To quote Dr. Frankenfurter in
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW:
We are filled with antici . . . . . . . pation!
Eight a.m. arrived; the fence guys didn't.
Well, that's normal here in Floriduh time;
rarely does anyone show up at the time promised.
Nine a.m. arrived; the fence guys didn't.
Well, they had to drive up to New Port Richey
(two towns north of us) to pick up the fence pieces.
Ten a.m. arrived; the fence guys didn't.
Well, traffic coming back down south is crowded,
as everyone & her sister are driving to St. Pete & Tampa.
Eleven a.m. arrived; the fence guys didn't.
Well, . . . . ????
Noon arrived; the fence guys didn't.
Well, . . . . ????
At 1 p.m., Neal called . . . "Oh, they won't be coming
because you were taking pictures yesterday.
We'll have another crew out next week."
Neal said, "I WAS TAKING PICTURES OF THE FENCE.
IT'S MY FENCE, AND I CAN TAKE PICTURES OF
ITS DEMOLITION IF I WANT TO."
The guy (one we'd not spoken with before) said,
"I don't know why that's an issue,
but they're not coming."
It'd've NICE if someone had called this morning to let us know.
My immediate suspicion is that these are illegals,
of which there are a lot on construction crews in Florida,
and they were worried about their pics being taken.
particularly in light of this article:
Florida's police and sheriffs on the vanguard
of Trump's immigration&-enforcement plans.
I TOLD them we were taking pictures of the fence demolition,
not of them.
Our second suspicion was that, because one of them had cut through
the line for one of the irrigation zones, AND they had broken off
some of the posts at ground level, they thought it best
not to return to the scene of their crimes.
Our third suspicion was that they realized this would be a difficult job
(the difficulty for which WE PAID A LOTTA MONEY!),
and they just didn't want to work that hard.
(I cannot imagine ever telling MY boss
[the principal, not BobMyFormerBoss],
that I wasn't going to work in the library
and I'd rather go somewhere else.
I doubt I'd even have a library to return to!)
So now I will several nights of the neighbor's flood light
shining into my bedroom slider when the wind
(or a cat, or a raccoon) sets off his motion detector,
and we'll be locking the sliders at night, too.
I feel very exposed without a surrounding fence.
As I predicted, this project has become a clusterf*ck;
you can see why we DREAD having someone contracted
to do any work on the house.
A cyberfriend in New York, Jeanne P.,
asked if we'd had several estimates,
then chosen the best one.
IF we had been in Wisconsin, yes, we'd have done that.
However, that's not how it's done in Floriduh.
Of three companies we contacted for the clearing of the brush
(with future plans with whatever company for a total
landscaping job when the fence was installed),
ONE never answered the email I sent from its CONTACT US page;
ONE never answered a voicemail I left, and whose estimator
I ambushed when I saw a company car in a driveway,
came to take a looksee, did some planning with us,
didn't write down anything (which should've been a clue),
and never sent us an estimate or made any return calls.
Does anyone think contacting three fence companies
for estimates would go any better? We sure didn't;
we'd still be fenceless at the start of this year's hurricane season on 1 June.
STAY TUNED . . .
UPDATES WHEN/IF THE FENCE IS ACTUALLY INSTALLED!
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