Pelicans at the beach: the end of the chicken story.

[ritaxis]

I've updated my pictures with a new gallery: pelicans at the beach. I took the pictures a month ago, but there were more than seventy so I dragged my feet a little on posting them. Actually I just got a new LCD monitor so I was playing with Paintshop and it seemed like the right time to post a bunch of pictures. I also got yet another new printer, supposedly this time I'm going to get the quality I'm after. The plan is to enter a picture in the County Fair next year. I'd prefer to enter a photo essay but there doesn't seem to be a category for that.

I let the chicken lady stew for a few days, which was not fair to Emma who had to endure the person one or two times more.


Every time she communicated with me she escalated.

First, I went over and offered to pay her vet bills. No vet bill. So we agreed I'd buy a chicken. I offered the possibility of going together, but that didn't happen.

Then she wrote me a note with all the confused mishmash of information, remember, and asked for ten dollars for chicken medicine. I ignored the request for ten dollars more.

I made a good faith effort to get the chicken, and then gave her the cost of the chicken and passed the task back to her.

She wrote me a note demanding that I get her the chicken and pay her ten dollars at least, minimally, saying she was perturbed and I was negligent.

I ignored that.

She wrote me another note, demanding ten dollars for chicken medicine and ten dollars for gas and fifteen dollars for a chicken but I should get the chicken. She had a new address for chickens.

I ignored that. I was composing a nice letter meant to explain what an idiot she was being while still being friendly.

She came over and yelled at me and I said I'd give her the fifteen if she didn't want to go to Las Lomas and thought she could get the chicken closer for fifteen instead of twelve. She freaked. She said if it were her dog that killed somebody's animal she'd give the person a hundred dollars. I don't believe it. She let slip that she had already lost two chickens to raccoons because when she first got the chickens she didn't even give them a coop to go into at night. She still has not built a fence. I explained about Gloria and how it was a hardship for me to drive her around repeatedly and that the expedition would be fun for her kids. She wasn't having any. She said I owed her ten dollars for gas. I asked her if she got four miles to the gallon. She said it's twenty-two miles to Corralitos. I said it can't be, it's only twelve miles to Buena Vista Road (Watsonville). (Mapquest says that it's sixteen miles to Corralitos, which ought to be a gallon of gas or less for a VW bus, right? That's $2.65, these days)

She said a lot of things, mostly over the top stuff about how I owed her for the chicken. I said I had only offered to get the chicken out of neighborliness and not because I owed her anything -- she has no fence, still, to protect her animals, and my dog only went to her yard once: I have fences. She said if she called the SPCA I'd get a warning. I said call the SPCA, and I'd be happy to tell them what happened.

Finally, she took the fifteen dollars.

I am sorry she was like this: I know I could have been more aggressive about keeping her calm, but I don't think it would have worked. She owns her house, and I own mine: it's a permanent situation.

If she hassles me any more, though, it will be harrassment, and I'll tell her so.

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I hope the chicken situation is now resolved. I really hate neighbour trouble, but some people can be so unreasonable that it's almost impossible to avoid, however hard one tries to be amiable.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

What a cluck.

[ckd]

As long as it's not a fuster cluck.

ckd, I'm so happy

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't have a mouth full of liquid. Snort.