Learn the Language

This one goes out to one of our vendors.

Please take some time and educate yourself on the meaning of the word slander. You have a reckless habit of throwing this word around as a scare tactic to intimidate anyone who has a different opinion than you do. I have heard you use this word a number of times while interacting with residents of our community and every single time I have heard you use it, you have done so incorrectly. You have used the word in reference to written communications, which is incorrect. You have used the word in reference to people's subjective opinions, which is incorrect. Slander is a legal term with a very specific definition and a very high standard of evidence.

Bullying your customers like this may make you feel better, but it accomplishes nothing except to make you and your organization appear ignorant and hateful.

Wet Paint

Remember those walls and breezeways that were stuccoed back in the spring, but never painted? Some of them were finally painted last week, more than six months after being patched. Unfortunately, only some of them were painted. Some of these areas remain unpainted.

And if that wasn't bad enough, we've been having some wet weather lately and the walls that were painted last week are next to a bank of sprinklers, so the patches that were painted over were visibly wet at the time they were painted. Most likely, that means that these patches will wear out and crumble off sooner than they should and we'll be wasting even more money patching them again sooner than we should have to because of subpar workmanship.

Water Water Everywhere

Our latest debacle is a doozy. In their infinite wisdom, our benevolent leaders decided, once again this year to attempt to grow winter grass. Nevermind the fact that we live in a desert. Nevermind the fact that we're in the middle of a historic drought. nevermind the fact that our sprinkler system is decades old and in constant need of attention. Nevermind the fact that we're on financially shaky ground as a community.

For the last several weeks, the landscaping guys have been fiddling with the sprinklers, making sure they were ready to go once the grass seed got laid down. Yesterday, they put down the seed, but there was no sprinkler activity the rest of the day. Then, this morning, the sprinkler guy came around and removed a bunch of the sprinkler heads. Didn't replace them with new ones, just took them out entirely. Several hours later, the sprinkler system came on. And if you've ever seen a sprinkler system run with no heads, you know where this story is going. Instead of gently sprinkling the new grass seed, we have a series of geisers that are washing the seed away. That's going to make for a lovely looking winter lawn.

Blow Me

It amazes me how much of our money is wasted on moving trash around. Not cleaning it up, just moving it around.

One week, the landscapers will come around with their leaf blowers, spewing toxic fumes into our air, and blow debris off of the sidewalks and into the flower beds. They don't pick any of it up, just blow it into the flower beds. Then, the next week, they'll come around again and blow it all out of the flower beds and into the grassy areas. Still not picking any of it up, just moving it around. Then, another week, they might come around and blow debris out of the car ports and into the areas around the dumpsters, still not actually cleaning any of it up, just moving it around.

Why is so much of my money wasted on just moving trash from one place to another while poisoning my air?

And for those of you who may be wondering, those walls that were plastered back in May still haven't been painted.

Half-Assed

Two months ago, workmen came around the complex and patched some of the cracks and holes in the breezeways between our condos. They did a mediocre job, but I figured that after a week or two, they would come back around to sand and paint the patched areas.

That never happened. Two months later, our breezeways are still adorned with bare spackle. Our HOA has failed yet again to performa a basic maintenance job in an acceptable manner. After two months, the job remains half done and the workmanship of what has been done is sub-par.

The Answer is Blowin' in the Wind

The shabby appearance of our carports has still not been improved. Despite the HOA's explicit, written claim that our monthly dues pay for upkeep of the parking areas, those parking areas have not been leaf blown in several months. As a result, there are currently piles of leaves more than an inch deep in our carports.

If the HOA actually did the things it claims it does, this might be a fairly attractive neighborhood. Instead, it's a rundown looking mess.

If It Ain't Broke, Fix It

This week our benevolent leaders have decided to scrape, patch, and paint some of the breezeways on the property. This is not unneeded maintenance, but it is certainly not high priority maintenance. The breezeways are not crumbling down around us like some other parts of the neighborhood are. This money would be much better spent elsewhere.

Namely, the money being wasted to scrape, patch, and paint areas that are not really in need of that treatment would be infinitely better spent on patching and painting the large number of stucco walls on the property that are crumbling down around us and have been in desperate need of maintenance for months, if not years.

Why the powers that be would choose to spend our scarce funds on non-urgent maintenance when there are parts of the community that are in much more dire need of attention is beyond me.