwatercompany@email.com or give us a call."

I had warned Boyfriend of backlash from the community for hiring his girlfriend to be the office manager; although, she's not currently in the community. All of us (board, Boyfriend, me) were concerned about nepitism, but overall, it's turned out well. Boyfriend spends very little time in the office, so I'm alone much of the time to work at my pace. I've accomplished a lot in the office, even though some days it feels like I don't. About the mother bit - the office pays my mother mileage once or twice a month tops to come up and help me learn some of the ins and outs of running a water company; it's cheaper than paying her $20/hr. She's an excellent contact being that she worked for a water company for nearly 25 years. She's been a big help!

Now, I did a bit of digging. I didn't recognize the woman's surname, and by her own admission lives in North Carolina. So, unless she's from here and knows folks here, in our service district, she wouldn't know much. So I clicked on her friends list. And there it was - the office gal before me who up and quit in January with absolutely no notice. The same person who couldn't answer anyone's questions without changing the subject or crying or getting angry. The same person who flatly refused to work in the office and keep any kind of business hours. The same person who didn't want the company computer at the office, but instead she wanted to keep it at her house. That's where she's getting her information from. From someone who doesn't see the big picture and hates Boyfriend. From someone who makes shit up and spreads the word (people 'fess up that they've heard it from her).

Now it all makes perfect sense.

But I'm still pissed.

And some days, I just really want to tell folks what I think of them. Some days, it just makes me want to cry.

And then I remember what a PR nightmare that shit would be, so I keep my mouth shut.

Better to be the Shamer, not the Shamee

I have officially shamed three people into deleting their comments or posts that are wholly inaccurate and ignorant rants. Being located in a small rural area, I understand that the rumor mill runs like wild fire. That is still no excuse for not doing your due diligence in getting the facts. Which usually means going straight to the source.

The first was in April, shortly after I started at the water company. Some guy on Facebook tried stirring the pot by saying that the reason our water company has to issue a Boil Advisory is because we're out of water.

Not true - one has nothing to do with the other. Our Boil Advisory is due to the age of our system (60 years) and no longer meets the current California Dept. of Public Health regulations in two ways: 1) Our surface water treatment plant doesn't meet current state regulations regarding how long our water sits at the treatment plant in contact with the disinfectant and 2) the cloudiness of our water; our treatment plant puts out like .5NTU where a modern plant will put out .1NTU (please don't ask me what NTU means because I have no idea lol), and the state's concern is that bacteria can potentially hide in that cloudiness. Therefore a Boil Advisory is issued as required by state law as long as we're using water from the river. Water from our wells does not need to go through the treatment plant, therefore, in winter, we can issue a "stop boil" notice to our customers. This year, the Boil Advisory started in mid-March and we dated it through the end of October. We don't run the river every day, but every two or three days as needed and it would be such a pain the buttocks to issue notices all the time. I'd never get anything else done.

The second and third were just tonight.

On Monday evening, we had what turned out to be a water main break in our little subdivision which is our service area (we only have about 167 connections). We had to turn the main off the entire street for about 16 hours or so. When they built our system 60 years ago, they used an odd size pipe that, today, is difficult to find things like repair clamps that fit our size pipe. I went and notified people twice - the first time to tell them that it was a service line that broke (which we thought at the time) and the water would be off for 3-4 hours, and a second time to tell them the bad news that it was a main that broke and we'd have to run to Redding in the morning to get the special clamps that fit our pipes. When I got into the office this morning, there was a message from KRCR News Channel 7 (at 3am!) saying they were getting reports that the residents were without water. I finally caved and talked with one gal who really wanted to come up and have someone speak on camera. Well, Boyfriend was like "No way!" because he was grubbed out from working on the main. Plus, that's not really his thing. Soooo, I agreed to it. The gal came up, put a microphone on me and sat in front of me with a  scary video camera and asked me maybe a dozen questions about the drought and how it's affecting us. I told her honestly what our situation is and what the worst case scenario is. I showed her around the treatment plant and one of our wells. Well, my parents said they saw the clip on the news (which I am SOOOOOOOOO mortified about being on the local news! ACK!!!) and they said I "looked so cute!!" To which I replied that I probably had food in my teeth and that my bangs were standing straight up. lol

