Sunday 6/19/2011

Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there who are raising children of whatever age!

Okay, it's not a big holiday, but it's worth noting and giving a moment's time to. I am going to treat myself to a dinner that I would not normally partake of just because. My son turned 18 last month, graduated High School, is working, going to go to college. I think I can say I did my part to help him get there.

One thing of notice that has happened since all the police visits to both mine and my neighbor's house. The barking dogs? I rarely hear them at all now. This has been my complaint since the beginning. It has been my complaint every time the police came over to my house after they were called by these stupid neighbors inventing stories and making up lies to, apparently, get me into trouble with the law.

They put up sheets of galvanized metal, leaned them against their side of the fence and keep their dogs on the other side of the house now. I hardly ever hear a peep out of those dogs at this point. Those people apparently thought I would just back down and "go away" and in the case of a person like me, nothing could be further from the truth.

I am just as entitled to peaceful enjoyment of my property as anyone else and there is NO way that police coming over to my house with attitudes after hearing complete, fabricated lies from my neighbors were then or are going to now intimidate me into backing down. If anything, it just gets me that much more the riled up. I still can't believe those police officers reaching over the gate, removing the lock and entering my back yard. I'm not sure they had the legal right to do that, especially considering there is a doorbell button out there and further that I have come out every single time they have showed up to "discuss" this situation with them. One thing is for sure: they completely stopped both entering my back yard and even coming over here once I called the precinct and complained about what I considered to be borderline police harassment.

The "only" problem left is the 2 idiots down the street: the neighborhood "bully" and his buddy across the street, the 30-something year old still living with his parents and a meth-head. However, even that situation has diminished greatly after I threatened to go to court and get an injunction against both of them. It's quite easy to do, too. I have resolved that if they offer up one more round of bull**** to me, I am going to head down to the JOP's court room and file for injunctions against both of them. Oh, the situation also reduced exponentially after I called the police and told them that the bully had threatened my life over.......cats.

So that's my neighborhood update. The place across the street is up for sale and if history is any proof of sale-ability, it will be in that condition for some time to come. A person with money to spend could buy that property and sit on it until the housing situation recovers -that could be years of course - and then resell the property for 4 or 5 or even more times what they paid for it.

That is, of course, the problem: you would have to sit on that property for probably years before it ever turned a profit. I was mildly interested in it as a rental property, but the house would take too much work to repair it into rentable condition. Only if they were offering a truly smoking deal on the place would I consider buying it.

Another option I have in this neighborhood is to pay up the taxes that some property owners don't pay. After 3 years, you can basically take the property as yours if they don't pay up. If they do pay up, they have to pay you back plus some absurd interest rate. Either way, you get something in return for your "investment".

I called my dad this morning and wished him a happy Father's Day. He sounds like he is doing well and he and his wife are settling into their new living arrangement in Tucson. Tucson is a relatively short drive and I can start visiting them on day trips here and there. Probably about 100 miles from my house, maybe a bit more. The speed limit once you get out of town is 75mph, which you can push to 80 and from what I have seen, DOT won't bother with you. They could, of course, but I haven't experienced that. The point is that I can be there in less than an hour and a half. It is not, however, a "beautiful" drive of any sort. It is nothing but desert from here to there, excepting Picacho Peak, which is an interesting mountain jutting up out of the desert floor that has some history of being the scene of some war conflict, well here is the copied and pasted text:

"Picacho Peak’s most noted historic event occurred on April 15, 1862, when Confederate and Union scouting parties met in the Battle of Picacho Pass during the Civil War. This was the largest Civil War clash to take place in Arizona."

As for my deceased doggy, I am pretty much over it already, usually doesn't take me long to get over the death of a dog, even if I have had it for a decade or more. Lynnette - not so easy. We were discussing getting another small doggy - however, this dog would be their's, not mine and if they ever left, they would either have to take the dog with them or I would find a new home for it. I do not want another 4th doggy. In my current range of dogs, once the 2 Danes die out - just being realistic here - the most dogs I will ever want at one time again is 2. 1 is okay, but when I'm not home, dogs tend to entertain each other instead of getting into trouble digging up things and basically engaging in property destruction out of boredom. If I get a dog from the Humane Society, you can always take it back, even years later, that way I am not stuck with a dog that is not mine and I have never really gotten to know.

Church starts in 45 minutes and yes, I intend on going. I am still not very comfortable with it, at all to be quite honest, but I am making the attempt with as good as attitude as I can muster and hope my mind frame changes about all of it. I promised myself to go 4 consecutive Sundays in a row and unless something happens to change that, I intend on keeping the self-made promise. The church is a 5 minute drive from here and is very lax on dress - people showing up in blue jeans and T shirts. I don't have a problem with others doing that, per-se, but it really isn't my style. I like to dress up for church, but today? Maybe for just one time in my life, I might go in blue jeans but have a nice shirt on.

With that, I bid you a........

G'day.

ben