Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Feeling satisfied

I recently caught wind of a bombshell that was dropped at a homeowners meeting by the board... they want to levy a "special assessment" which equates to $9000 per home-owner due by August, and if you didn't pay "they'd just take out a lien on your place". They assured everyone quite indignantly from what I heard, that what they were doing was perfectly legal in our CC&R's (the community's local governance documents).  The fact that most of the people who live here can't afford $9000 in 5 months seems to have escaped them, and the fact that if they *did* have that lying around... they wouldn't be living here.

It didn't sound right to me, in fact it sounded like a giant steaming load of BS.


So I took to the internet and did some exploratory Googling and happened upon the California Civil Code section 1366 which confirmed my suspicions.  There is a housing code for the state which supersedes each local CC&R your local laws can be more specific but they cannot disregard the state law. It very clearly states that you can do this *BUT* there are dollar amount limits, very specific situations in which it can/must be done, AND you have to have a quorum of half of the home owners on board.

This recent declaration violates the California Civil Code on *almost* every count.

I have a feeling someone was banking on nobody doing their homework... and that everyone would grumble, carry on in their ignorance and just take their word for it.  In which regard, I'm quite pleased that the bug I placed in a few ears seems to have wiggled past the unfocused anger and manifested itself in others looking up the Civil Code as well. *satisfied grin*

My work here is not done, I don't know what is going to come of this hot mess yet, but I'm still pleased with myself for stirring the pot that needed stirring. 




How does one become the people of Wal-Mart you ask?

Well first you spend the evening putzing around subconsciously muttering to yourself that there's something else you should be doing...

Then you play video games until it's past your bedtime, and finally decide to wrap it up only to realize that you have company coming over tomorrow  and that you were supposed to go grocery shopping this evening, and that most normal grocery stores are going to be closed in 15 mins...

That's how you become the people of the 24hr Wal-Mart.

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Om nom nom

I guess he really is hungry enough to eat his own arm...

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day!

Holy you would have thought I'd asked them to turn the electricity off for a whole day rather than an hour, but we made it! We had a romantic candle lit dinner, and discussed how Earth Day isn't just something we celebrate in Canada, that in fact it's celebrated all over the world, apparently just not the US ;)


It was cool though, for the most part we  refrained from using our phones, and we only fell into the "how much longer till we can turn the lights on" thereby making it that much longer, a couple times... so we had to be social the old fashioned way, which led to the deep contemplative conversation of 

"What would it be if you crossed a Shitzhu with a Cock-a-poo?... a Shit-poo!!!"

Friday, March 24, 2017

Meanwhile in California

I'm having trouble reconciling this beautiful weather with my Canadian bones that are whispering "winter is coming" I keep putting on a sweatshirt before I go outside, and then immediately having to take it off!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

I'm not sure how clever that it's...

On the way home recently I saw a lady who looked like she was working on her lawn, she had on gardening gloves, a freshly pulled weed in one hand and a medium Chinese style meat cleaver in the other...

I did one of those mental double takes,  but we drove by too fast to tell what she was actually using it for.  Since then my brain has been working overtime trying to come up with a plausible explanation.

A few days later, and I still gots nothin'

Saturday, March 11, 2017

When three syllables isn't enough

Her: "I was teaching a kid about sixteenth notes today, and I told her it's like: Mo-tor-cy-cle, mo-tor-cy-cle"

Kid: "El-e-phan-tay, el-e-phan-tay"

Her: "El-e-phan-tay?"

Kid: "Well, I know Elephant is three sylables... so I needed to make it Elephantay."

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Consequences unforseen there may be

I don't think this is what they meant when they said you will have to battle your inner demons...