Useless Conversation

[rattran]

Good fences make good neighbors... or keep the shitty ones out of your yard. I ran my chainlink fence all the way down to the lake, and 8' out into it.

[Sky]

I've got a couple decent chainlinks on either side. Need to put in some real fencing to keep the deer out and maybe get a dog and a pool at some point. But I don't want wood and the upkeep, as my yard is too big for that nonsense. White vinyl is kinda tacky and glare-y. I like the better quality brown vinyl, but holy crap is that stuff expensive.

The tree cutting thing reminds me, I need to get up and clear the neighbor's branches again before I lose cable, they have branches laying on my cable wire.

[RhyssaFireheart]

What you can't see is the creek running along the back edge of my property.  Technically part of my property is on a flood plain, so I couldn't build a fence even if I wanted to.  And considering the neighbors we've had there most recently, I really, really would have loved a fence.

In the second photo, the tree in the front of things is a maple and just on their side of the property line.  That pic also really shows off how washed out and eroded that side of the yard is now.  It was beautiful when we first moved in and had sod put down... 17 years ago now.  

Also - fuck black walnuts trees.  I'd kill every one of the damn things around me if I could (there's 3 on their lot alone, so guess were all the fucking fruit ends up?)

We had two black walnuts in the yard. GF at the time wanted them cut down really badly and called some private tree cutter who was also a woodworker. He cut them down for free as long as he kept the wood to build furniture... pretty sweet deal.

We've actually considered that, but since the trees aren't on my properly, can't do a damn thing about them.  You can kind of see two of the walnut trees at the back corner of the yellow house in the second photo.  There's one on the other side of their garage but with how the branches hang and the fruit drops, it ends up in the side yard between the houses, meaning it rolls down to my side because of the slope. At least the stupid squirrels are eating well.

[Sir T]

I'm kinda surprised that you cant cut back that parts that overhang your property.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I'm kinda surprised that you cant cut back that parts that overhang your property.

We can, but it costs $$$ to do that and our budget was sucked up by having to replace my car in June.  So it was going to be put off for another year until the husband called about it.  Getting someone else to not only do the work but pay for it was just pure win/win for us, considering the tree guy said he quoted $3500 to do the job.

[Reg]

Don't let the neighbours find out. If they're assholes they might decide the cut off wood belongs to them.

[RhyssaFireheart]

You know, I realize you have to practice selective hearing when working in a cube farm, but the guy in the cube catty-corner from mine really needs a reminder that burping, belching, sniffling, and regular coughing is not cool.  It's the burping and belching that's the most annoying currently because it's every damn day.   

[Samwise]

I used to work next to a guy who'd make the most annoying "ahem" noises to himself, CONSTANTLY.  I just started always wearing headphones.  Don't even need the fancy noise canceling kind if you turn up the music.

Sitting there and just stewing because someone in your general vicinity is making involuntary noises is the least productive thing possible.  Get noise cancelling headphones, or murder him in a way that can't be traced to you, or GTFO.

[Reg]

Or do both so you aren't deafened by his screams.

[Sky]

My neighbors are pretty lax about pulling up seedlings, so I had a full-blown oak growing next to my chain link fence. Since my house pre-dates the city limits, I'm close on that side, with a slab. Oak roots in proximity to slab are not ideal, and an oak between two houses would be a bear to remove later. So I had my lawn guy take the tree, which was about 3" in diameter at the time. I ran it by them, and they agreed in advance. I offered to replace it with ornamentals that wouldn't grow as large as an oak.

Welp, then they lost their shit and pulled badges on my lawn guy (neighbors are retired troopers). So he quit. I went to my lawyer to get ahead of it, and he had just gone through a similar thing trying to do the right thing with trees growing into his fence and had a hell of a time. Basically (and IANAL), fence lines are grey territory, even if you know the survey line.

You can for sure take back anything to your survey line, but in reality that's a shitty way to prune that puts the health of the tree in question (bid dead branch vs a nice clean prune at the trunk).

Neighbors are finally talking to me again, after 5 years of silence and anger. It will be fun when I revisit the situation, I've already cut it back from my side once because they're letting the suckers all grow in. So it's technically a far worse situation now.

I dislike stupid people.

