The Aaron Thing
my perspective.
Kel-
I know Aaron feels he got rooked on the electric. My understanding was that when we had our initial dozing done, the guy would also swing over to your property and fix where the water was coming off the hill and washing out the drive and just include it on our bill. In return, Aaron would let us use his electric and it should all approximately even out as it would cost Aaron if he had to hire a guy out separately to doze that.
I now hear that you paid the dozer for Aaron's part of it, and I'm left with the impression that Mister Dozerman got paid twice for the work. I believe we paid what we were quoted for the whole job and he didn't cut us any discounts that I'm aware of, so that's unfortunate.
As far as us balking at repaying Aaron, we were probably wondering why you were involving yourself in something that was, to our minds, settled.
The guys who dozed for the septic in February did indeed tear up a bit of your ground near the property line. Aaron mentioned it to us at the time, and we assured him we'd fix it when we get ours dozed back, which isn't able to happen before the septic and plumbing are inspected, else we'll have to just dig it all up again. I'm sorry if he's in a rush, but we're not hiring a dozer just to do the patch on y'all's property (have you seen it? We can get a picture for you) and then have the guy go back home. It'll have to wait until we can doze ours, which we hope is soon.
Aaron understood that. Why he's bringing it up now as though he doesn't is beyond me.
EWS finally came and got the construction dumpster on a Wednesday or Thursday. We were over at your mother's doing laundry at the time, so we weren't aware it had clipped Aaron's mailbox until the following Sunday when I shot at Copper, and Aaron came and told us. I don't understand why he didn't tell us about it the day it happened, or call EWS to complain. It's not like we're in league with them against him. I called Don as soon as I knew about it, and Joe's spoken to both Don and EWS. I don't know if Aaron has called EWS, but if he hasn't he should, as they may not be in a hurry to rectify it if the property owner doesn't appear to care. Had we known about it as soon as it happened, Don would have built him a mailbox and installed it, but by the time I spoke to Don, Aaron had already bought one and set it up.
I'm astounded that he's complaining about the books. He brought some over he'd gotten free at the library. We thanked him and said we'd search them online and if they were worth something, we'd happily split the profit with him when they sold. He said we didn't have to do that, but hell, it's in our best interests to do so if we want him to bring us more. I saw Aaron a few days later (after Copper had attacked the neighbor's small dog) and told him that several of the books were very good and that we'd sold two of them already and would probably settle up with him once we owed him a certain amount (you know-to keep from running over there every few days with $3.95 or something)and he seemed pleased. How this has been twisted into us ungratefully bitching about the amount of space the books occupy, I don't know.
Copper has become steadily more aggressive, though last year it was primarily the black dog killing the neighbor's chickens. When we started building last year, Aaron was complaining that the neighbors were unhappy about the chicken-killing, and Aaron felt that "if they wanted their animals to stay safe, they should lock them all up". A few days later his black dog came home poisoned. Ironic, huh?
This March I heard the small dog next door screaming and stepped outside to see Aaron's two dogs looming over it on our edge of the neighbor's property. Aaron's dogs ran home as soon as they saw me, and the small dog ran back to its house, screaming all the way. Aaron came over to see what happened and asked me if he should beat the dogs, and I said I'd only heard it, that I didn't see any scuffles, and that the small dog certainly seemed in fine voice and moving fast enough, so I figured it couldn't be too badly hurt. We decided it had only been frightened, and let it go, though I have previously seen the dog with scrapes and sore spots, but people dump strays on this road all the time, as you're aware.
That was when I told Aaron that the books he'd picked out were good, and he said he'd picked up a pallet for gardening and wanted to know if it was the sort Joe had wanted, and I said I didn't know, and Joe was in Dayton and I'd tell him when he returned.
The neighbors have a small ginger cat we like, that comes over and visits us and reminds us a little of Joe's cat, Toed.
