Flowers insolita Blog

Well, as you know we have new neighbors and we have a small problem already. It’s about a fence. Actually it’s not the fence it’s how the fence got there and why. Basically it’s a matter of principal.

My husband came home and we discussed the problem and the offer that the neighbor had made to “make right ” the wrong. He had said he would get a surveyor to check the property line and move the fence accordingly and put back our chain link fence. We both decided to have him do just that. It would make things clear for the future and we could start fresh. He had said to tell him as soon as he got home , so we did.Well let me tell you that this is not what this man wanted to hear. He threw a full blown hissy fit complete with a tantrum, throwing his back pack on the ground, waving his arms and stamping his feet, yelling, covering his ears, putting his hand up and talking oveer everything that we said just so he didn’t have to listen!!!!!!! He was not a happy camper. He expected that we would just say”ok” and be grateful that he tore down OUR old $20.00 chain link fence and replaced it with his brand new beautiful $10,000 dollar fence job. He thought he had gotten away with what he wanted and that would be it. NO! It’s not it. We tried to explain that he was specifically told that ,that was our fence, that was our property. And that he didn’t bother to ask us if he could tear it down, or that the fence crew would be coming or might need access to our yard. He just decided that he did not want to trim part of the brick planter box in his yard to put up the fence in a straight line on his side—-it was easier to remove our fence and make his fence straight on our side of the property. (Which he told the fence company to do, it was on the work order.) Thinking “Oh they won’t care” But we do. I must say that the look on his wife’s face when my husband said that he had told him that the fence belonged to us was priceless–she had no idea. She said to my husband “I thought you had talked this over and everything was agreed upon”. I think she was shocked to find out it wasn’t. I know that we will probably never talk to these neighbors, but it would have been nice.

I don’t think that they understand that what they have done is basically the same as stealing. When you take something from someone without asking, knowing full well that it doesn’t belong to you but belongs to that person and you take it anyway. That’s stealing. We try to teach our children these things at an early age.( I guess when you get older you conveniently forget this.)But, for every action there is a reaction or consequence. Some people just don’t care. Some people don’t get it. Some people think that they are the only ones in the world and they are intitled to everything and it doesn’t matter what the cost or who they hurt or how they get it. Dishonest, Selfish and Childish. Oh well, I guess we’ll see what happens next when I get home. Sometimes a matter of principal is a harder road to take. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy.

I can’t wait to see Lori showing up in Judge Judy.  When that happens, of course she must wear a T-shirt with our logo and telephone number on it, so that million people can see it.

Judge Judy is one of my favorite programs.

By the way, here’s one of my favorite episodes: I found it on Youtube.

The case is about a cop (plaintiff) and a young girl (defendent) who was pulled over for speeding by that cop.  Whe she was pulled over, she told the cop that her father was also a cop (which is true), trying to get a break from him.  He simply ignored her plea and gave her the ticket, which was the right thing to do.  Now angry over his “rude” treatment, the kind of treatment which she apparently has never experienced in her 21 yrs of life, she filed a complaint to the police department, which triggered the investigation.  He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.  Now the cop is suing the girl for false allegation.  Watch…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Qp-hY_Zsk[/youtube]