[Mandella]

Goddamn, Sky just triggered some memories of a property I had in days of yore. Neighbors on two sides where the nicest folks you could imagine, but the guy on the third was a complete asshole. The funny thing was that they were all related (I had purchased their deceased Paw Paw's house), and when I mentioned to one of the nice ones that I was planning to put up a fence they *all* put in an appearance to tell me that cousin Billy was a total asshole, and to make sure I had *everything* legally squared away, because he *was* going to give me shit and there was nothing they could do about it.

So I did. Paid the money for an extra survey, got it in writing from the county commissioner how close I could put it to the line (right on it, but recommended eight inches back although you are assumed to have an automatic easement to care for the other side of your fence). And yes, he gave me shit and I shut him right the hell down.

He didn't talk to me for years either. 

[Teleku]

It’s Interesting that there’s no fence between the properties.

You have lived in the western US most of your life haven't you?  

Yup.

Huh, never realized there was such a difference.  Even in the small redneck town in rural California I grew up in, every house had a fence.  Its just plain civilization!  So yeah, it always looks way bizarre to me to see houses like that without any sort of fencing.

[Sky]

The guy who abused easements to build in the landlocked woods behind me (a couple years before I moved in) has been pretty chill about keeping the woods wild. Until this summer, he's been running the excavator (he's in excavation, so has $$$) to make trails. Then the ATVs show up. It's maybe a half-acre of woods and half of it is school district property.

It's wicked annoying. I'm not a fan of any small engine vehicles for recreation in shared spaces. Whether it's the one guy on a jetski disrupting everyone relaxing around a lake or this guy's kids ruining a nice peaceful afternoon in everyone's backyards. It's just so goddamned selfish.

The old lady is pressuring me to call the city council, but I'm hesitant to pursue it (I'd talk to the guy first anyway). Because he has money and pull, I can see him buying the rest of the school district tract. I'm tempted to try to buy it out from under him and then tell him to stop developing and using it. The whole thing has been pretty stressful, there was one day the kids started on the ATVs at 8 am and ran until 9pm. All. Day. I had the day off and just wanted to relax and read, maybe draw a bit. And constant small engine revving. All. Day.

[Khaldun]

We got lucky re: trees. Our neighbors were chill, we were chill, we had a couple of problem trees right on the survey line and we just agreed to split costs and take them down.

I did admire my neighbor's smart move when he saw we were selling the house--he'd wanted to build a tree house for his kids that might just slightly overhang the survey line. So he went ahead and had the line resurveyed and it moved it slightly towards our house, just enough that the tree house he was planning wouldn't overhang. He rightly figured that the new buyer wouldn't know and that this protected him from the new buyer being able to have an opinion on the tree house (we obviously wouldn't have cared at all).

[schild]

Sounds like you got lucky in terms of neighbors.

[01101010]

Took the car into the dealer for the state inspection and emissions testing. Got there at 10am, checked in and ushered into the waiting room. 7 seats, 3 white males over age 55 and 2 white women over age 55, and one younger guy maybe in his thirties. Big screen TV showing FOX news, and every so often I see one of the older guys nodding his head when the talking heads start trying to defend Trump. Surreal

[schild]

burn it down salt the bones

[Sky]

Our local paper is editing all the AP articles about Trump or his policies to remove 'fake news' from 'biased news organizations'.

 

[Bunk]

All this talk of things like "yards" and "houses" makes me sad.

I live in an older part of town, full of 40 year old lowrise rentals. Over the last year, a mega investment firm has been buying up the old buildings that are in good shape (including the one I am in) and renovicting the tenants. Around a dozen buildings in a 3 block radius of me.
Sent us all a letter earlier this year offering us a whole two months of free rent if we'd just move out quietly.

Turns out my neighbour is a bit of a crusader, and he's organized us all in to fighting it. Our new right-wing provincial government introduced a few law changes in our favour, but its still an up hill battle if the company pushes it.
We've been looking at the suits they all ready renovated: two bedrooms for $1800 - $2000 per month. This is a forty year old building, with shared laundry and no other amenities of any sort. I found a real estate flyer for this building from 2016. The average rental price per suite that year was about $950.

New laws mean they have to give me first right of refusal if they do my suite, but they can raise the rent to "what the market will bear". I'd be looking at my rent nearly doubling. That makes it tough for a guy approaching 50 to save for retirement.

So we are digging our heels in, see what happens. Spent Sunday afternoon sitting next to a Federal MLA for two hours in a town meeting we called. Its interesting - I've never really been a "community" type of guy before.

[Reg]

Our local paper is editing all the AP articles about Trump or his policies to remove 'fake news' from 'biased news organizations'.

