OT: Real Police

[Mayo]

The property next to us has changed hands the most since we moved here in 1990. A couple of years ago a couple from L.A. who produce documentary films moved in and we introduced ourselves, but the promised invitation to "get together" never materialized...

It turns out that they are seldom around so they had a young "caretaker" living in a studio apartment in back of the main house. They also took to leaving their two dogs outside 24/7 as "watchdogs."  One of them particularly liked to hang-out at our fence-line and bark into the wee hours of the morning... his fave spot just happened to be maybe fifty feet from our bedroom.

As it turns out the main communication that we have had with these "neighbors" is over their dogs and the problem did diminish signifciantly after we initially complained.  But about a year ago they began leaving one dog tied-up all night behind their barn.  From day one it would spend much of its time whining and crying.  About three days into this new system the poor animal spent an entire night crying as if it was being tortured.  I finally got up at 3am and went over there... all the house lights were on but nobody answered the door. I could see the dog tied-up in front of its doghouse with nothing but a heatlamp for company. I didn't get to sleep until 5am.

The next morning I called several neighbors to see if they had been bothered by the dog.  Indeed they had, but they couldn't figure out where the noise was coming from. I encouraged them to join me in calling the local animal control authorities and after a visit from an officer (they were warned about the noise and also fined for having unlicensed animals...) we have experienced little noise from their dogs.

I hear that they are planning to build a house in nearby Ashland, Oregon to live with the other wealthy California transplants. (Poor Ashland has been totally Californicated since I moved there in 1984.)  We can hardly wait!

[dolphin]

Gregg, sorry to hear about your terrible day and your losses. Thankfully you folks weren't home...or who knows what could have happened. Some of these bastards as Mayo put it...and appropriately so, don't stop because someone is home.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Best wishes!!!

[kimmer]

QUOTE

I hear that they are planning to build a house in nearby Ashland, Oregon to live with the other wealthy California transplants.

This is a comment we hear a lot since we've moved here, but not all of us are wealthy.  California made sure they pretty much sucked us dry via taxes when we sold our non-main property, so we didn't arrive here with bucket loads of money. Plus CalPERS thinks we should pay more for less, so our health deductions are outrageous. We live on far less than we had when we were in CA. The good thing is the cost of living here is less, so we survive.

QUOTE

(Poor Ashland has been totally Californicated since I moved there in 1984.)

Now this is just wrong. You shouldn't move somewhere and change it into what you moved from. If you liked what you had that well, then you should stay there. There are a few council members here that want to turn our town into another "Solvang" -- but fortunately they are in the minority. We moved here partly to get away from CA and it's bad habits and taxes and everything else.

[end of soap box comments]

Gregg ... I'm glad you are getting things taken care of notification wise. It's not fun, but hang in there.

[Gregg]

I did get an actual live robot, er person, at the DMV - finally.

It will be months before the insurance claim runs its course.