This afternoon I saw a story on KRCR's Facebook page about a water main break in Happy Valley, just a half mile-ish from my parents house. Some gal commented that "the city needs to focus on pipes but instead they build juvenile centers and stuff." I totally paraphrased but that's the gist. I commented on the story with, "The city (I think you mean Redding or Anderson) isn't paying for CCCSD's water main repair. The money comes from the water district itself, from funds they have set aside for upgrades and/or repairs. That money is generated from their customers." This evening, her comment no longer existed.

The third was this evening. Our neighbor (who is also our Operator-in-Training), called us saying that they had just seen a comment on KRCR's Facebook posting of the story - a comment that was plain mean and completely ignorant. The comment read: "Don't believe the lies. They're not even mentioning the 2.9 million dollars they have because they want to spend on themselves. And they're installing meters before they do anything to the pipes or the system. Fishy fishy fishy." Again, I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember everything verbatim. There were also comments like, "they're surrounded by water", "pull it from the river", "they probably don't even have water rights", and "they have two lakes and a river and they're running out of water?"

Oh. It's. On. As for the main comment and I addressed everyone else, too, I wrote a very long comment explaining everything. Firstly, the 2.9 million dollars was awarded to the Community Services District, which is the other water company in town - which is a completely separate company. And when awarded grant funding, it's public funds, which means you have to account for every single dime that's spent - especially because it's typically awarded for a specific project. I also explained that while, yes, we have two lakes and a river - we can only pull a certain amount out of the river - BY LAW. The two lakes/dams are operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and are part of the Central Valley Project. We do not draw water from the lakes. You can read my Facebook comment and others here. Or you can read some additional comments on the actual story here.

Within the hour, the dumbass who started it all deleted his comment. HA!! Take that.

Look, I hate being a bitch and I hate writing what I had to write. Literally, my heart was pounding while I wrote my response to that person. It makes me so angry that people just assume they know more about our water company, how it operates, how it should operate and what our situation is. It's entirely possible the person I was responding to lived in the nearest town, Weaverville and has nothing to do with our system. I put it in my response that if they have concerns about our system that they are welcome to come our Board of Director's meetings, which are open to the public, and to refer to our Facebook page, they can email us or give us a call.

There's absolutely no excuse to be so rude and accusatory.

Also? You accuse me, Boyfriend, our staff and/or Board Members of lying - BOOM!! - it's on. I will shame your dumbass for being an asshat. 

I absolutely DO NOT stand for being called a liar and/or a thief.

Over the hill and off to court we go

In my previous asshat neighbor posts I recalled the details of the neighbor we found out in preparation for court because he filed a restraining order against Boyfriend after he (the asshat neighbor) trespassed on our property after we asked him nicely to shut his dogs up. Because seriously, barking for 5 or sometimes 10 hours at a time just isn't annoying. At. All.

After Boyfriend's first court appearance, which was for the judge to see if Mr. Asshat wanted to pursue the restraining order and if Boyfriend rejected or accepted it. Boyfriend rejected it, of course, stating a few facts. This meant the judge had to set aside an entire afternoon aside to hear testimony from all parties involved.

She set the date for mid-January. We were all planning to attend - me, Boyfriend, and Grandma. Unfortunately, by the time the court date arrived, Grandma decided she didn't want to go because she "believed" that the judge only wanted to hear from those who witnessed what happened the night Boyfriend accidentally dinged their front door with the flashlight - and that the trespassing incident wouldn't be talked of. When the judge asked where she was, Boyfriend told her that his Grandma's health has been bad since the start of the entire situation - which was actually true. She woke us up in the middle of the night once worried she had a clot in her lung. Turned out she didn't and the ER doctors said it was her arrhythmia.

