New Orleans.

<<< Deep Thoughts >>> In the wake of Catrina, and now Rita, two huge hurricanes... what can be said? Well a lot if you haven't been listening to the news. I was. I was impressed that the entire debaucle about FEMA was easy to understand and easy to demonstraight. It is not about FEMA at all. For one thing, no one, not even FEMA -should- be prepaired for massive devistaion on the scale that we have seen in the wake of these two storms. The American tax payers do not need to be paying for warehouses full of MRE's, Tents, Generators and such when the prospect of needing it all is rather rare. My opinion. The difference between Lousiana and Texas... or Lousiana and Mississippi... is that the people in Lousiana have/had no respect for authority. They did not respect the call for evacuation. They did not respect the private property of others. They did not cooperate with FEMA, or the even the President of the USA! They caused their own troubles! Am I off my rocker? No. The proof of this is all over the net even now. It is appearent in all the Mardi-Gras pictures... think about it. The people had a culture of thumbing their noses at their own police and getting away with it. That break-down in authority cost them lives. It is perhapps the grace of God that 10,000's were not killed.... It is self-evident in the fact that looting after the storm was rampat only in Lousiana. Now even some of thier own police are being charged with having looted. Pathetic!

Five weeks Latter!

Why are some people so plastic? So fake? To what end do we continue to fight over petty issues? Why is money the thing that brings out the true (ugly) character in some people? Why did it have to my own parents? It has been five weeks since they were paid... I am still waiting for my cut. True they did give me $4,000. I nearly had to do some arm twisting to get that much. The trouble is, that they recieved 32,000 for a house that they only had 11,000 invested in. How can anyone (in thier right minds) think that 11,000 invested means they get 28,000 of the 32,000 when I had about 20,000 invest over ten years, and for that, they want me to settle for just 4,000. In my world, the person who invested more, takes the larger share, not the miniscule one. I think most people would agree with that. By avoiding this question, By putting it off, By refusing to talk about it, By stonewalling, They have put our family relations under great tension. I even had an argument about it with my sister, not that it matters much. She has always been a plastic bimbo and the more mom and dad have, the more she can borrow/beg/take from them. Other than that, she dosen't even have a hourse in this race so that is the only reason it could be important to her at all. Like I said, plastic. You would think that familey would come first. You know the old addage, blood is thicker than water? Not true, even blood is cut off by the thin edge of a dollar. At this point it isn't even about the money, not for me. I realized a long time ago that the knott in the pit of my stomace... was the knowledge that my own parents had been lying. They lied to me, my wife, thier grandchildren. Maybe even themselves. Nothing is sacred, there are dollars on the table for the taking... lie, cheat, steal even from your own flesh and blood, but take it if you can. That's been thier goal. That we would remodel was a joke. They bought new car year after year instead. I should have seen it, but I refused to believe it. My parents had the money to remodel and keep thier promices, but new cars and pickups were more important that thier word. Thier appearance as they drove about town was more important than their own son. Plastic. Lies. When we refinanced, I saw it coming. I knew then that I had just kissed my investment goodby. I had to sign away my leagel rights and control over the property, so that they could refinance and get their hands on some more money. The money is all they wanted. All they care about. Not thier son. He is an embarrasment to the them. He dosen't play thier plastic game. Drives old cars he can afford. Wears jeans and worn out t-shirts. So now they have the money. I have a boat load of broken promices, disapointments and lies. Just a bunch of lies. lies. all lies. What ever happened to, "I love you?"

The house is sold!

 

The House is Sold!

 

Almost three weeks ago, my parents received payment for the sell of a house we had both invested in.  Doing business with a partner is hard.  Doing business with family, now that can be impossible.  We got about 32 thousand out of the old place after all was said and done.  In all fairness, my cut should be about 16 thousand, less a few expenses such as some money we barrowed from them last summer.  Last night my own mother, rather reluctantly gave us a partial payment of $4,000.  We had an agreement signed between us three years ago about how we would disburse the funds when this house sold.  Worse case scenario, I should see about 10 thousand.  (Some parts of an agreement almost always become less clear and well defined after a few years have passed).  Tomorrow it will have been three weeks since they were paid.  Why can’t they just cut me a check and be done with it.  There isn’t any reason to quibble over infinite details…

 

It can be nearly impossible to do business with a family member.  If they treat you bad and rob you blind, they are still your family.  And as messed up as it sounds, they could be upset with you for not thanking them for all the great things they did out of nothing but the best intentions for you… inspite of the fact that they treated you badly and robbed you blind while doing them.  They may have broken every promise they ever made you, but, boy aren’t you the lucky one!  Just look at how many times they bent over backwards just to make things work for you.  If you are thinking about doing business with a family member, I’d advise you not too.

 

And just to prove that no silver lining comes without a grey cloud…

 

Our old neighbor wants to sue.  Okay this is a long story, but the jist of it is this:

The old place has a water well on it.  We shared the use of the well with our neighbor.  He and the former resident were great friends so they had it wired and plumbed in so either party could draw water as needed.  As soon as a For Sale sign was in the front and we had moved out, this fine old gentleman cut and plugged off our pipe, and removed our power wires so we no longer had use of the well.  One small problem here, the well is on our land!  Well, I had to go and restore our access.  It was either that or watch the yard die in the summers heat.  I re-wired it to power, but they refused to allow me access to their property and their power panel.  I had to cut them off electrically, but I did not touch their pipes.  No they want to sue… after the house has been sold to someone else.  Now they want US to pay to put it all back like it was.  –Go figure-

 

Is it also true that there is no fool like an old fool.  He started this mess and has resisted all our efforts to fix it until now, and now it is too late.  It is out of our hands.

 

  Between Family, Finance and foolish neighbors.. I still have Calculus I, Chemistry I, Mech. Engr. Graphics and Intro to Engr. Classes to keep up with.  (Speaking of which… there is more homework sitting in the IN box)

 

Gotta run.  Till next time..

-Dan.