   Anyone who has a new neighbor move in next door can probably relate to the feeling of “What will they be like?”. Well we have new neighbors and it’s not starting out so well. They seemed like nice people, but guess we were wrong. They had mentioned to us that they were going to put up a new fence. My husband told them that our fence was on the property line. He had made it clear, or so we thought. Yesterday I come home to find our fence has been torn down and there fence was in it’s place. If that isn’t bad enough, they moved onto our property by 6″ to accommodate their new fence because of the panel sizes. WHAT NERVE!!!!!!!!!!! The fence guy didn’t speak alot of english, but could see how upset I was. He showed me the work order which read tear down existing fence. So, he was following his directions. Where do people get off just deciding to take what doesn’t belong to them? We saw these new neighbors during the week, nothing was mentioned about the fence or someone needing access to our property. They just did what they wanted with out thinking of anyone but themselves, and they waited for us to be at work. Now don’t get me wrong… the fence is very nice–nicer than our old one, but it is a question of principal. How does someone do something like this. My husband came home fuming. When the neighbor came home from work ( the husband not the wife because she wouldn’t answer the door) my husband went over to talk with him. He said the previous owner told them they had about 12″ to work with on our side.BULL. I could see our old neighbor saying this though.Even so, wouldn’t you check a survey to make sure where the property lines are before putting up a fence. Anyway the new neighbor said he would have the property surved at his expence. If the fence was on our property he would move the fence or if he actually had more property on our side of the fence he would move the fence over or he could have our old chain link put back up on our side of his fence which would reduce our yard size further by another 4”. He also said he didn’t have a survey done when he bought the house. However, we did and moved the existing fence to the property line when we moved in. We did this not because we “wanted” more property but the mortgage company wanted the property lines to be clear. But before we moved it, we talked to old neighbor and let them know what was going on. We discussed it first. We didn’t just up and move the fence. I think the reason I am so angry is because they didn’t have the courtesy to let us know what they had planned and just tore down our fence and replaced it with the new one and moved it over on our property thinking this would be alright and we wouldn’t care because the new fence is nicer than what we had.WRONG. Let them survey the property, if he actually has more fine, then move the fence over—- if not –move the fence over. I really don’t care. Because of their actions we can never really feel like they are great neighbors anyway. Actions have consequences. I  keep going over this in my mind and I just can’t believe it. Part of me says let it go—- but it could also cause problems for us further down the road if we go to sell our house. I wouldn’t want to get stuck with the expence of moving the fence then. Oh well. I really don’t like the position or the feelings I have about this situation at all. It is unpleasant and is uncomfortable to feel like you have been taking advantage of. They say you can’t pick family ( or neighbors ) just friends. I guess I won’t be picking these people for friends, but it would have been nice to at least be friendly.  It is what it is. Thanks for letting me rant.

Today we had a very severe thunderstorm in the early morning hours. Almost all the major roads got flooded.

I was delivering flowers to a recipient in Halesite, driving on New York Ave (Rt 110) up to the North. Near King Kullen supermarket, I encountered a big pool of water in front of me, so I stopped.

There was a car splashing water in the pool. Apparently, the driver had decided to take a chance and went right into it. The car was spinning. I think the driver was trying to turn around, but she obviously couldn’t because the tires lost grip of the road.

Then she started honking, as if she needed help. Yeah, right, you need help. A couple of guys were watching from the parking lot and one guy was shouting something to her, but I couldn’t hear.

But seriously, there wasn’t anything she really needed help for, especially when she kept her car splashing water like that. I wouldn’t go near that spinning car. All she had to do is to give up, stop the engine, walk out, buy a cup of coffee, and wait.

Apparently, there were hundreds of “brave” drivers like her all over Long Island today, causing unnecessary problems for emergency workers.

What’s funny is that every time we have a storm, they tell us not to drive into a pool of water even if it might look shallow. And every time, lots of people ignore the warning, just to embarrass themselves like those in the following pictures (from Newsday)

(Looks like Honda drivers are over-confident of their car’s ability)

Now Richard is taking extended leave, I am back in delivering flowers again. Since I like driving, I enjoy delivery. BUT, there are also things I hate…

(1) Unleashed dogs

While it is illegal to let a dog loose, I see at least one or two unleashed dogs per week. Maybe the owner is believing that his/her “leetle” puppy can’t hurt anyone. But they don’t understand that, for that “leetle” puppy, a delivery man is actually a total stranger invading his/her territory. It is any dog’s instinct to protect the territory and the way they do is to bite the invader.

Please dog owners, leash your puppies. It’s not only dangerous to delivery men, but also potentially harmful to your dog, too. If your dog bites a person, your dog will be labeled “dangerous” by New York statue. Depending on where you live, you may no longer keep your dog.

(2) Unmarked houses

When we deliver, we need to be able to see the street number on the house. Unfortunately, there are many houses that do not post their street numbers. I see one of those “un-marked” houses everyday.

Then all I can do is to guess. If I try to reach “3 xyz st” and can see “1″ and “5″, I assume that the house between “1″ and “5″ must be “3″. It works this way most of the time, but not in rural area such as in Lloyd Harbor.

Oh my, Lloyd Harbor is a delivery nightmare. The houses in Lloyd Harbor are located in the wood, accessible only through a tiny private road. Sometimes several houses have their mail boxes put together at the entrance of the private road, so that mailmen don’t have to drive into the private road.  But we have to.  Now, OK, I see number 2, 4, 6, 8 in each mail box. So I drive into the private road and, at the end of the road, see four houses standing apart from each other in the wood. Please tell me which one is the number 4???

Flower delivery may not matter that much, but imagine you had an emergency and called 911. Unless your house is clearly marked, the emergency vehicle won’t be able to locate your house quickly.

So please put up a distinctive sign with your street number or your name, preferably both, right in front of your house, somewhere a driver can see from the road. The good place is on the mail box if it’s located in front of your house, or right next to the front door.