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Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 5:02 pm
by dgale
WmZiggy wrote:
If a house has changed hands during the year I always hold my breath when I bill each member because of the damn real estate companies. Either they take the escrow funds to pay the water fee, forget about it, don't inform the buyer, or what have you. Most times, I don't think they ever collect the water fee from the seller. Invariable, when the new member gets their bill for the preceding year they throw a fit and get in my face and call me all sorts of foul names for billing them. I have to refer them back to the seller and the real estate company and tell them it isn't my fault. Yesterday, after the young man calmed down I asked him what was the biggest contract he ever signed? He said it was his house. I asked him if he had a lawyer? "Nope". "So to save a legal fee you signed the biggest contract in your life without someone representing you", I asked? "Uh....I guess so", he said. People are ignorant that real estate agents do not represent the buyer and barely the seller. In his case, three years after he purchased the home he finally figured out that he had paid the seller's water bill in 2010. I doubt he can go back and get it now. Good thing it was only $150, the price of a really fine dinner for 2 in an expensive restaurant.
I guess my point is if everyone is honest who needs a contract and lots of paperwork. The problem is, since the Garden of Eden there have been snakes at work. The bigger the deal the more important the paperwork and people (lawyers) who know how to deal with snakes. I would add that all lawyers are snakes, but my son is a lawyer and I know he isn't a snake. One size doesn't fit all.
$150/year for a water bill?? When I live in town on muicipal water, I used to be billed $65-$75/month for water and sewer...now I'm in the "country" on a well and have no bill but I have the responsibility of a well, well house, well pump, pressure pump, pressure tank, storage tank, ozone water treatment system etc...In either scenario, I'd shake your hand and thank you profusely for an opportunity to have unmetered water needs met for only $150/year...I can't imagine bellyaching about this.
When we bought our current home, we are on a private road with about 10 other property owners and one of the neighbors who's lived here for 40+ years approached me about a similar situation, as he's the head of road maintenance committee and they collect $125/year to help offset road maintenance expenses. I promptly pulled out my checkbook and paid him (even though I was paying a time period that was 50% the previous owner)...I know enough about road maintenance to know a bargain when I see one. SInce then, this same neighbor has spent countless hours on his tractor, grading the road, spreading fresh gravel for the wet season, repeatedly fixing pot holes and water bars - there is no way the $125 even comes close to covering his time on an annual basis. When X-Mas rolled around, I rounded up the kids and we took him a bunch of X-Mas cookies and some honey from my beehives as a token thanks for all he does.
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 6:36 pm
by WmZiggy
[quote="dgale"]$150/year for a water bill??
Hard to believe isn't it. And we've saved 15 G's for a "rainy day". This should tell people on municipal water what government costs.
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 6:49 pm
by Gene Howe
Now dgale, that is a story that pretty well epitomizes what my Sunday school taught.
In the area where we live, the poor folks Dr. bills are paid by friends and family or forgiven by the Dr., and most in the area do not accept Medicaid or Medicare patients. We (wife and I) pay cash for most Dr. visits and prescriptions. They appreciate it, too.
Also, no child, that I know of, ever goes hungry if we know about it. Nor are they giftless at Christmas time.
Help is always available to those in need. The more we can help each other the less we need the government's "help".
dgale wrote:$Snipped
When we bought our current home, we are on a private road with about 10 other property owners and one of the neighbors who's lived here for 40+ years approached me about a similar situation, as he's the head of road maintenance committee and they collect $125/year to help offset road maintenance expenses. I promptly pulled out my checkbook and paid him (even though I was paying a time period that was 50% the previous owner)...I know enough about road maintenance to know a bargain when I see one. SInce then, this same neighbor has spent countless hours on his tractor, grading the road, spreading fresh gravel for the wet season, repeatedly fixing pot holes and water bars - there is no way the $125 even comes close to covering his time on an annual basis. When X-Mas rolled around, I rounded up the kids and we took him a bunch of X-Mas cookies and some honey from my beehives as a token thanks for all he does.
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 8:42 pm
by Ed in Tampa
dgale wrote:And I bet that tiller was built to last as well
I sure was and it would till Ohio and Pa clay and sod as if it was nothing. Produced a beautiful fluffy planting bed. Then when the plants got bigger you took off the two outside tines and cultivated the rows. It was a work of art, probably less than 2 dozen parts not counting the motor assembly.