The judge already had our paperwork we submitted in our response to the restraining order. We didn't realize that we could submit any new evidence. Oddly enough, Mr. Asshat did; he brought letters of recommendation from previous tenants. Looked a bit falsified to me. He brought his entire family. Boyfriend only had me. The judge asked that all witnesses sit outside while testimony was in progress so that future testimony wouldn't be influenced. That meant that I was sooooooooooooooo lucky to have the . . . um, privilege of sitting on the most uncomfortable benches ever with Mr. Asshat's wife, two daughters, son, and 2 year old grandson. Which by the way, that toddler was the loudest child I've ever met in my life. Now, I fully realize that the courthouse hall walls echo the sounds made on the marble floors. And that sometimes toddlers like to hear that echo. This toddler didn't give a shit. He just ran up and down the hallway - stomping everywhere. I swear that a herd of horses would be quieter in those halls. He kept trying to get in the courtroom. And what did Mom (the 21 year old with a second in the oven) do? Nothing. What the aunt and uncle do (especially while Mom was in the courtroom testifying)? Tried to continuously bribe the kid with chocolate. Which worked for about oooohhhhhh 3 seconds.

Also? It wasn't just the seats that were uncomfortable. I had to sit outside the courtroom for at least two hours before I was called in. I had to sit outside the courtroom with the entire family. Of course, I wasn't allowed to speak to them even if I wanted to.

When I was finally called in, I wasn't asked to sit at the witness stand. I was told to sit in a juror chair. The judge thanked me for my patience and explained to me that Mr. Asshat would ask me some questions and after that Boyfriend would be able to ask me questions and she would interject as she saw fit or ask questions herself. I was so nervous; I've never been in court before, never been in front of a judge. It's not cool, man.

Mr. Asshat began asking me a few questions regarding the night in question and I answered honestly. He said that our houses are roughly 400 yards apart and with our windows closed, TV on, and cooking dinner, we shouldn't hear his dogs. The judge interjected, by saying that 400 yards is 4 football fields (um . . . duh) and asked if I thought that seemed right. I told her that to me, it looked more like 1 to 1.5 football fields and turned to Mr. Asshat and said, "The dogs sound like they are in our yard barking. Just because the windows are closed doesn't mean they're sound proof." He asked me how a simple flashlight could make such a ding in the door as it's solid oak (or whatever wood) unless it was swung on purpose with a great amount of force. I replied with, "It's a large, heavy duty maglite that weighs a good couple of pounds and is at least one foot long. Boyfriend was talking with his hands and the flashlight accidentally hit the door. There was no intention behind it."  Mr. Asshat tried asking a few questions but never got around to the question, which annoyed the judge who would eventually break in and ask the question for him. At one point she asked him, "It's not as easy as it looks on TV, is it?" I nearly laughed out loud.

Boyfriend really only had one question for me. "When the flashlight hit the front door, did it appear that I swung the flashlight across my body as if to hit someone and missed?" I know a look of confusion swept over my face, because where did that question come from?! I answered honestly, "No. You didn't swing the flashlight across your body and you didn't swing it at anyone. If you had swung it, it would have hit the left door which stayed closed during the conversation."

The judge asked a few questions, like if alcohol was involved in with Boyfriend to which I replied that he'd had a beer with dinner. She also asked what we had had for dinner. Being that it had been three months prior my honest answer was that I couldn't remember.

In the end, she upheld the restraining order. For three years. And Boyfriend would have to give up his firearms and turn in proof within 48 hours.

Her reason? Had nothing to really do with the incident with the front door of Mr. Asshat's house. It had to do with Mr. Asshat trespassing on our property and Boyfriend having his 9mm at his side on video tape. However, by the time Boyfriend confronted Mr. Asshat, Mr. Asshat was on the street, not on our property and that Boyfriend knew who it was from the beginning.

The contradiction? The judge said it was "excessive" whereas the sheriff's deputy that showed up on the scene afterwards said Boyfriend had every right to have his weapon at his side.