In late March/early April, Josh had come down a couple times to ride his ATV over the dirtpiles on our property, and his dog Comet came with him. Thursday April 7, we saw Comet down here alone and didn't think anything of it. In the late afternoon, I kept hearing dogs barking, so I looked outside to see what was going on. Comet was in the neighbor's yard, Copper and the spotted dog were in ours, running home. Copper was carrying the cat in his mouth and slinging it around. The cat was hanging limp, and I figured it was dead.
I yelled for Joe and he ran out and made Copper drop the cat (which he did, in Aaron's yard). Joe said it was still breathing, so I went over to tell the neighbors so that they could take care of it. Aaron came out, and Joe said if he saw Copper do that again that he was going to drop the dog, and Aaron said he didn't blame him, and Aaron then beat and kicked Copper. The neighbor boy came and got the cat which was conscious, though not moving (except to look around at the dogs which were still dancing about), and it had bleeding puncture wounds to the leg, to the side, and blood oozing from its mouth.
We didn't know if it survived and we were afraid to ask the neighbors, but Sunday it crept out from under our parked truck and meowed at me. I was standing there petting it when Aaron started over, and naturally his dogs started to come over with him as they always come over when he's here. I yelled and told him he'd have to leave them at home, that the cat was with me, and that his dogs weren't welcome here anymore, although Aaron himself was. He asked what he was supposed to do, and I said chain them-it wasn't my business. I wasn't nasty, though I was yelling so he could hear me of course. Anyway, he got mad and went back home and slammed whatever he'd been carrying back into his truck bed.
Later that afternoon, Joe and I were out gardening, and I had the BB gun because the dogs were running loose, and I meant it when I said I didn't want them in my yard. Aaron came home and started working angrily with the mailbox (which we didn't yet know had been damaged). Joe hailed him, but Aaron ignored him. Sue came home and went to talk to Aaron by the mailbox. The dogs started crossing my yard. I yelled for Aaron & Sue to keep their dogs at home, but they ignored me. I yelled louder, but they still ignored me, so I shot Copper in the butt and both dogs went home. Later on, the spotted dog came into our yard and I raised the BB gun. Sue yelled at me, and I told her to call her dog home, but she just stood there, so I fired at (Anabelle?), missed, and the dog went home. That's when Aaron and Sue got on their cell phones and called you and probably the Sheriff.
Later Aaron came over and he and I talked, and I thought we had it understood and worked out, and we were pleased he was so mature about it, and Joe was pleased I was so calm. He also asked Joe what happened with the square foot gardening plans they were going to do together? Joe told him he'd decided against that this year what with us restricted to a small edge of the property until it gets dozed, but that if Aaron wanted, Joe was happy to come over and help him lay out his own (or at least supervise).
That ould have been Sunday the 10th.
A week later, Monday the 18th I left for SA, hoping to hear from you Tuesday as you'd said you'd be in town then and I'd given you Mom's number. I hoped you'd be able to meet her, as well as my half-sister who was also in SA then, and my half-brother who lives in LaVernia, but when I didn't hear from you, I figured you were probably enjoying Fiesta, and that you'd meet Mom when you met her, and that that was okay too.
Friday the 22nd, I learned from Joe that you'd had him call you so you could ream him about all the above issues which surprised me as Aaron had indicated he understood about the dogs, and I'd notified Don about the mailbox, etc. I have to wonder what Aaron thinks you're going to do. Does he think you own this property and can evict us? Does he think you're supposed to be raising your eldest brother? Does he think you should boss me?
Do you think you can make an accurate assessment of a situation in Kentucky from Texas when you're getting your information from a grown man who thinks he still needs his Mom and stepdaddy to fix his life for him? And do you think you should?
I may sound as though I'm on a soapbox, but your stepson sounds like he has an axe to grind, so at least our clichés are evenly matched.
I'm sorry to have emailed to your home account but since I didn't hear from you, I wasn't sure where you were, and the only addys I have are your work and you & Deb's joint acct.