 

Are they actually allowed to do that? I'm surprised that AP would put up with that kind of bullshit.

[Sky]

All this talk of things like "yards" and "houses" makes me sad.

I live in an older part of town, full of 40 year old lowrise rentals. Over the last year, a mega investment firm has been buying up the old buildings that are in good shape (including the one I am in) and renovicting the tenants. Around a dozen buildings in a 3 block radius of me.
Sent us all a letter earlier this year offering us a whole two months of free rent if we'd just move out quietly.

Turns out my neighbour is a bit of a crusader, and he's organized us all in to fighting it. Our new right-wing provincial government introduced a few law changes in our favour, but its still an up hill battle if the company pushes it.
We've been looking at the suits they all ready renovated: two bedrooms for $1800 - $2000 per month. This is a forty year old building, with shared laundry and no other amenities of any sort. I found a real estate flyer for this building from 2016. The average rental price per suite that year was about $950.

New laws mean they have to give me first right of refusal if they do my suite, but they can raise the rent to "what the market will bear". I'd be looking at my rent nearly doubling. That makes it tough for a guy approaching 50 to save for retirement.

So we are digging our heels in, see what happens. Spent Sunday afternoon sitting next to a Federal MLA for two hours in a town meeting we called. Its interesting - I've never really been a "community" type of guy before.

Take the two month free rent and find someplace new.

[schild]

All this talk of things like "yards" and "houses" makes me sad.

I live in an older part of town, full of 40 year old lowrise rentals. Over the last year, a mega investment firm has been buying up the old buildings that are in good shape (including the one I am in) and renovicting the tenants. Around a dozen buildings in a 3 block radius of me.
Sent us all a letter earlier this year offering us a whole two months of free rent if we'd just move out quietly.

Turns out my neighbour is a bit of a crusader, and he's organized us all in to fighting it. Our new right-wing provincial government introduced a few law changes in our favour, but its still an up hill battle if the company pushes it.
We've been looking at the suits they all ready renovated: two bedrooms for $1800 - $2000 per month. This is a forty year old building, with shared laundry and no other amenities of any sort. I found a real estate flyer for this building from 2016. The average rental price per suite that year was about $950.

New laws mean they have to give me first right of refusal if they do my suite, but they can raise the rent to "what the market will bear". I'd be looking at my rent nearly doubling. That makes it tough for a guy approaching 50 to save for retirement.

So we are digging our heels in, see what happens. Spent Sunday afternoon sitting next to a Federal MLA for two hours in a town meeting we called. Its interesting - I've never really been a "community" type of guy before.

Take the two month free rent and find someplace new.

Bingo, but ask that they pay you to move as well. Also, to cover your rent for six months at the new place. Basically, bend them the fuck over. Also, where do you live?

[Bunk]

New Westminster, BC.

Problem is, the rentals in my area have skyrocketed in the last three years because of this. Eight apartment buildings purchased by the same company in a three block radius of me this year. All being renovated. If I moved out and was given six months rent, it would last six months before I ended up in the hole, unless I want to move three times as far from work. I rented my place four years ago for $1060. Currently I'm paying $1160. If they renovate my suite, they'll be asking $2000 for it. In a forty year old building with shared laundry and no amenities.

Best I can get a decent sized unit for within say a 60 minute commute, is about $1600 / month + parking, in a shithole area. That $500 extra a month is worth fighting this over.

[Hawkbit]

http://www.seattle.gov/hala/about

Not sure that would help at all because different city/country but maybe there’s ideas in there for your organization. Seattle has very similar problems, though I suspect Vancouver is worse because it might be the most expensive place to live in North America.

Basically Seattle raised the minimum wage to $15/hr in city and everyone freaked out nationally about it. Yet in Seattle the average family has to bring in $72,000 to meet basic needs and those under $100,000 still feel poor. When we moved here seven years ago our townhouse we rented for $1900/mo. We ended up buying a house for different reasons but that same townhouse now rents for $2800/mo. Nearly a 50% increase in seven years! There just isn’t enough space to live for the people, so prices get jacked.

The flip side of this, and why our community is torn on HALA, is as a home owner, I have also watched my property expected value skyrocket. If I sold my house today it would sell for enough that profits I made would buy me an entire house flat out in a smaller city. Maybe enough to buy two houses like we owned in Ohio.

I’m absolutely sorry you’re going through this and hope something works out. It really does seem unfair.

[Trippy]

I suspect Vancouver is worse because it might be the most expensive place to live in North America.