After we left the courthouse, Boyfriend filled me in on what happened while I was waiting out in the hall with the lead-footed toddler hopped up on the chocolate he was bribed with to stay quiet. Supposedly, the "letters of recommendations" that Mr. Asshat had procured since the first court date from previous tenants of our house didn't sit well with the judge. I thought they looked like he'd typed them  up himself; the judge thought he'd coached the people on what to say. All of his kids had tried telling the story that Boyfriend had swung the flashlight across his body to hit the oldest daughter and missed her and hit the door. Boyfriend always asked the same question which stumped them and laid out the lie they were telling - "wouldn't the ding on the door be on the other door considering I'm right handed and the flashlight was in my right hand?" None of them had an answer for that.

Being that the judge upheld the restraining order, she ordered Boyfriend to get rid of any and all guns he owned within 48 hours. He had to go to a licensed gun dealer, who had to sign a court document that he had taken in said guns, and then Boyfriend had to take that back to the court for proof.  Which he did.

Since the court date, Mr. Asshat's dogs have continued to bark, they've been on our property and they've taken large shits in our yard and by our cars. We have found other weird stuff off and on; stuff that doesn't make a lot of sense. And we have been caught in a limbo as the sheriff's department won't do anything, because they don't dispatch out for barking dogs and tell us to call animal control. Animal control, for outside the city limits, is manned by one person, so to get a call-back is near impossible. And with the restraining order, we can't go over and ask them to shut their dogs up. We continued to call the sheriff's department at least once a week to complain.

Details of the Asshat Neighbor

I left off with the Restraining Order after the douche bag trespassed on our property because Boyfriend asked him to keep is damn dogs quiet.

In our research for all of this court stuff, we have come to discover the true identity of our neighbor. We know his name and the names of his wife, two daughters, his son and his grandson. We have also discovered that he is, in fact, a pastor - at the local Pentecostal Church. His predecessor is currently serving time in prison for child molestation. His oldest daughter is just 21, has a two year old and another on the way; possibly divorced as she has a different last name but lives with her parents.

Boyfriend's Grandma works with someone who knows a Pentecostal who attends this church. Evidently they pay for their pew in church. Some people have to borrow money, refinance their homes or whatever, to pay for their pew for the year. They are what some might call the "holy-rollers" - the kind of church where they raise their hands, some fall to the floor while caught in their love for God, believe in the "heeaaalin' power of the lord" and in some cases, play with snakes.

 

Sort of explains the fact that he lives in a million dollar home and wears alligator boots. Courtesy of his parishioner's so it would seem.

We also know the name of his church and exactly where it is. In fact, when Grandma filed her complaint with Adult Protection Services, she put his work (church) address and phone number, considering we don't know his house phone.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am all for everyone believing what they wish. Our neighbor has every right to attend or minister the church of his choice. What I have a problem with is the fact that he's not abiding by the county ordinances regarding barking dogs. I also have a problem with his smug and I'm-better-than-everyone attitudes. Just because he has found Jesus and believes in the healing power of Him doesn't give him the right to be an asshole and encourage his dogs to bark, trespass on other people's property, and bully everyone into silence.

Grandma actually tried to file a Restraining Order against the pastor since he bullied her and trespassed on our property, but she couldn't afford the $425 filing fee. So that didn't happen.

After finding the chain to our pasture gate cut and finding a dead chicken, the only thing the Sheriff's Office would do was "recommend surveillance cameras and motion lights". So Boyfriend spent $300 on security cameras and positioned them around the  property. We have caught nothing but our charming selves doing yard work for the past three weeks. Although the other day we found one of our three "no trespassing" signs ripped off the fence. It had been screwed in and the screws are still in the wood.

I called the Sheriff's Office last week after the dog had been barking for five hours and the deputy kept telling me to call Animal Control. I was quite persistent in stating, "We're caught in limbo here. I call you to report a nuisance and disturbance of the peace and all you can tell me is that I need to call animal control because your office doesn't respond to barking dogs. I call animal control and because I live outside the city limits it's an unmanned office with ONE person manning it. I'm lucky if I get a returned phone call. They don't do anything because they have higher priority abuse cases and the like. What the hell am I supposed to do?"

