Respect, Or Lack Of It

It was cool this morning as I headed to the dog park to mow. I had my handy dandelion tool and some clippers, intending to weed the areas around the benches and try to address the bottom of the fence that needs weed-eating.

HeWho recently injured himself on the motorcycle is in no condition to haul out the heavy weed-eater and I can't handle it myself. I had hoped to slide the blades of my scissor-like clippers under the chain-link and simply clip the long grass and be done with it. This did not work at all. I could only do one side of the fence, then go back and get the other side. The area is 50' wide and 100' long. That would equal 600' of bending over to cut. I gave up on that.

I did get all the weeds out of my nicely mulched seating area and then mowed. I decided to work on my hanging baskets on the front of the building. Before going to mow I noticed a car I did not recognize parked in front of the store. No person appeared to be with it and I decided to investigate. The ladies room was occupied and I could hear the shower water. I called HeWho loves to ride around the park to "check things out" to see if he knew the owner of the sedan that was being held together with duct tape. He is actually smoking when he says this. He is forbidden to smoke inside, his wife has asthma.

He did know. This was a lady friend of the not paying tenant. Seems there have been a group of friends of the not paying tenant hanging out in the not paying tenant's camper. I did not bother to ask HeWho is a sucker for a sad story, why he was allowing this. I filled my mower with fuel and weeded a nearby garden while I waited for the woman to emerge freshly showered, followed by steam escaping the bathroom thanks to me paying my bills that allow water to be pumped and heated.

I was not nice. I asked the woman if she was a registered guest. She said that she was. I told her that if she had registered I would know who she was. She sheepishly told me that she was staying with the not paying tenant and thought it should be fine to take advantage of my park amenities. I told her that I had not rented a site to her and that it was not fine and she needed to vacate the premises unless she was willing to pay the back rent due in the amount of $1100. She sputtered that she would have to call not paying tenant and that maybe he could give me "something". I told her that something in the amount of $1100 would work out well ..... for him, not her.

I watched her leave before moving on to mow the dog park. At some point she came back unseen by me. I was either hanging out laundry, feeding a dog, or relieving my self in the privacy of my bathroom. HeWho returned from his second or maybe third trip to obtain what he needed to repair a pipe.

So, there I was, in my happy place, carefully trimming and watering my 12 hanging baskets, when I noticed a truck pull into my park. He slowed slightly at the stop sign, disregarding the sign that says all visitors must check-in at the office, then gunned his engine as he took the turn. I watched him pull into an empty site, then roar on down the road. Why, yes, I was annoyed.

A phone call to the man on the mower to see if this might be another friend of not paying tenant. The dilapidated condition of his vehicle led me to suspect this. The man in the truck was headed out of my park when I walked toward him. He tried to look straight ahead, making me call out to him. I asked if I could be of assistance and he gave me a dirty look and said no. I then asked what he was doing here and he informed me that he did not have to tell me. Really annoyed now, I inform him that he does indeed have to tell me, that he is on my property uninvited. I go on to tell him that he ran the stop sign and was speeding. He rolled his eyes and asked how I knew he was speeding. "Because I am just that much smarter than you. I know how to read. You apparently don't since you neglected to read the instructions to check-in at the office and you blew through 2 stop signs. I can tell how fast you are going by the amount of dust you left in your wake."

This when he berated ME for disrespecting HIM. I wish I had not put down my hose as I walked towards him. He informed me that he was a property owner just down the road. He is probably one of the locals filling my dumpster with their trash. Two more years. Just two more years.