I was confused by this statement (More expensive than the San Francisco Bay Area? Unpossible!) so I did a search and the reasoning behind it is that though housing is (still) somewhat cheaper in Vancouver the median income is disproportionately lower so housing affordability is lower.

https://www.straight.com/news/987356/vancouver-beats-manhattan-and-san-francisco-least-affordable-housing-north-america-study

[schild]

Vancouver is hilariously expensive given it's uninhabitable four months of the year. Easily the best place in canadastan tho.

[Chimpy]

A burned down house is on the market for $3million in Vancouver. That should tell you how fucked up housing prices there are.

[Trippy]

That lot is kind of special though cause of its size and being zoned to allow multiple dwellings.

https://www.rew.ca/properties/R2293412/2573-w-3rd-avenue-vancouver-bc

[Samwise]

Take the two month free rent and find someplace new.

I was gonna say, this is clearly advice coming from an area where housing is an easily fungible commodity.  

Around here if you've been renting a place for ten years and get evicted, you're going to have to move at least fifty miles further inland (which corresponds to a few extra hours of commute time if you want to keep your job) to find someplace at the same price.

[Bunk]

I'm progressively working on my manager about the whole permanent working remotely thing.

[WayAbvPar]

Went to #PainInTheGrass tonight with a buddy (who had fucking AMAZING seats...I choose my friends well).  Saw Bush (surprisingly tolerable, plus Gavin Rossdale climbed into our private box literally 5 minutes before we entered...saw him on video in the bar), Stone Temple Pilots (new lead singer is legit, if a bit full of himself), The Cult (the band I was most excited to see, but probably most disappointed with), and Alice In Chains, who were fucking amazing.

I basically never go to live shows, but have seen Roger Waters, Judas Priest, and this show in the past calendar year.  Each has been a DNA altering experience in at least some small way, so I am thinking I need to see more of my favs. So should you...most of you are old like me and your favorites are dying off quickly. Go see them.

[rattran]

Had to explain to an old friend that his company wanting to transfer him from suburban Chicago to Walnut Creek, he'd need more than just a minor raise. Told him if he sold his house, he could spend that money on rent for a year. Maybe.

[Chimpy]

Ok so I just found the best scam emails in my gmail Spam folder:

YOUR ABANDONED PACKAGE/PARCEL FOR DELIVERY
ANTHONY L. BENNETT <AB@mbd.ocn.ne.jp>   Fri, Aug 31, 2018 at 11:04 AM
Reply-To: anthonybennett@inbox.lv
Interim Assistance General Manager,
(Operations, Maintenance, Transportation)
Austin–Bergstrom International Airport Texas
3600 Presidential Blvd, Austin,
TX 78719, USA
 
 
Attention
 
 
Your Abandoned Package For Delivery
 
I have very vital information to give to you, but first I must have your trust before I reveal it to you because it may cost me my job, so I need somebody that I can trust for me to be able to reveal the secret to you.
 
I am Anthony L. Bennett, head of luggage/baggage storage facilities (Operations, Maintenance, and Transportation) here at the Austin–Bergstrom International Airport Texas USA. During my recent withheld package routine check at the Airport Storage Vault, I discovered an abandoned shipment from a Diplomat from London and when scanned it revealed an undisclosed sum of money in a Metal Trunk Box weighing approximately 110kg. The consignment was abandoned because the Contents of the consignment was not properly declared by the consignee as "MONEY" rather it was declared as personal effect to avoid interrogation and also the inability of the diplomat to pay for the United States Non Inspection Charges which is $3,700USD. On my assumption, the trunk box will contain more than $4 Million to $4.5 Million and the consignment is still left in our Storage House here at the Austin–Bergstrom International Airport Texas till date.
 
The details of the consignment including your name, your email address and the official documents from the United Nations office in Geneva are tagged on the Trunk box. However, to enable me confirm if you are the actual recipient of this consignment as the assistant director of the Inspection Unit, I will advise you provide Your Full Name, Current Phone Number and Full Address, to enable me cross check if it corresponds with the address on the official documents including the name of nearest Airport around your city. Please note that this consignment is supposed to have been returned to the United States Treasury Department as unclaimed delivery due to the delays in concluding the clearance processes so as a result of this, I will not be able to receive your details on my official email account. So in order words to enable me cross check your details, I will advise you send the required details to my private email address which is (anthonybennett563@gmail.com) for quick pr ocessing and response.
 
