So court.  

Went to the courthouse, the first floor, signed in. Told to go to the 4th floor. Got in there, they asked me what my name is? Gave them my name, couldn't find it.  I handed her the letter with the case number on it and then she found it.

Turns out the guy sitting at the defendant's desk seat is the judge. I was wondering who that man was, lol. He said the best I can offer you is a 71 in a 70 zone.  OK.  I wasn't going to argue that, if it screws me at work, it screws me.  I paid the fine at the first floor window and got out of there.

Fast forward and my cop friend next door asks about it. Yea, I replied, they reduced it a 1 mph over infraction instead of 15.  "Uhhhhmmm" he replies.  Fast forward, that was unacceptable to him and he's going to try to get it removed altogether.  Nice to have friends like that.  Note that it isn't the higher up judge that he knows that I was dealing with.  

I dunno, but I didn't think trying to get the ticket removed altogether was really worth the far greater aggravation and time and money spent over a 1 mph over speed infraction.  I was not going to try to stop him from trying, he's been in those court rooms for 25 years, he knows all these people, he grew up with all of these people. Yes it's at least possible he could get it dismissed.  

The property.  An underground utility locater company came out and put a huge amount of orange paint on the ground right next to where the telephone pole is going to be installed.  What? this is well away from the street. It is 20 feet away from where their line runs. What is this nonsense?  So, I moved the telephone pole stakes several feet closer to the property line but still on my property, just barely.  I have NO idea what ATT has going on there, but trust me when I tried to find out again, today.

No one that I have spoken to at ATT yet has been able to tell me what services they offer and all of them tell me they don't have anything going on on that street.  Funny, I replied today, this new marking from the utility locater has flags saying "ATT" on it.  I was on the phone a long time and got nowhere.  Can I please talk to someone in engineering, in planning and development, whoever had all of that infrastructure installed on that street?  There is no way that I can do that, sir.  It's typical of ATT for it's right hand to not know what the left hand has done. 

"It must be a newly installed set of lines". No, it's not.  I couldn't get any info on how to actually speak to someone who would be able to find out what is actually installed on that street.  So, I found something on line that is a request for service to be installed in the neighborhood.  It's amazing, but it's typical, of a giant corporation to not be able to find who you need to speak with.  

I did not call Fidelity, the local internet provider. I didn't, because the telephone pole isn't installed and I don't even know if where I reposted the stakes is going to work.  I wouldn't mind taking a shovel and digging down to the ATT marking and see what, exactly, is under there and why, more importantly, it is there.  

My giant doggy, Addler, is crashed out on my bed, lol. I don't mind when I'm around, i can monitor it, when I'm gone, I load the bed up with stuff to keep them from getting on it. 

Ohh! and the company I was giving up on? I called one last time.  They informed me that he - the guy that I was talking with - was busy. Ok, and cool, but I texted him twice last week and heard nothing back from him and tried to call him now?  It really doesn't bother me if they don't want to deal with me for some reason I have no idea what.

The man texted me 10 minutes after speaking to the office. 12k to clear the property, would give me a formal bid on the rest of it.  

I also called the guy that did the water tap installation.  He didn't answer but called back later. He's going out of town on a hunting expedition with his daughter.  Cool! We talked about that for a bit and then I expressed my desire for him to contact me when he gets back.  

That's it.  I'm done for the day. 5:00 pm, taking it easy until tomorrow.

Late load, I won't be worrying about other companies trucks butting in front of me, they do that earlier in the day, not later.  

Steroids working but I'm still coughing horribly at times. Ugh.