I know that when we wanted to get this lot bush-hogged in May '03, we'd asked Aaron if he knew the names & numbers of some guys we could call to do it, and if once we lined it up if he would pay the man since we were 3 hours away in Dayton, and we'd reimburse him. Aaron said not to worry, he'd hire the guy himself and pay him and we could settle up later. We were very grateful. That Mother's Day he called y'all while we were there visiting and told Deb to tell us he hadn't been able to get it done that week due to the storms. We said that was cool, understandable and that he could get it done whenever he was able, no prob.
Throughout that wet summer, I kept an eye on the weather forecasts and would email Aaron or leave a message on his answering machine occasionally when it looked like a dry spell coming up, asking him if he'd found anyone to bush hog it. He only replied once when he called back and he and Joe talked about it with the understanding that Aaron would hire it done once it was dry enough to bush-hog, and thank you very much. By September, and after leaving a few more messages, I asked Hazel if she could locate some guys who could do it. I guess she said something to Aaron because he found someone within 2 weeks, claiming he thought we'd said to just hold off on it indefinitely.
You may recall that I didn't burn up the phone lines to bother you about it, and I only involved Hazel because I figured if she didn't personally know someone who could do it, then she'd know someone in the local family who would know. I'd have been happy with names and numbers and with calling the guys myself, which was what I'd planned before Aaron volunteered.
I was also surprised last year when Aaron called you about the way Don was having the site dozed, all upset because Don was putting in a bridge for us instead of running a drive off your bridge as we'd all initially planned. I was surprised that he was telling you Joe was drinking too much to be aware of what was going on, instead of Aaron going over and asking Joe why they'd changed plans. Joe would have been happy to tell him, even though it's not as though Aaron was making the decisions or footing the bill.
And being as how Aaron informs you of everything, I don't suppose I have to tell you that he's been speaking of selling your trailer and buying a new one and tearing down the sheds you built. I assume he has your consent and I don't have to run to the phone every time he farts because I don't suppose you'd like for me to call you with gossip and try to stir up dissention between you two.
Sorry to write you a book, but when we're playing Family Bitchfest 2005, you're going to hear my side of it, too. I've known y'all for 23 years and am as much of a family member as your stepson.
Lisa
Kel-
I know Aaron feels he got rooked on the electric. My understanding was that when we had our initial dozing done, the guy would also swing over to your property and fix where the water was coming off the hill and washing out the drive and just include it on our bill. In return, Aaron would let us use his electric and it should all approximately even out as it would cost Aaron if he had to hire a guy out separately to doze that.
I now hear that you paid the dozer for Aaron's part of it, and I'm left with the impression that Mister Dozerman got paid twice for the work. I believe we paid what we were quoted for the whole job and he didn't cut us any discounts that I'm aware of, so that's unfortunate.
As far as us balking at repaying Aaron, we were probably wondering why you were involving yourself in something that was, to our minds, settled.
The guys who dozed for the septic in February did indeed tear up a bit of your ground near the property line. Aaron mentioned it to us at the time, and we assured him we'd fix it when we get ours dozed back, which isn't able to happen before the septic and plumbing are inspected, else we'll have to just dig it all up again. I'm sorry if he's in a rush, but we're not hiring a dozer just to do the patch on y'all's property (have you seen it? We can get a picture for you) and then have the guy go back home. It'll have to wait until we can doze ours, which we hope is soon.
Aaron understood that. Why he's bringing it up now as though he doesn't is beyond me.
EWS finally came and got the construction dumpster on a Wednesday or Thursday. We were over at your mother's doing laundry at the time, so we weren't aware it had clipped Aaron's mailbox until the following Sunday when I shot at Copper, and Aaron came and told us. I don't understand why he didn't tell us about it the day it happened, or call EWS to complain. It's not like we're in league with them against him. I called Don as soon as I knew about it, and Joe's spoken to both Don and EWS. I don't know if Aaron has called EWS, but if he hasn't he should, as they may not be in a hurry to rectify it if the property owner doesn't appear to care. Had we known about it as soon as it happened, Don would have built him a mailbox and installed it, but by the time I spoke to Don, Aaron had already bought one and set it up.