His response? "Call animal control during business hours."

My fucking taxes pay your fucking salary asshole. Thanks for upholding the law and keeping the peace.

Anyway, back to the good pastor.

We've also discovered where the "dead dog" is. Tonight, standing on the front porch, we saw one dog on the front porch laying in front of the door. We kept hearing barking, but it wasn't the dog on the front porch. The good pastor has a kennel in the back, which is where the other dog was, barking his head off. It would seem that we've only been seeing one dog running around and that he's trying to "hide" the other dog.

Somebody's trying to be sly.

Next time I really will tell you what happened at last week's court date.

Neighborhood Asshatery

I left off with a so-called dead dog still barking and a trespassing jerk.

Just after Thanksgiving, a Sheriff's Deputy shows up looking for Boyfriend, saying he has a complaint that he needs to respond to. The complaint, of course, is from the good pastor neighbor. Boyfriend was at work when the deputy stopped by and he explained to Grandma that Boyfriend would just need to respond in writing or he could go to court if he wished. And that he'd swing by another time.

A couple days later, a Restraining Order shows up. The good pastor had filed the RO against Boyfriend, claiming he's a violent person and had threatened his family.

Say what?

We had a couple of weeks to respond to the temporary RO, and set about getting letters from our landlord. Grandma had written a letter to Adult Protective Services about the situation with the good pastor knowing and willingly trespassing on our property and included a copy of that letter in our response. Boyfriend, of course, wrote a letter. I wrote a letter. Our landlord wrote a letter. A fairly damning one. 

The landlord stated that the pastor has never had permission to be on the property. In the past, the pastor bullied one of the previous tenants to allow him to put his horse in the side pasture and the pastor refused to get a specific insurance policy and he flat-out refused to do so. The landlord then told the tenant he had to have that specific policy. The landlord also stated in his letter that the good pastor had often walked his dogs over to the property we now rent just to defecate on the property. Also on several occasions, the dogs would bark at the landlord while he was on his own property, menacing him and forcing him to stay in his truck (on his own property) until the dogs finally got bored and left.

We discovered the day that the good pastor was informed about the investigation by APS as he forced his dogs to bark the entire night. Like we all could hear the dogs get quiet and then hear them yelp in pain and start barking again. Obviously somebody wasn't happy that APS didn't like him bullying a senior citizen.

Our written responses weren't ready quite fast enough so Boyfriend had to go to court no matter what. He met the good pastor and his whole family there. The commissioner asked the pastor if he still wished to pursue the RO and he said he did. She asked Boyfriend if he still contested the RO and he said yes he did. She looked at the evidence presented by both sides and set a court date for January 15th.

The weekend before this little court date (still in December) we discovered the chain Boyfriend put on our pasture gate to keep people out (*cough*pastor*cough*) was cut and one of our chickens was dead. No other neighbors appear to have been vandalized and we knew who it was. We called the Sheriff's Department and they told us that there was no evidence that the good pastor did anything. And the only thing they could suggest were motion lights and surveillance cameras.

(And we have discovered that something must have happened to one of the dogs because we've recently only been seeing one dog around their house instead of two. However, Boyfriend says he never touched the dog and I believe him. We do get coyotes and mountain lions around these parts and it's very possible and probable that mother nature got to him instead).

Next up: the January court date and the ruling from the commissioner.

 

The Neighborhood Asshatery Continues

Continuing the Asshat Neighbor story . . . Last I left off, Boyfriend and I had gone over to the neighbors house to ask them to quiet the dogs only to be met with disdain and hostility. From the daughter.

The week of Thanksgiving, while I was at work, Boyfriend was fixing a flat on his truck. He had found a screw embedded in his tread. A fairly small screw in thick off-road-tire tread, which he figures couldn't have penetrated his thick tires under "normal" circumstances. No proof, though. He fixed the tire and decided to take his truck for a quick drive to make sure.

