04-06-19

Well here it is April already -  it’s the first really nice Saturday of spring, and I’ve been spending most of the day outside messing with some of the things on this house that need done. The three west facing windows need some attention, as each window has problems with dry rot.

I’ve been dealing with sewer/drainage issues with this house for a long time. Back in March, I had A B May come out and do the ‘every three years or so’ running of a rooter through the sewer pipes to stop the backups when the washing machine empties. The technician suggested having another crew come out and run a camera through the lines to see what was going on - at no additional cost.

The camera guys came out a few days later, ran the camera through the line and course found plenty of roots and other things that shouldn’t be in there. They suggested having the rooter guy come back out and run a larger rooter through the sewer line. After he did that they could use the higher resolution camera to thoroughly explore the sewer line. I had to temporarily remove the toilet downstairs so they could get the larger rooter into the line.

Well to make a long story short, I have approximately 71 feet of Terra-cotta sewage line that is in basically horrible shape. It’s full of cracks, fractures, offsets, roots, gravel, worms, dirt, and everything else that shouldn’t be in there. The take away from all this of course is the entire 71 feet running from the house out to the connection with the main city sewer line needs to be replaced. The cost for this? Just over $10,000.

I’m pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I don’t have any choice. We both want to move out of here as soon as possible. It’s going to be a challenge since I’m retired and the only income I have is Social Security. But if we can get a decent price for this place, and maybe have a nice chunk of change for a down payment on another place it should be possible. Obviously, the sewer system should be working properly when we go to sell the place. Plus, it might be a good selling point to point out that it’s got a brand-new sewer system with PVC piping that should last for decades. So maybe I can recoup part of my 10 grand.

As if that wasn’t frustrating enough, I do not have any kind of vehicle access to the backyard – you can’t pull a car or truck back there. In the past, my next-door neighbor to the east, Joyce, was always willing to let anyone that needed vehicle access to my backyard to use her driveway and backyard so they could access the job site in my backyard.

Unfortunately, I have lost her as a neighbor as she’s had to put her mom in a care facility, and she herself has moved to a duplex. Apparently, she’s turned the property over to her brother who is a certified class A-1 asshole. As the guys from A.B. May were getting ready to leave yesterday, I spoke with him about allowing access for the crew and the excavator when they get ready to replace my sewer. He kind of glared at me and said “NO!” Then he backpedaled a little bit and mentioned something about asking Joyce, but I doubt that he has. Then he started asking me a bunch of questions about why they needed to get back there (because they have to replace my sewer line, stupid..). He was worried about them tearing up his precious yard. I finally got tired of listening to his crap, and just said a curt “thanks” and walked away.

The guy from A.B. May said not to worry about it - they'd find a way to get back there. I'm sure this isn't the first time an asshole neighbor has refused access to someplace they need to work.

Anyway, to keep this from being overly long, we both want to find someplace else to live. This neighborhood used to be a really nice place, but it is becoming less so on an almost daily basis. Last week my neighbor across the street had the back window busted out of their car for no reason other than it was there. Stupid punk kids walking down the street at night with nothing better to do… It also seems to me like the noise level has increased drastically over the past few years.

To the south, we have both 40 highway and I-70, which are both major traffic routes. To the west we have Sterling Avenue, and to the north we have 39^th St. Both carry heavy traffic – all day and all night. So pretty much 24/7 there is a background layer of constant racket… Loud motorcycles. Idiots with loud or no mufflers. And of course there’s the constant thump, thump, thump, thump of brainless idiots on all those major thoroughfares with their f-ing rap crap up so loud you can hear it in the next county.

I just want to find a place where I can get up in the morning, sit on my front porch with a cup of coffee, and not have to listen to a bunch of idiot nonsense. A place where I can do my artwork in peace in a place where I don’t feel like a riot is about to break out at any moment. And so the search begins.

Over and out.