I'm astounded that he's complaining about the books. He brought some over he'd gotten free at the library. We thanked him and said we'd search them online and if they were worth something, we'd happily split the profit with him when they sold. He said we didn't have to do that, but hell, it's in our best interests to do so if we want him to bring us more. I saw Aaron a few days later (after Copper had attacked the neighbor's small dog) and told him that several of the books were very good and that we'd sold two of them already and would probably settle up with him once we owed him a certain amount (you know-to keep from running over there every few days with $3.95 or something)and he seemed pleased. How this has been twisted into us ungratefully bitching about the amount of space the books occupy, I don't know.
Copper has become steadily more aggressive, though last year it was primarily the black dog killing the neighbor's chickens. When we started building last year, Aaron was complaining that the neighbors were unhappy about the chicken-killing, and Aaron felt that "if they wanted their animals to stay safe, they should lock them all up". A few days later his black dog came home poisoned. Ironic, huh?
This March I heard the small dog next door screaming and stepped outside to see Aaron's two dogs looming over it on our edge of the neighbor's property. Aaron's dogs ran home as soon as they saw me, and the small dog ran back to its house, screaming all the way. Aaron came over to see what happened and asked me if he should beat the dogs, and I said I'd only heard it, that I didn't see any scuffles, and that the small dog certainly seemed in fine voice and moving fast enough, so I figured it couldn't be too badly hurt. We decided it had only been frightened, and let it go, though I have previously seen the dog with scrapes and sore spots, but people dump strays on this road all the time, as you're aware.
That was when I told Aaron that the books he'd picked out were good, and he said he'd picked up a pallet for gardening and wanted to know if it was the sort Joe had wanted, and I said I didn't know, and Joe was in Dayton and I'd tell him when he returned.
The neighbors have a small ginger cat we like, that comes over and visits us and reminds us a little of Joe's cat, Toed.
In late March/early April, Josh had come down a couple times to ride his ATV over the dirtpiles on our property, and his dog Comet came with him. Thursday April 7, we saw Comet down here alone and didn't think anything of it. In the late afternoon, I kept hearing dogs barking, so I looked outside to see what was going on. Comet was in the neighbor's yard, Copper and the spotted dog were in ours, running home. Copper was carrying the cat in his mouth and slinging it around. The cat was hanging limp, and I figured it was dead.
I yelled for Joe and he ran out and made Copper drop the cat (which he did, in Aaron's yard). Joe said it was still breathing, so I went over to tell the neighbors so that they could take care of it. Aaron came out, and Joe said if he saw Copper do that again that he was going to drop the dog, and Aaron said he didn't blame him, and Aaron then beat and kicked Copper. The neighbor boy came and got the cat which was conscious, though not moving (except to look around at the dogs which were still dancing about), and it had bleeding puncture wounds to the leg, to the side, and blood oozing from its mouth.
We didn't know if it survived and we were afraid to ask the neighbors, but Sunday it crept out from under our parked truck and meowed at me. I was standing there petting it when Aaron started over, and naturally his dogs started to come over with him as they always come over when he's here. I yelled and told him he'd have to leave them at home, that the cat was with me, and that his dogs weren't welcome here anymore, although Aaron himself was. He asked what he was supposed to do, and I said chain them-it wasn't my business. I wasn't nasty, though I was yelling so he could hear me of course. Anyway, he got mad and went back home and slammed whatever he'd been carrying back into his truck bed.
Later that afternoon, Joe and I were out gardening, and I had the BB gun because the dogs were running loose, and I meant it when I said I didn't want them in my yard. Aaron came home and started working angrily with the mailbox (which we didn't yet know had been damaged). Joe hailed him, but Aaron ignored him. Sue came home and went to talk to Aaron by the mailbox. The dogs started crossing my yard. I yelled for Aaron & Sue to keep their dogs at home, but they ignored me. I yelled louder, but they still ignored me, so I shot Copper in the butt and both dogs went home. Later on, the spotted dog came into our yard and I raised the BB gun. Sue yelled at me, and I told her to call her dog home, but she just stood there, so I fired at (Anabelle?), missed, and the dog went home. That's when Aaron and Sue got on their cell phones and called you and probably the Sheriff.