According to Boyfriend's Grandma, she watched the neighbor walk down his driveway while Boyfriend was still working on his truck. After Boyfriend left, the neighbor and his son came to the front door. Grandma answered the door and the man introduced himself "John Doe" (he said his first name and refused to give his last name).  He told Grandma that he wanted to walk the property line as he wanted to put his horse in the pasture to the side of the house. Grandma told him point blank she did not want him on the property. He rudely told her that we only rent the land the house sits on and that he had permission from our landlord to do so. Grandma asked him to not walk the property until she could confirm permission from the landlord as we, the tenants, had not been informed. The good pastor said he wouldn't wait and proceeded to walk to the pasture.

Grandma got on the phone to the landlord and his rental agent and left messages.

Boyfriend was driving on the main road and at one point while driving on this road you can see our barns and the back of the house. As he's driving back to the house on the main road, he sees two strange men around his old mud truck behind the woodshed. His thought was that Grandma was alone at the house and raced back. He grabbed his 9mm, kept it at his side and as he approached the pasture he recognized the good pastor.

Boyfriend simply said, "What the fuck are you doing on my property?"

The good pastor, making sure he was video-taping the entire thing, replied with, "Look there's (boyfriend's first and last name), brandishing a weapon for no reason."

Boyfriend said, "You're trespassing on my property."

Eventually the good pastor and his son left. Boyfriend went back to the house and Grandma told him what had happened. He put his gun away and went about his business.

A short time later, 4 Sheriff's deputies showed up. The good pastor made sure to watch the entire thing in the middle of the neighborhood street. They frisked Boyfriend and questioned both him and his Grandma. Grandma was pissed that they treated Boyfriend like the criminal when the pastor had been the one breaking the law. The deputies continued to question, Boyfriend and Grandma answered, and the good pastor watching from his ring-side seats.

Finally after much questioning, one of the deputies came out and said, "The good pastor says you shot his dog. Says he saw you do it."

Boyfriend replied, "Dog? I thought all of this was about his damn horse!"

The deputies then said that the pastor had been looking for his dog. Boyfriend told them that he hadn't killed anyone's dog and that the pastor wanted to look, the deputies could escort him around the property. That didn't happen, and the whole thing ended with the deputies talking with the pastor.

Grandma told the deputies she wanted to file a complaint against the pastor for trespassing. They told her it wouldn't be necessary as they had told him he had broken the law and to stay off our property.

Somewhere in all of that, both the landlord and his rental agent had returned Grandma's calls, stating that the good pastor has NEVER had permission to be on the property. In the past he has simply bullied previous tenants into allowing him to put his horse in the pasture. Which his horse has decimated the pasture and there's nothing but dirt in there now. Oh and lots of hose poop. LOTS. And damaged fence, which the good pastor told the landlord he'd repair and obviously has not.

And the story continues with complaints filed and restraining orders.

Seriously.

Oh, the so called dead dog? Still barking.

Introducing Our Neighbor

I sit here, watching The Hobbit with Boyfriend, enjoying our house. Things are hung on the walls (most of them). We have tons of eggs in the fridge thanks to our chickens. We're learning to remember where things are in the kitchen. Boyfriend cleaned up the garage the last two days. The wood we've gotten is 6split and stacked.

While we are enjoying our new house, there is one thing we are not enjoying. Our neighbor across the street.

It began the week we moved in - their dogs barking incessantly. One night, they barked non-stop keeping Boyfriend up between 1am and 4am. Finally Boyfriend was fed up with the dogs on our property (yep) barking incessantly that he went outside and chased them back home across the street. He knocked on their door and eventually the wife answered the door. Boyfriend asked her nicely if she could keep the dogs on their own property and quiet and she acted all bewildered and had no idea what he was speaking of. He replied with, "You can't hear that?" pointing at the (still) barking dogs. Nope, she apparently couldn't hear it.

