of trees and bitches and transgender witches

 So I have a tree problem.  As trees are, it's big. I can't be stuffing wood in the back of my smart car, to haul to the dump for burying.  Nor can I season it as firewood in my yard, it's manchurian elm.  I'm not sure if there's a penalty for that, but they conduct sweeps looking for elm firewood and maybe they take all your wood?

Well so the trees got really big while I was sick. Out of control huge. Beyond my capacity even while well.  I was beginning to wonder what it would cost to get a professional to cut them.

Well it would cost around two grand, maybe three.  Yeah, which i can't find in my wallet for any amount of wishing. Magic doesn't like money and you can't magic up money therefor.  You have to cheat people for money more than you've earned.

Ok back to the story, so this one arborist pointed out that the electrical wires are all through the trees and he can't even go at it till the city does the "electrical clearance" part of the job, at which point there's not that much left.  Possibly only a thousand dollars.  Ok, so I call the city, and sure enough, they'll do it on a word and a prayer, but not till october.

Ok, that's still time to get the fence fixed and etc.  Don't try to solve everything, be glad you're ahead. Excited plans began!

Then a week later they showed up and started cutting trees.  Wha? it was the second day of the season? Oh, my corner lightpost is so blocked it won't even turn off, they're here for THAT.  I tell them my situation, they cut a little extra, then there's a radio conversation and they quit and pile the wood on my neighbor's boulevard.  City property, but they like to park there.

Ok, so I see that and Dan and I get a burst of energy and knock down every single tree we can safely take, right to the ground, and pile everything on top of the existing pile. The crew coming to pick up aren't going to say beep about it's size, just feed it to the shredder.  

Now this pile on the neighbor's yard is a problem, and my adding to it isn't going unnoticed.  I explain the whole story, as above, to the neighbor, and explain the city schedules pickups.  I merrily add all the elmwood from inside my fence too, grateful for this opportunity to do the right thing. Enter the Bitch in this story. That's the resident's mother, the current owner, daughter of the woman I was on good terms with long ago, who moved passed the house to this bitch. 

Well that pile's been there too long and she's going to force me to make it better.  I tell her the tale, she cuts me short with "yeah I know and you better..." So the attitude. Well this one's been shooting me the nasty looks since she was a teenager and I never paid her a cent of attention because of it.  Since then she's definitely been a thorn in my side, calling the city on me over THESE TREES!  Yes, these very trees I'm permanently removing.  After she's moved out.  Meddling and messing with me.  When I was sick. Wow.  Now she's telling me "everybody in the neighborhood thinks so" and "you're the worst nuisance neighbor here" and "you're messy" and other such bald faced lies it never even phased me.  I disagreed vehemently with each one then finally got mad and asked her if she was going to let me speak my say or not, and then finally told her never to speak to me again and she kept going on in that horrible way of sociopaths while her cowed son wondered if he could leave now. I spoke to him kindly anyway and asked him what he wanted. Well naturally he wanted what his mom wanted, but politely please, which more or less consisted of a followup call to the city, which if they'd just asked me to do that for them would not have resulted in a cold war event. As it is, I said I would. Bitch came back in ranting awhile, i started again telling her never to speak to me. I went back inside, ranting myself, and made the phone call. 

The employee on the phone expressed shock it was there a week later, saying it usually got done the next day, and it would be done immediately.  

Well immediately indeed.  The moment the last log of elmwood left my firewood pile (I found a hidden one) the shredder pulled up and removed my problem. There are a few trees left for the clearance removal, and I marked them with orange Xs hoping they take the whole thing again. So here comes the witch part.  I needed that extra week to get the work done.  As it is, I nearly wrecked myself pushing the first two days and Dan did most of that!  then it took me another few days to grok that the wood I'd saved back really couldn't stay, even if it wasn't Dutch Elm, but Manchurian Elm.  Seems it still can harbour the beetle.  So today was the day I removed the last of it.  

Here's hoping we'll see the rest of the elms back there gone, I'm done with wood you can't compost or season for firewood.  

Well this isn't my first bitch rodeo. I finally did figure out who the 'everybody" this bully was citing were.  The bitch in the yellow house who was jealous of my husband. The bitch in the white house who was so angry she treated everyone like shit and drove away anyone who wouldn't tolerate it, the bitch next door who played nice to avoid neighbor trouble but still bitch talked behind my back. That's the bitch network, a little chit chat back alley gossip creating actual action when one of them is starved for attention or stories.

