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03/08/2003 Entry: "Snow Damage as it Happens to Others"

It was 60 degrees Fahrenheit today. Hard to believe, just a week ago, we were up to our ass in snow. I took my dog for a walk with my son today, and surveyed the damage at a slow, walking level. There wasn't much, but what there was, there was bad.

A neighbor lost his entire deck.

Several neighbors lost mailboxes to the snowplow. Now that's just dumb, couldn't the snowplow see them? And the plow must have hit them pretty hard, because two of them were ripped right out of the earth, cement anchor and all. One of them was snapped in half, jagged torn wood on both ends. It's not like they were on a bend, or blind corner. They were just one here, one there, along a long, straight road.

The snowplow also hit us, but not directly. See, our backyard leads to the alley of the shopping center behind us. Literally. I mean it's back of my house, back yard, tall single row of trees, fence, alley, back of shopping center. I could, from my deck, throw rocks at the back of the shopping center. That fence is a small wooden picket fence about 1-2 meters tall. When we first moved here, the previous owners said everything up to the trees was ours. But the trees and fence were the property of the shopping center. Shortly after we moved in, the fence was bashed in by someone backing up. I called and called and called until the number got disconnected. So my and my buddy Travis went into the alley and fixed it. While we were there, some cops stopped us to check and make sure we weren't doing something illegal, and I explained why we had to fix the fence (dogs escaping, teens using my yard as a shortcut, leaving my gate open). They said THEY would call the shopping center, and a few months later, they totally replaced the fence.

But a few weeks ago, the snowplow pushed so much snow into the fence, it just burst open in several places. I mean, the damage was more than just a break of pickets. Like the mailboxes, the force was so great, it ripped the support posts from the ground. Crap.

I have the chain my dogs up now. Until the fix it, because I am not having my dogs wander that alley. And Ahfu would. He's an explorer, and does not look back. He's already escaped and gotten lost once. Plus, I will soon have people using my backyard as a shortcut again, especially during Spring Break and the Summer, when there's nothing for kids to do.

Ugh, I have to find these people and have them fix the fence. Or I'm going to put up a stone wall like how some other neighbors have.

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