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Posted on

Get Off My Land! (part 2)

A few weeks ago I wrote about a survey that we had done and the encroachments that it turned up.   (read about that here)

Today was ‘D-Day’ for the fence up front.  We tried to be a good neighbor.  We contacted our neighbors, an elderly couple who ‘rents’ the property.

We informed them of the survey, and the results.   Actually the first call was a month ago, and I left a very detailed message asking if they needed or wanted to keep the fence, if so we’d need to get a legal document (at their expense) that acknowledges that they have part of our property fenced in.

That phone call was not returned, so Claudine tried.

Things went from bad to worse.  Both of our neighbors acted like complete a-holes.   We tried to reason with them, and I was very impressed with Claudine and the way she handled them on the phone.

Despite being treated poorly we still took the high road (not my idea mind you).   However, I was no longer in any position to grant them a favor.  No documents, the fence had to be moved or we’d move it.

So we sent them a certified letter indicating that today (the 8th) was the day that if they had not removed the fence that we’d do it and we stuck to our guns.  We ended up giving them more than two weeks.  Plenty of time for them to hire a lawyer to stop us and/or get their own survey.   (Which would have been pointless).

So we started bright an early this morning.   I was somewhat disappointed that the neighbors didn’t even bother to show up and put up a fight.  Especially given the attitude they presented on the phone.  In the back of my mind I was prepared to find one of them chained to the fence in protest.   But that didn’t happen.

With the aid of our Farmers BobCat and Chain we were able to pull all of the trees and fence posts on the fence line that we wanted.  

We even managed to get 18 little pine trees planted.

It was still a very long day though and I’m glad it’s over.

Before:

After:

From Fence No More

More photos online here

It was a very satisfying day.

Posted on

Stop the whining… Just stop.

I just listened to ‘The Story’, from March, 24th, 2009. About a temp worker at Microsoft, who was unwilling to accept a 10% pay cut, or rather wasn’t happy about it and started fussing.

He whines about being indistinguishable from an employee, other than the color of his badge. Yet he doesn’t get to partake in off-site team building activities that employees get to partake in. Temp workers get no real benefits from Microsoft. (Duh, that’s why they are temp workers).

How can you be that stupid? He wants temp workers to unite and stand up for their rights. Rights that, well, as temp workers you don’t have.

Here are the facts jack:

  • You’re a temporary worker, i.e. contract worker.
  • Your Job could go away at the snap of a finger. There are a million and one reasons a company like Microsoft uses Temp/Contract workers, the primary reason of course is to control costs.
  • You agreed to be a contract worker.

Now if they are being treated poorly because they are temp workers, that’s different. That’s simply poor management. But they are NOT employees; hence they don’t have the same rights and privileges.

This is a horrible ‘Woe-is-me, I’m entitled to something story’ that is all too common with ‘The Story’. It’s very, very frustrating.

Pay cuts, temporary or otherwise aren’t any fun. Not fun for those taking the cuts, or those who have to implement them. Get over it, 10% less is far more than you’ll get from the unemployment office.

Here is the Seattle Times article on this clown.