Later Aaron came over and he and I talked, and I thought we had it understood and worked out, and we were pleased he was so mature about it, and Joe was pleased I was so calm. He also asked Joe what happened with the square foot gardening plans they were going to do together? Joe told him he'd decided against that this year what with us restricted to a small edge of the property until it gets dozed, but that if Aaron wanted, Joe was happy to come over and help him lay out his own (or at least supervise).
That ould have been Sunday the 10th.
A week later, Monday the 18th I left for SA, hoping to hear from you Tuesday as you'd said you'd be in town then and I'd given you Mom's number. I hoped you'd be able to meet her, as well as my half-sister who was also in SA then, and my half-brother who lives in LaVernia, but when I didn't hear from you, I figured you were probably enjoying Fiesta, and that you'd meet Mom when you met her, and that that was okay too.
Friday the 22nd, I learned from Joe that you'd had him call you so you could ream him about all the above issues which surprised me as Aaron had indicated he understood about the dogs, and I'd notified Don about the mailbox, etc. I have to wonder what Aaron thinks you're going to do. Does he think you own this property and can evict us? Does he think you're supposed to be raising your eldest brother? Does he think you should boss me?
Do you think you can make an accurate assessment of a situation in Kentucky from Texas when you're getting your information from a grown man who thinks he still needs his Mom and stepdaddy to fix his life for him? And do you think you should?
I may sound as though I'm on a soapbox, but your stepson sounds like he has an axe to grind, so at least our clichés are evenly matched.
I'm sorry to have emailed to your home account but since I didn't hear from you, I wasn't sure where you were, and the only addys I have are your work and you & Deb's joint acct.
I know that when we wanted to get this lot bush-hogged in May '03, we'd asked Aaron if he knew the names & numbers of some guys we could call to do it, and if once we lined it up if he would pay the man since we were 3 hours away in Dayton, and we'd reimburse him. Aaron said not to worry, he'd hire the guy himself and pay him and we could settle up later. We were very grateful. That Mother's Day he called y'all while we were there visiting and told Deb to tell us he hadn't been able to get it done that week due to the storms. We said that was cool, understandable and that he could get it done whenever he was able, no prob.
Throughout that wet summer, I kept an eye on the weather forecasts and would email Aaron or leave a message on his answering machine occasionally when it looked like a dry spell coming up, asking him if he'd found anyone to bush hog it. He only replied once when he called back and he and Joe talked about it with the understanding that Aaron would hire it done once it was dry enough to bush-hog, and thank you very much. By September, and after leaving a few more messages, I asked Hazel if she could locate some guys who could do it. I guess she said something to Aaron because he found someone within 2 weeks, claiming he thought we'd said to just hold off on it indefinitely.
You may recall that I didn't burn up the phone lines to bother you about it, and I only involved Hazel because I figured if she didn't personally know someone who could do it, then she'd know someone in the local family who would know. I'd have been happy with names and numbers and with calling the guys myself, which was what I'd planned before Aaron volunteered.
I was also surprised last year when Aaron called you about the way Don was having the site dozed, all upset because Don was putting in a bridge for us instead of running a drive off your bridge as we'd all initially planned. I was surprised that he was telling you Joe was drinking too much to be aware of what was going on, instead of Aaron going over and asking Joe why they'd changed plans. Joe would have been happy to tell him, even though it's not as though Aaron was making the decisions or footing the bill.
And being as how Aaron informs you of everything, I don't suppose I have to tell you that he's been speaking of selling your trailer and buying a new one and tearing down the sheds you built. I assume he has your consent and I don't have to run to the phone every time he farts because I don't suppose you'd like for me to call you with gossip and try to stir up dissention between you two.
Sorry to write you a book, but when we're playing Family Bitchfest 2005, you're going to hear my side of it, too. I've known y'all for 23 years and am as much of a family member as your stepson.
Lisa