Friday, June 16, 2006

In the weeds

We got a notice from the City Weed Inspector yesterday. Yes, apparently it's a real job. He told us that we had weeds over 8 inches long in our yard and if we didn't cut them then he would and we would be charged for the time. This has pissed me of for 3 reasons.

1) This notice was issued the day after Jesse cut the grass. The only weeds we can think of that might have been that long are either a few growing against the house (because Jesse had not yet used the weedeater) or in the strip between the road and the sidewalk. There is no grass in that strip, just weeds. It's not our fault, there used to be grass there and then they tore it all up when they redid the gutters along the street. Then they put in this shitty sod about 2 weeks before the first snow. All the grass died and there's nothing but weeds there. If you walk around my neighborhood everyone has the same thing. Big patches of dead grass with nothing but weeds that grow at 10 times the rate of the rest of the grass. Even the crazy lawn guy across the street has it.

2) The house across the street from us has been empty for about a year now and it's sidewalks were never shoveled in the winter and it's grass has not been cut in monhts. Why isn't some city bigwig making sure that yard is taken care of? We may not have the best landscaped lawn in the world but at least the grass is cut on a regular basis.

3) The house across the alley from us has 2 jumked cars sitting it the yard. This is somehow ok. It's ok to have gaint hunks of rusting metal in your yard as long as you keep the weeds around them cut to less than 8 inches.

Maybe the City Weed Inspector could use his power for good. Maybe he could do some undercover work to find out who it is that's allowing their dog to crap on our sidewalk on a nearly daily basis. As of yet I've been unable to figure it out and I would really appreciate some help in the matter. Maybe if he figured it out he could even wack the offender with his 8 inch ruler. That would make me feel better.

5 comments:

K said...

You know what's funny? I got a notice from my leasing office saying that same exact thing - my weeds are too high and I need to cut them. The last time I checked, I rent because I don't want to do yardwork... Needless to say, I'm going extreme and I'm going to hack everything down so I have the most ugly barren patio in the complex. It's okay for the kids across the way to leave their toys and bikes out all night, but god forbid I have weeds. I feel your pain!

Al said...

Maybe the City Weed Inspector could use his power for good.

Maybe the City Weed Inspector could just bite me, I say! Wooooo!

The dumbest crackdown ever... welcome to our band-aid fix society. It's not like effective early childhood education would ever fix our crime problems, but sprucing up the corner house... well, that'll SURELY fix it!

Ben said...

Great now I gotta figure out how to put our weed whacker together. I haven't been approached by the city weed inspecter yet but if he shows up I'd like to be able to use it to hit him in the face.

Annabelle Tinley said...

We have a weed that would astound the weed inspector. Its currently about 4 1/2 feet tall of pure mean looking thistle. I think its pretty. So far I consider it my only landscaping accomplishment.

Anonymous said...

Some bureacrats have just too much time on their hands. I would call the city every day to complain about the lousy sod job on the mess they made, and to complain about the rusty junk cars. I would also talk to my neighbors to see if they got similar notices. Make yourself heard girl!!! My aunt did that once, first she was nice (1) she called every week for about three weeks and nothing was done (2)then she called everyday for about a week and nothing was done, (3) then she told them that she was going to call them every half hour until something was done. And she did it. They were out there the next day to take care of the problem. You go girl!!!!