The secret was a the huge fly wheel and the chain drive instead of a worm gear case on the tiller axle. You took off the wheels or tilted them up for weight and drove the spike into the ground and then you allowed the tines to pull you forward. The deeper the spike the deeper the till and finer the ground.
Brought it to Florida with me and tilling sand was waste of time. However I did use it to grade my yard, it would throw sand just where you wanted it. It also peeled the sod off the sand like peel off an orange. After I completely landscaped the yard I sold it to a guy that wanted to mix swamp mud with sand to make a form of topsoil.
See pictures at
https://www.google.com/search?q=merry+t ... 272%3B1704
If you look at the pictures about 1/4 of the way down on the left you will see one where a guy actually mounted an electric motor on the thing.
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 11:34 am
by steve4447
reddog5362 wrote:Not sure which Sunday School you went to but mine taught me "Love thy neighbor." I took that to mean be charitable personally. Not to mean send a goon with a badge to make my other neighbor take care of my neighbor for me...
I'm guessing you don't like Cops very much... "a goon with a badge.".But this is a free country and you can hate anyone that you want to...
I will be convinced of your sincerity when you chose to not call the.."goon with a badge"..When the bad guys are intruding on you ...You know like in that part of town ..The one you never go because the bad guys control it...
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 1:30 pm
by Gene Howe
Not nearly all goons wear badges. Some wear a suit and tie.
I don't hate goons of any stripe. But, I abhor some (most) of their actions.
I can't say that I hate anyone. Hate is corrosive.
steve4447 wrote:I'm guessing you don't like Cops very much... "a goon with a badge.".But this is a free country and you can hate anyone that you want to...
I will be convinced of your sincerity when you chose to not call the.."goon with a badge"..When the bad guys are intruding on you ...You know like in that part of town ..The one you never go because the bad guys control it...
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:31 pm
by reddog5362
steve4447 wrote:I'm guessing you don't like Cops very much... "a goon with a badge.".But this is a free country and you can hate anyone that you want to...
I will be convinced of your sincerity when you chose to not call the.."goon with a badge"..When the bad guys are intruding on you ...You know like in that part of town ..The one you never go because the bad guys control it...
Actually my brother is a LEO. The "Goon with a Badge" in this case would be the act of government force personified. I do find it interesting that your posts seem to be direct personal attacks against some ones character and not a defense of the position you espouse.
Back to the original concept of personal honor. What honor is there in forcing your beliefs on some one with the force of government? Personal honor, integrity, gentlemanly conduct, all of these are individual acts, individual choices. Forcing a payment from some one is not charity, it is not "good works" and certainly is not honorable and seems rather counter to the idea of a handshake agreement.
Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 11:17 pm
by teacherman
I work with juvenile offenders, some of whom do not appear to have been blessed with a conscience. It is scary to think of them as adults with adult responsibilities. I try to help them and I make a lot of mistakes. I get sidetracked and become forgetful, which causes its own set of problems. But I think they know my heart is with them, but some of them couldn't care less. Those are the sad ones.
As for the health care law, my struggling neighbor now has health insurance for the first time in decades. I'm glad our crazy government was able to pass something in the way of health care reform, but making insurance companies the centerpiece of it would not have been my first choice.
Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:44 pm
by JPG
There seems to be a couple of heads not quite screwed on straight(maybe even cross threaded).
Not an attack, merely an observation.
Sadly I know too much re the impetus of this thread.
Wonder why the pot is calling the kettle black?
If you think you are the pot, you most likely are!
DB5 understands!:D
Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 2:03 pm
by BuckeyeDennis
JPG40504 wrote:
Wonder why the pot is calling the kettle black?
See "poisoning the well", an informal logical fallacy. Unfortunately, often an effective strategy for unduly influencing people who don't recognize it for what it is. Usage reaches epidemic proportions amongst politicians and "talking heads" on TV.
Remember the old Point/Counterpoint spoof on Saturday Night Live? Dan Aykroyd would regularly begin his response to Jane Curtin with a resounding "Jane, you ignorant slut!"