 
Once I confirm you as the actual recipient of the trunk box, I can get everything concluded within 48 hours upon your acceptance and proceed to your address for delivery. Lastly, be informed that the reason I have taken it upon myself to contact you personally about this abandoned consignment is because I want us to transact this business and share the money 70% for you and 30% for me since the consignment has not yet been returned to the United States Treasury Department after being abandoned by the diplomat so immediately the confirmation is made, I will go ahead and pay for the United States Non Inspection Fee of $3,700 dollars and arrange for the box to be delivered to your doorstep Or I can bring it by myself to avoid any more trouble but you have to assure me of my 30% share.
 
NOTE: If You Receive This Message In Your Junk Or Spam It's Due To Your Internet Provider. I wait to hear from you urgently if you are still alive and I will appreciate if we can keep this deal confidential. Please get back to me via my private Email:(anthonybennett563@gmail.com) for further directives: You can call me on my telephone number: (512) 952-7040 for verbal conversation. Please if am not available to accept your call know that I am on inspection just email me and make sure you include your mobile number so that I can call you back or drop a message or send me a text.
 
 
Thanks,
 
Anthony L. Bennett
 
Interim Assistance General Manager,
(Operations,Maintenance,Transportation)
Austin–Bergstrom International Airport Texas
3600 Presidential Blvd, Austin,
TX 78719, USA

And in a slightly different form:

Anti - Terrorist and Money Laundering Agency
From: Dr.Daniel Donald <wwu.@royal.ocn.ne.jp>
To: you   
Wed, Aug 29, 9:06 AM (3 days ago)
   
Anti - Terrorist and Money Laundering Agency
London Heath row International
Greater London TW6, United Kingdom.

Dear Beneficiary,

I am Dr. Daniel Donald the Director General of the Anti- Terrorist and Money Laundering Agency London - United Kingdom.We have investigated your sealed consignment Box containing $500,000,00 United State Dollars.

Intercepted by our monitoring agent at London Heath row International Airport and after due investigation have confirmed beyond all reasonable doubts that the said funds packaged in the box are free from terrorist and money laundering related activities hence have issued a certified Anti- Terrorists / Money laundering Clearance to cover the Diplomatic delivery of the consignment to your address as scheduled.

This clearance Certificate will clear all doubts with all authorities concerned in your country as soon as the consignment box arrives United States of America.

Since our agency has cleared your consignment Box free from Anti-Terrorist and money laundering agency relate activities, I urgently arranged an Express diplomatic delivery to maintain confidentiality and safety of the funds.

Our special diplomat agent Mr Desmond Favor was appointed immediately to deliver the sealed consignment box to your address and their flight departed London Heath row Airport (UK) yesterday and the good news is that he has confirmed arrival to United States of America with your consignment box awaiting Arrival clearance at the Airport.

Contact him now and reconfirm to him the following details below so that he will not have problem locating you immediately with the consignment box and to avoid any further delay in Delivery.

Full Names............................
Delivery address......................
Cell phone number.....................
Nearest airport ......................
His E-Mail(desmondfavor@diplomats.com)
His Number +1 (708) 325-4627

I hope that you understood our sincerity and dedication to services, so do not delay Mr Desmond Favor as he has very limited time to deliver the box to you and board the next available flight back to England for his next assignment in Asia before next week.

Delay could cause problems with Authorities so make sure you clear the, Arrival Clearance as soon as you contact him to enable him get to your address in a list couple of hours.

Note that for his safety and that of your Consignment Box, All communication should be kept highly
confidential between you and the diplomat to avoid problems as the Box in his possession contains huge amount of money with all the vital documents guiding the delivery.

I hope you understand that no one should know the real content of the box until you meet with the Diplomat to avoid interception of any information. Remember that the Tag on the Box is does not state that the box contains money, so it will be delivered to you in disguise as a Box of Charity Relief Materials.

Contact him now to establish communication for on-ward delivery to the final destination, keep me informed as soon as he hands over the box to you.

Yours faithfully,

Dr.Daniel Donald
Director General Anti- Terrorist and money laundering agency.
London - United Kingdom.

[Signe]

Congrats on your good fortune, Chimpy! 

[Mandella]

That one deserves to be immortalized in Yegolev's Some new spam thread...

And seriously you guys are braver than me. Any spam that gets to me I manually shitcan and then bitch at my spam filters. I don't dare open them.

Apparently I am missing high entertainment...