RE: [ihc] RE: Licensing

[Tom Harais <THarais@xxxxxxxxx>]

John:

It took me over a year to find out who it was, but I did :-).  He accidently
revealed himself one day during a casual, on the street discussion we had
while he was out walking his dog.  I had shared my views with any neighbor
that walked by for some time, trying to coax the culprit into revealing
himself and it finally worked.  This neighbor expressed his concern about
some people not keeping up their homes and yards the way he felt they should
and how it was going to hurt our property values (a CA obsession I might
add).  He had reported (the problem with the word "reported" is it implies
that people did something wrong in the first place) several neighbors, not
just me, for what he perceived as eyesores that he felt might affect his
home's value.  In my case, it had been my motor home parked in my driveway,
which I planned to move to the side yard anyway, as soon as we got out of
the dog days of July & August 100 degree heat.  I needed to do some serious
manual labor over in that side yard before moving the motorhome there.

The final straw for me in this whole scenario had been coming home from work
one day and finding my 80 year old, ailing neighbor out attempting to cut
down some 4" tall weeds that had grown in his partially re-landscaped front
yard.  He had been in and out of the hospital for several months and was now
struggling to run a weed whacker.  When I inquired as to why he was doing
this in his condition, his daughter told me because he had gotten one of
those notices from Neighborhood Improvement Services because some neighbor
had complained about his weeds and he was too embarrassed to tell anyone or
ask for help.  He was living on $600/month SS and he didn't have enough
funds available to hire anyone the folks at the $250 and $300 estimates he
had gotten for weed removal!

Later, during the conversation I had with the reporting neighbor, the
complainer referred to the 80 year old's home as an "eyesore" (far from it,
believe me).  The 80 year old had passed away by then, and I informed the
reporting source of this and told him that the poor man had been in and out
of the hospital for a long time and that his daughter now planned to sell
the house.  And, the weeds in his front yard had understandably not been a
priority in that mans life during his illness.

The snitch's response was, "Good. Maybe someone will buy the house and clean
up that front yard."  Gee, and I had expected compassion, sympathy maybe
even understanding.  But that reply frosted my ass, big time and I cut the
conversation off. Afterwards, I made sure I told all the neighbors who it
was that was doing the "reporting". Lo and behold, the "reporter" became
persona-non-grata around the neighborhood and found that no one wanted to
talk to him anymore when he walked his dog.  You could see him walking
around talking to himself after that. :-)

I have since not spoken to the reporting neighbor, except to return his
"hello" when he walks by.  My wife gets angry at me for even doing this,
feeling I'm providing comfort to an idiot/the enemy. And she complains that
he is weird anyway, which he is.  But, I like to keep things civil and find
comeuppance in knowing that he has been ostracized by most of the
neighborhood and he no longer has friends.  I understand through contacts
that he plans to retire next spring.  His frequent walks are going to seem
really lonely then.

Just to be clear, my home isn't what one would reasonably call an eyesore,
ask John  or Steve as they've both been there.  I need to replace the garage
door and do some pruning perhaps, but nothing that looks like the homes in
the blighted areas of town.  

I have chosen to grow a large (after 20 years now), native oak in my front
yard with shredded bark as ground cover along with some manzanita and other
native plants.  This is less formal and not as common (although the water
districts and landscape architects are pushing this xeriscaping concept) as
turf surrounded by shrubs "english garden" approach is in suburbia including
my nieghborhood.  And, although other neighbors have rock gardens and
similar alternatives to the "stock" lawn & shrubs approach, I know full well
that not everyone approves or accepts what I have done with my yard.  Some
people just have no imagination beyond the green lawn surrounded by shrubs
approach as far as I'm concerned, including most members of my own family.

It's ironic that my Scout resides in my side yard, next to my garage but
still visible from the street and there have been no complaints about that.

Tom H. '76 Traveler