The Neighbor's Arboreal Mistake...

I woke up this morning to the sound of a Chainsaw. While not normally a bad way to wake up... Ok, it is. It sucks. Almost as bad as not being able to sleep all week because of strep throat and 102.8 degree fevers. Regardless, the neighbor across the street hacked up her large (I think) sycamore tree in her yard with a chainsaw.

While it never has been the most attractive tree on the block, this hacking away at it seems like a horrible mistake; I mean, she has no air conditioning (and it gets upwards of 110 in the summer here) and the tree was the only thing keeping the house remotely "cool". It's gonna make my house a little warmer in the morning 'cause the tree that used to block some sunlight doesn't. Oh, well.

In the picture, the yellow outline shows my estimated approximate guessed location of the former tree.

So, what's the point of this blog entry? None. I just wanted to use the phrase "arboreal mistake"... ;{)

Holy Lights and Stars, Batman!!

Holy cow! Just got back from the first trip of many to the property I just bought (and outright own, mind you) in the Sierra foothills... Man, oh, man! It's fantastic at night. Stars like I haven't seen in decades, crickets enough to drive you crazy, and views of the San Joaquin Valley to make you cry. (Probably because of the pollution, but that's a different story.)

Saw a hopping amphibian of some sort (frog or toad, I don't know) so I know I'll get at least a couple in my planned pond/stream/water feature-thingy.

The trailer that came with the property wasn't nearly as bad as I thought; only a couple dead mice and some mouse droppin's. But not even smelly. Probably gonna sell it As-Is for about $1,500. Found some subterranian termites in some wood stump so I'm gonna hafta have Terminix spray for those.

Gonna order the house tomorrow and hopefully, in three months, I'll be out of Fresno and livin' on the hill.... Yippee!

Your Way Fumigation Pisses Me Off

Aw, hell, I'll get to it now...

Terminix (about whom I have no complaints in their handling of the fumigation of my house) hired Your Way Fumigation to actually turn my house into a circus and pump it full of poison. We hightailed it up to Yosemite for the duration. As it turns out, Your Way Fumigation caused damage to the house and didn't seem concerned that they'd done anything wrong until I had Terminix call them.

They broke my fence, damaged the vent pipe to the bathroom, dug up flowers (that didn't need digging up), tented over another flower bed (killing all the plants in there), and the guys that did the fumigation actually taped up a business card advertising somebody's yard care business. Friggin' tools....

Anyway, the idiot from Your Way Fumigation (I sure wish I could remember his name) came out to inspect the damage and started arguing with me about what was damaged and what wasn't. Not good customer service, bubba.

And, a customer tells you someone from your company taped up a business card on the back door, don't EVER tell that customer that "anybody could have done it; we're not here watching your house 24 hour a day." That just really pisses the customer off and they create a blog entry for it. And that blog entry then starts damaging your reputation.

Regardless, Your Way Fumigation ended up making good on repairs (not all of them, I let some slide) but not after I realized I'll never use them for anything.

Bye, bye, home ownership!!!

Well, that's it! I'm no longer a home owner... Done sold the house and high tailin' it to the hills. (Really! I'm moving up to the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas!) Almost 6 1/4 acres all to myself. It's kinda on a hill at 2,400 feet elevation, but still, it's all mine. *AND* I get terrific TV reception, too!

If I get around to it, I'll continue that business about the fumigation fuck-wads over at Your Way Fumigation. MAN! That idiot who came to look at the damage his company did was a real heel....