A couple days later, the husband came over after getting home from an elk hunting trip to discuss the incident, dressed to the nines and wearing $1000 alligator boots. And by discuss, I mean using his 6'6" frame to intimidate Boyfriend into never ever scaring his wife that way again as she is ill. (Like Boyfriend was supposed to pyschically know that.) Boyfriend is not one to be intimidated, and therefore, got back in the guy's face telling him that his dogs bark incessantly. The neighbor said, "Dogs will be dogs and they'll bark. I also like them barking because it keeps critters away." Boyfriend clearly stated that his dogs barking like that are a nuisance and there are laws against it, and that he's simply asking that the guy keep his dogs on his own property and quiet. He questioned how Boyfriend knew they were his dogs, and Boyfriend replied with, "You have two Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, correct? Your two dogs have been getting into my yard, attempting to bother my chickens, pooping all over my yard, and barking at me while in my yard. By law, if your dogs are threatening my livestock, I have every right to shoot them. I don't want to do that. I'm simply asking you to keep your dogs quiet. You're argument that 'dogs will be dogs' is not a valid argument. It's a bother to your neighbors." After a few choice words (started by the neighbor), the neighbor finally said he would do what he could.

About a week later, that dogs were barking incessantly during the evening, for three hours straight .As a side note, it amazes me that dogs never seem to go hoarse. Boyfriend and I decided to go over and talk to them about it. Off we went, knocked on the door, and the daughter answers. We politely ask if she could quiet the dogs as they've been barking for three hours and we can hear it through closed windows and over the TV. She crosses her arms in front of her, gets an extremely pissy look and says, "Dogs will be dogs and will bark. I can't make them stop." I asked if there was a pen they could be put in, or put in the garage for a bit until they quieted down. That wouldn't work either. Boyfriend tried talking to her for a few more minutes and she got pissier with each minute. Because it was dark, we had walked over with a flashlight. Boyfriend began to turn Italian while talking and at one point, the flashlight smacked the door. It was by accident, but that's all it took. She started hollering that she was going to call the cops.

I dragged Boyfriend away. Back home, he left a message with the Sheriff's department regarding the issue. Two hours later a deputy calls back and Boyfriend has a lengthy conversation with him. He told his side of the story, and the deputy eventually told Boyfriend that the daughter called claiming she was scared for her life and that of her toddler. When her dad got home, he also called the sheriff. The deputy told Boyfriend that he does have a right to shoot the dogs if they are bothering his livestock. And asked us not to go back over to the neighbors house.

Now, when the daughter drives by, she stares at us, makes rude faces and flips us off. No joke. And the guy just stares at us when he drives by. Nice.

The worst thing about all of this? This neighbor is a minister. He's unlike any minister I've ever known. Now granted, I don't know very many, but I have never met a minister like this. He has shown us absolutely no respect whatsoever. We both admit that he has made an effort to keep the dogs quiet, and we do appreciate it. When he's not home however, his wife and kids don't give a shit.

And as it turns out, the entire street hates him.

To be continued . . . 

Oh The Tangled Webs We Weave

Wednesday seemed to go about like any other work day. Except there was a training meeting via phone conference for about an hour or so, starting at 8. Rather boring and until we start the new process, we really won't have that many questions or really understand the whole thing. 

Bubbles was her normal self - her utter cheerfulness infecting all those around her. Meaning the complete opposite of course.

I did my work throughout the day, finally coming to a point about 4pm where I didn't have anything to do. I had been working on doing some clean up on my "schedule" (pestering people as to why we haven't received payment), and had walked back in and heading to my desk when L asked me what I was doing. I replied that I was working on my schedule. She wanted to see what I had, which wasn't much as I've been keeping a close eye and it's been only one page long (when I started it was 3 pages) and I had addressed anything over 5 days old. I told/showed her and then asked her if she had anything I could help her with as I was pretty much done for the day. She said she had a project for me. Made me happy as I like to stay busy and didn't want to told to leave early if I didn't have anything to do.

I went to my desk to put my papers away and went back to L's desk so she could show me what she wanted me to do. She was looking to clean up our inventory online and make sure it matches what he physically have. As she's going over all of this, I saw an email notification pop up in the bottom right hand corner of her screen.