Now here's the magic part of this crazy day.  The bitch feels like a victor. She will attribute the swift removal to her bullying, not the common decency of neighbors.  I think her son knows better. and two of her bitch network are gone, the third is down for the count and awaiting the Black Knight's merciless rescue.  One good thing about longevity, you outlive your enemies and get to tell their tales. Sometimes even the ones younger than you.

Far as I can figure, this bitch's problem is that I was hawt when I first moved in and briefly caught her brother's eye.  Maybe he talked about it with her? Maybe she just plain had her own opinion and has fretted with it unexpressed for so long she's just trying to force it. And I keep refusing to engage, because I know that look and I don't give a shit.  It's not my responsibility what stories she's built in her head and I refuse to let her waste my energy over it.  I will be spoken to with courtesy or not at all.  That is something I insist on.  It's the #1 reason the bitches pin targets on me. They don't like a wild card in their system. 

Nuisance, HAH!  Messy, What?  The fire inspector has thrice praised my tidiness, as I've been called in every decade or so by yet another bitch. But never been found in the wrong. Because I'm not. Because I am not a nuisance, nor messy, nor a health hazard. Because I am mindful and considerate, and well raised with some vague memory of manners and can speak to them like a civilized person. Because they aren't there to hurt me, they are there to do a job, and it's an emotionally difficult one, because they're drawn from the ranks of people who volunteer out of compassion for the field.  firefighters. Compassionate people don't want to find reasons to harass you, so if you'r trying to solve the problem with them, the problem gets solved.  If you're belligerant and distrustful and trying to dodge effort, the problem gets worse.

So yeah, her crowning effort was to suggest it was her mother who hated me all those years, not her.  LOL Ruby still loves me and wishes me well. Ruby got me. I don't know how she got such a nasty daughter. Must have been a gene mutation or something.  Or the business being more important than the only girl in the room perhaps. Either way, I don't even know her name, and she hates me, probably twice as much because of that. At one point in the shouting match I expressed that I couldn't keep track of "all of you."  LOL which is completely true. I don't do well recognizing people nor remembering unattached names when I don't have a facial image to put on them. I remember most things visually, but can't if it's a face, so names go flat. Numbers too, so dates, quantities,etc., go flat.I can picture money, with coins and bills, so that helps, but faces?  Nope, I only know her by that stupid bunched up pony tail she's always worn. She's look much nicer with it fluffed around her face.  her hair would be nice, all curly and golden and bronze, just quite nice, I think, but it's always up in that stupid water fountain sculpture. bleah.  Well that's how I know who she is, and if she changed her hair, stranger to me. I know she'd take that as insult too, but if she was clever or clueful she'd let her hair down to get a chance to apologize and love bomb me for a more intense session of emotional abuse.  Whew, good thing she's a busy person.  

Just wait till I'm using that same grassy boulevard to get the bus out my yard.  Ooooh won't she fume then. 

Should I call if they park a wreck on it again?  Naw, I'll figure out another way to get the bus out. I don't go on the offense. It's #1 rule of pacifism and it counts in all ways, not just physical assault.

It's a big reason these sociopaths take me for a victim.  And get so wrecked when it fails, and sometimes obsess and ramp it up to get their win. 

I think the city gave us a truce double win that will prevent further fueding for now, and while the kid in me is pissed about it, the wise one in me is satisfied. Job done. Game over.  Peace restored. Priority is peace and quiet. but the little child in me is crying in frustration for being unable to bite back.  I bark back. I don't bite back. That's my thing. That's it. And stand my ground. and refuse to accept that black is white and up is down.

But this bitch thinks she got her power trip hit.  She won't be back for a bigger bite in revenge, see.  she won. I can relax.  which is a bigger help in getting over the stress of it all than I thought it would be. Because I really don't need to be set upon like that. I was just delivering a load of cut and unseasoned firewood to get it out of my yard while a disposal opportunity remained.  Just being smart. I didn't direct that pile.

I tried at one point (she was always cutting me off) to say "you wanted it cleaned up, why are you obstructing me now that I'm able to get it done?"  But you know it's all about the power transfer with those people. So the city sent six large people with a shredder big enough to fit a bitch into and even the biggest log there went in the shredder like feeding beef to a dog.  Enough power for even her ego I suppose.

I don't really want a feud, even if the scheming part of my brain was trying to steer me there. I don't. I've got more interesting things to do.