Slashing and Slamming
Saturday, February 07, 2009 Posted In HOA , Medusa , palm fronds , slashing , tamales Edit This 13 Comments »
There have been a lot of people knocking on our door. Selling cleaning products, magazines, newspapers, bug spraying services and landscaping. As the economy worsens, we even have little kids running up to us on the street with bags of tamales to sell.
We had been slashing dead palm fronds off the twenty or so palm trees that some palm obsessed idiot planted on our property before we owned it. Well, to be honest, MM did the ladder climbing and cutting and I watched and offered excellent 'slashing advice'.
So... after a strenuous afternoon... we had a thigh-high pile of dead palm fronds on the driveway. I knew the kids could have endless fun with the mess but the HOA would rear it's Medusa heads at us before long, so we arranged to have it removed in a few days.
The next day there was a knock at the door. A man asked me if I wanted the 'mess' removed. He promised to get it done quickly. I asked him how much.
He said, "Three."
Moi: "Three? Three what? Three drachmas? Three yen?"
Him: "Ah... three hundred."
Moi: "DOLLARS??!"
Him: "Yes."
I was so incredulous I just started laughing. I thought he was joking. Then mid-laugh I realised he wasn't joking because he was standing there with a puzzled look on his face, so it turned from a "Ha, ha great joke!" laugh to a "You've GOT TO BE KIDDING me!" laugh, to a "GET OFF MY PROPERTY!" laugh. If there is such a thing.
Then I shut the door. Still laughing. Probably hysterically by now. M was looking at me strangely.
Then later, I came upon M telling his father about it saying, "Then she laughed and SHUT THE DOOR IN HIS FACE dad!"
He was trying to rob me! I'm all for people taking the initiative but he wasn't offering to do anything more than take a handful of dead leaves away! Lucky I wasn't a little old widow with no options and a purse full of life savings!
We had been slashing dead palm fronds off the twenty or so palm trees that some palm obsessed idiot planted on our property before we owned it. Well, to be honest, MM did the ladder climbing and cutting and I watched and offered excellent 'slashing advice'.
So... after a strenuous afternoon... we had a thigh-high pile of dead palm fronds on the driveway. I knew the kids could have endless fun with the mess but the HOA would rear it's Medusa heads at us before long, so we arranged to have it removed in a few days.
The next day there was a knock at the door. A man asked me if I wanted the 'mess' removed. He promised to get it done quickly. I asked him how much.He said, "Three."
Moi: "Three? Three what? Three drachmas? Three yen?"
Him: "Ah... three hundred."
Moi: "DOLLARS??!"
Him: "Yes."
I was so incredulous I just started laughing. I thought he was joking. Then mid-laugh I realised he wasn't joking because he was standing there with a puzzled look on his face, so it turned from a "Ha, ha great joke!" laugh to a "You've GOT TO BE KIDDING me!" laugh, to a "GET OFF MY PROPERTY!" laugh. If there is such a thing.
Then I shut the door. Still laughing. Probably hysterically by now. M was looking at me strangely.
Then later, I came upon M telling his father about it saying, "Then she laughed and SHUT THE DOOR IN HIS FACE dad!"
He was trying to rob me! I'm all for people taking the initiative but he wasn't offering to do anything more than take a handful of dead leaves away! Lucky I wasn't a little old widow with no options and a purse full of life savings!