Now I'm not being nosy, as I was there for a reason and staring at her computer screen for the same reason. I was not snooping  or accessing anything I shouldn't.

The email was from Bubbles. The notifications also include the first couple of lines of the email. And since the notifications only pop up for about 10 seconds, I don't remember it verbatim. 

However.

What I do remember is this: "Dang! . . . . hope she'd go home early!"

I think the part I'm fuzzy on was something about me being done for the day or not having anything else to do.

Now, here's what bothers me. Bubbles sent this to L. I like L. She and I get along well and she's a good teacher. L is also the assistant office manager.

I will let that last bit sink in.

How fucking inappropriate is that? Only tons. My last hour of work I was really pissed off, but I didn't show it. I sat down with the printouts from L and set about matching what's in stock physically and online. Now, I know Bubbles and L are "friends" to a point. I believe they started at the company about the same time, and they take their lunches together. Well, to be honest, L, Bubbles, and T get to take their lunch at noon. I have to wait until 1. My boss typically doesn't eat her lunch until 12:30 or 1 and she usually eats at her desk.

So basically speaking, I am (in a sense) ostracized from the group having to take my lunch after everyone else.

Also, from day one, Bubbles has (for some reason) been quite hostile towards me. I have been chalking it up to her personality and that our personalities don't "mesh well". I am aware that  not everyone gets along, and I don't go to work to make friends. I do, however, expect civility and I don't believe I really get even that. Either that or her version of civility is vastly different than mine.

I talked it over with Boyfriend - saying I may need to talk to my OM on Monday when she gets back. As the whole situation is inappropriate and creating a hostile environment. However, if I complain, Bubbles will get talked to, and she knows exactly who will have complained. There are only 5 of us in the office, including the OM. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Boyfriend suggested I start documenting everything instead of going to my OM. Which I will start doing. Besides, either way I still take the brunt of it. If I leave it be, Bubbles will continue to exude her contempt for me. If I make a complaint, it will only make it worse.  So really, I'm screwed either way.

Also, Bubbles repeated a comment about having to fix stuff on her "schedules" and that those problems are due to other people's incompetence and laziness. She repeated it at least 3 times. If she's referring to me, I don't know what "problems" she's speaking of. She mentioned a few weeks ago for me to watch something and I have been. I even went to my OM to verify if I was following correct procedure. So I took measures to make sure to not make the same mistakes. If there are other mistakes she's referring to, I have no idea what they would be as no one has said anything. And if they are my mistakes and they aren't telling me about them, there is no way I can stop making said mistakes. I can't learn and grow if you don't inform me and teach me.

Oh. And that laziness bit? I'm not sure you could consider me slacking on the job. I do the deposit every day, process any and all dealer trades and wholesale transactions, process contract cancellation requests, and work on my "schedule". And when I run out of stuff to do, I ask L or the OM if there is anything I can help with, even if it's just filing. I even took on the dreaded task of shifting all the deals in the filing cabinets to make room. Me? Lazy? Doubtful. She may be referring to just our company, however, seeing as I'm getting the hint that she believes I'm incompetent and lazy, I'd like to say this to her:

"You think I'm lazy? I work three jobs, seven days a week. Three weeks in, I'm still unpacking and getting settled in my new place. I'm preparing to host my first Thanksgiving. Most every night I get home about 5:30 and do stuff around the house - clean, laundry, dinner, dishes, ironing, stack wood, go cut more wood, unpack, move shit around, write stuff for my grandparents magazine, do online training for my weekend job, and spend some quality time with Boyfriend. You're only 22 years old and you have a shit-ton of things to learn - one of them is basic civility. And trust me, you're not perfect either and you don't know everything. You are not entitled to anything so you can shelve your 'I'm better than everyone else' attitude. Also? Involving the assistant manager in your hatred of me is highly inappropriate work place behavior. So fuck you and the horse you road in on. Bitch."

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do some more unpacking before I go to bed.

Lazy, my ass.

Humpfh.