Will I have to bail Tracy out of jail?

Good neighbors! Since we've moved in to this house, we've been battling a little shitty Jack Russell terrier and it's owners. The dog is a yipper, and they leave it outside and it yips from sun up to sun down if allowed. Because of the triangular property layouts, they live in the next cul-de-sac, but the corner or their property meets the corner of our property, so there's really one house and very little space between us.

The first problem was partially resolved. Many months ago, the dog would just walk through their fence (bar type, not wood or chicken wire), cut across the three feet of the other property (which is a neighbor that also complains), and lands on the top of our hill and comes down and barks at my three quiet dogs and me whenever we were out. Apparently we are a threat. No exaggerating, if I opened the back door and my dogs went out, the yippee dog could somehow hear them walking and the barrage of yips were on. It kept getting on our property, and when it took a crap on my patio, I had enough and went over and had a little chat. They put up chicken wire, which stopped the doggy trespassing, but didn't solve the yipping.

Fast Forward to June. YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP!!! At what time? 11:30PM!!! Tracy was heated, she was looking forward to sleeping in and was about to go to bed. Not now, a dog is barking! In her robe, she stormed over and pounded on the door. No answer. Chicken or no one home? 6Am the next morning: YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP YIP!!!! Oh man is she pissed now. Walked over again, pounding on the door, no answer. She's had enough. Calls to the HOA, calls to Animal Control; yeah, they know the house. Letters would be sent, etc etc. Not good enough for Ms. T. She started a petition. On the Saturday before Father's Day, we walked around their cul-de-sac and attempted to get signatures. Of the two people that answered their doors, neither wanted to get involved (spineless people!). One guy said he didn't hear it (wha???????) and an immediate next door neighbor said "I don't want to go there". Regardless, the lady got word of it. Sunday while I was talking to my Pop wishing him Happy Father's Day, I hear yelling. Seems that Jennifer thinks it's our problem, and has come over to bark at Tracy herself! The conversation went something like this:

Are you the lady with the three Golden retrievers?

You must be Jennifer.

What do you do with YOUR dogs when you're not home?

What does THAT matter?

If you've got a problem with my dog, you need to come TALK TO ME!

*I DID*!!! I came over TWICE! AT NEAR MIDNIGHT AND at 6AM!

Well I wasn't home, I was whoring myself out at a bar! (Note 1)

You need to control your dogs. I'm tired of them barking and waking me up!!

Oh yeah, what are you, from California? (Note 2)

Huh?

My dog isn't the problem, YOU'RE the problem. And we BOUGHT a bark collar! (Note 3)

It's kinda blurred, but there were a few "F*** you's" thrown in, and then the lady went to the neighbors and started crying "Don't make me get rid of my dogs again". Yeah, it's happened before.

Note 1: I kinda assumed this, I may be wrong.
Note 2: This was really said, help me here.
Note 3: If it's not a problem, why'd you buy a bark collar?

So this is a month ago. It got AMAZINGLY better very quickly. How nice. Wow. But not for long. Whether the dog got used to being shocked, or the batteries went out, or they took it off, I dunno. We also saw it with a muzzle once, but the yipping is back. What we know is they don't care.

This morning at 6:15, it was yipping again, protecting whatever it is it's in fear of losing. YIP YIP YIP! Tracy stormed to the top of the hill and glared over. The Boy-Toy that lives there came out, brushing his teeth (or teefe), and the FOLLOWING ensued:

Tracy yells over "6:15!! It's a little early isn't it?"

To which the BT replies "The problem is... you opinion is one we don't care about"

Nice! More phone calls are being made today. Fun huh?!?!

eBay, you're just wrong

I've been an eBay member since Jan 1999 and nearly 10 years later, I'm about through with them. I'm also a stock holder, having a fairly significant number of shares since 2000. Now I'm considering selling them, all of them. Why? In a nutshell, I no longer believe in the company. It's not the smartest thing to do to look at it that way, as opposed to looking at it as an investment, but I've always kept investments in companies I believe it, and I'd feel like a hypocrite otherwise.

They've done TOO many things in my opinion that are in their best interests, not the customer. And I mean the real customer, the customer that SELLS on eBay, not the one who buys. The seller pays the fees, the buyer doesn't. I'm a renter, I rent space. I pay my fees and I sell my stuff. eBay doesn't care about me anymore, they only care that the buyer has a warm and fuzzy experience, and keeps coming back. They've gotten so many sellers, who cares if they lose a few right? Here's the four points that have gotten under my skin:

1. Feedback: I've bitched about it before. Changed back in May, Sellers can only leave positives for Buyers, but Buyers can do what they want. Example: I listed a video game and sold it to a person in New York. Weeks of no or poor communication, excuses, and no payment, I stopped hearing from him. Can I give him a negative for non payment, wasting my time and making me eat the eBay listing fees? No. Can he leave me a Negative cause he wants to? You bet!
   
2. Net Neutrality: Buyers now also rate my shipping and handling costs and time. Costs are posted up front and they see that before bidding. I ship almost always same or next day, using tracking in most cases, and feel I'm very reasonable on costs and timeframe, better than many. Yet get this. Today I'm rated a 4.3 out of 5 stars in shipping, and since I'm below a mandated 4.6, my "Search Standing is Lowered", yeah, in RED. What this means is if someone searches for something I'm selling, they will see other Seller's items first, even if I'm a direct match, cause I didn't hand deliver, ship for free and kiss ass. This isn't in my best interest, and it's not even in the Buyer's best interest, to steer them towards someone with a better RATING than a better match? Wrong. Equate it to this: "Hey, where's a place to eat around here?" Answer? "Uh... Try Taco Fred's" Fred's brother says. It's 10 miles past 20 other good restaurants. I can't rate the buyer in any way, how quick he pays, IF he pays, how his communication is (doesn't matter does it?) or anything. Sellers need to be able to warn other Sellers about bad Buyers. Nope.
   
3. Guilty until proven guiltier. I've been tagged four times in the past coupla months for violating "Policy Compliance" and/or selling someone else's "Intellectual Property". There is no appeal. Get this, in the first two cases, eBay changed the rules for minimum prices on Buy It Now items. They changed it and I relisted some items (and they ALLOWED IT) and a few days later? BAM! "Policy Violation: Fee Circumvention". Yeah, for a 99 cent item, they think I'm ripping them off. On the 3rd and 4th cases, it was satellite receivers I was selling. They've given the power to companies to say, without question, "this guy can't sell this, it's mine". On one of the auctions, it had been sold and closed for 3-4 days. Yet, no warning given, I'm red flagged again and have two strikes. I don't know for a fact, but if I have one more, even on a closed auction, I'll be suspended.
   
4. Big Brother! This is just enough to bug me. Someone emailed me a week or more ago asking if I'd take $50 for something. People do it all the time, and it can be legit. I could have changed the auction to reflect his price, let him to the Buy It Now, and done deal. But, I just said no. I didn't know what the thing was worth, and as it was, sold it for $31. So last night I get a big long doom and gloom email from eBay, warning me about his email and offer. Yeah, they are monitoring email. Get this! If I DID sell it outside of eBay, they want me to fill out a long form. I would not be surprised if it's so they could get their commission. They go on to mention contacting law enforcement, your credit card company and the US Postal service about mail fraud if you got ripped off. On one hand maybe they are trying to be helpful, but on the other, they're accusing the person asking me a question of breaking the law, possibly. Guilty again.

So again, I sign this: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The year milestone

It seems very hard to believe that exactly one year ago today, at near this hour, I buttoned up the house, loaded up the dogs, hugged the neighbors and looking like the Clampett's, we started our road trip here. One Year!! Man does time fly, even if you're often bored. Do I miss KC? You bet. Do I regret it, no. Not at all. There are times in your life you have to take chances, and this was it for us.

The dogs knew they were home!!


Ah, that first drink of CRISP Nevada water:

Sittin' Pretty in the once empty garage:

Had to explore everything, right?

Happy Anniversary!

Yahooooo it's the 4th!

Yahoo is only slightly embarrassed of the US right now. They show a patriotic banner the first time you hit their site, then it goes back to normal unless you highlight or click on it.



The 4th was pretty quiet here, no neighborhood fireworks (Get Caught, Go To jail), certainly no neighborhood cookouts, and pretty much hill work. It's looking better. Much more work to do tomorrow, and that's when I'm cooking, so more and pictures later.

First Toms of 2008!

I fertilized, and the plants are doing a wee bit better. Needs more I suppose. Regardless, an Early girl and a Supersweet 100 have already borne fruit, we picked the first two last night.