Randomness XVII: The Madness of the Quorum

[Zink]

15 minutes ago, Thoramel said:

 

Just my opinion, but that's a pretty solid piece of forward thinking right there. My grandpa got into it with some neighbors over 40 years ago concerning a property line on our farm that has been established for generations. It ended up in a legal battle that my grandpa won. The neighbors kids, and now grand kids, have tried suing us 3 more times in the last few decades over the same issue. My mom twice and now me once. Doesn't even matter that they never win, they just keep finding sleazier and sleazier lawyers who make outlandish promises about cases they'll never win and then sending them a giant bill. Folks hold grudges and unfortunately can pass those down to their kids. 

 

That's my thinking too. I could write a book already on what has gone on with my dad. Other than nobody died and there was very little sex involved it would make an interesting soap opera. This is all about land and an estate that my dad and uncle inherited. They had an aunt that had no children but had a nice farm which she wanted to leave to my dad because he'd helped her all his life. He didn't want it all and convinced her to include his brother in the will. She passed away in 2003 and they divided things up the way they wanted with my dad taking a larger portion of the land and my uncle taking all of the money and any equipment that was useful. His kids were pissed off right off the bat because my uncle didn't take what they wanted from my dad. Just before everything was settled my uncle started to get dementia. The kids (we're talking 40+ year olds then, 55-65 now) used that to start a court case again my dad. 10 years of stupidity we had to reply to ensued. Things like H (my dad) stole a pair of his mother's mocassins that B (my ) uncle should have gotten 15 years ago. It eventually settled out of court with us giving them a little bit more than they should have gotten because our nerves were shot and tired of all our money going to the lawyer. I've heard them complaining that my dad cost them all the money they inherited and I'll be paying my dad's debts for the next 15-20 years.

 

Now both my dad and his brother have passed away and the cousins are all still mad at me and my mom just because we have the land. 1 brother borders me on the south but there's a 1/2 section of other people's land between us so no real contact. He did call me this spring (first time we'd talked in nearly 10 years) to get mad at me because I sold my dad's scrap iron pile to help clean up the farm. Turns out he'd been dreaming of adding it to his 15 acres (literally. He loves to buy wrecked equipment and drag it home even though he never touches any of it once he does) of crap for years. Another brother shares a couple miles of fence along my east side. He refuses to put any time or money into our fence, has cut the wires to let his cattle graze my land and done other annoying things. I solved this by renting most of it to a couple neighbours. He doesn't pull his BS with them. Which leaves us with the last brother.

 

The estate I mentioned borders my land (my dad's original farm) on the north. There's 6 quarters of flat farmland on top that borders me and I farm for my mom. Then there's a ridge of 600 foot high hills dropping into a narrow valley consisting of another 5 quarters of pasture and the aunt's yard. My dad lived there for years after my wife immigrated to Canada. Because of the terrain my uncle took the land north of the yard as his share. Was the most logical division so we didn't have to fence up and down those 600 foot hills through heavy trees. There's only a mile of fence between my mom and the guy giving me all the trouble and then all of their land borders other neighbours. We've never been able to get him to agree on where the fence lines are supposed to be. He's torn out dad's fences and won't repair what's still there. Never fenced off 1/2 a mile that wasn't divided while my aunt was alive. Tried to buy the land from my mom for less than they made my dad pay for it in the estate and threatened her when she said she wasn't interested. Tried to sue me when somebody left the gate open and let my cows out on his land. Tried to organise a group of neighbours to steal and sell all my cows because a handful were on his land. None of the neighbours like him enough to risk jail time for that one. 

 

So after all that we've had a couple years of peace and quiet. I didn't graze the land next to him so my cows were staying out of trouble. We've got a lot of elk and moose here so fences need fixing regularly in that valley. With any other person it's not a problem. This year he decides that because I am such an @hole for my cows getting out 2 years ago he wants compensation. He turns a bunch of his into the quarter that borders him which also contains the yard where my dad lived before he went into a nursing home. They've gotten into a shop and crapped and trampled everything in it and rubbed a hole in a wooden granary and ate some feed triticale (wish it had bloated the cows). I gave him a few days to remove them because that's what I do with everyone. I have never had a fight with anyone except these brothers over fences or cattle. He didn't bother to do anything so Monday I rounded up all his cattle that were on my mom's land and called his wife. I told her they have a day to remove their animals before the fines start and then they can keep them off out land or they will be charged again. She squealed for awhile about how my cattle are always on their land and they never fined me. Had a short argument about whether or not my cattle have been anywhere near their land for the last 2 years which she feels she won with the convincing statement of "well our neighbours said your cows were there." She doesn't know if they were or not because she's a school teacher and never helps my cousin do anything on the farm and this land is 10 miles from her house. If it wasn't so hair tearingly frustrating talking to the 2 of them together it's amusing watching my cousin try to cover his lies in front of her. She's an ornery B@#$% and he's a terrible liar. It doesn't stop him from trying but he hates it when she knows the truth. He's set me up as an awful boogey man to her and his kids.

 

So she eventually gets my cousin on the phone. He whines about how they never did anything to me (technically true but not for lack of trying. Nobody would back him up in his complaints against me and he had no evidence so dropped things). I explain how all I have to do is make one phone call and he is on the hook for thousands of dollars of damages and fines because he deliberately did this. My cows getting out was an accident but I've got a ton of evidence that what he did was planned plus trespassing and vandalism on top for him and his daughter that helped. Said it's his last chance to act like a normal person and actually fix something before we end up in court again over avoidable stupidity.

 

So Friday we're (hopefully) building a 1/2 mile of fence along the north edge of mom's yard. Still need to repair a half mile along the west edge but he won't agree where that fence should be. Because of that I also have to go to the RM (like a county) office and request a survey and some other help to decide where the west fence should be. He wants me to rip out the existing fence there because it's "wrong". One time when I was talking with him about this he refused because, "a surveyor would make the line in your favour!"  If it's in my favour it's because that's where the stinking line is supposed to be!!!!! That's why we have impartial legal surveyors!!! I told him stick it where he wants but I'm not tearing down a decent fence to move it 10 feet. He was too lazy to do it himself plus new fence doesn't come cheap. As far as I know it's where it should be. Whatever his feelings I guess it's time to know for sure where the boundary is.

 

Did I say I could write a book? Sorry this got a little long winded but it helps a bit to type it out. And I keep telling people one dumb thing about all this is it's not my land, never has been and never will be. And yet I've been working there for 30 years and putting up with this idiocy regularly. First because my dad wanted to help his aunt, then because my dad owned it and now because my mom's 75 and starting to suffer dementia along with some other health issues. Don't need this stress. Don't want the land. But I'm stuck with a stupid sense of responsibility that I need to finish this even though like @Thoramel said it could just keep going on and on because of how our legal system works. That land belonged to my great grandfather and is some of the prettiest I've seen although all the buildings are old and in terrible shape. All I ever wanted was that whoever owned it wasn't an @hole so we could visit from time to time. Plus it's right next to me so if one of my cousins had it I'd have even more trouble with bad neighbours. I really hope that when mom's gone my sister gets that piece because my brother has shown cousin like tendencies and I sure don't want it.

 

Only had two pics of the land in question saved and one of them seems to have been corrupted somehow. It shows you what I mean when I talk about the hills here. Not all are that size but it's a nice example. If my mom had agreed to one of my cousins offers I would have had to build a 1/4 mile of fence over several hills like that and a 1/4 mile of thick bush.

[Evilhalfling]

The Internet was out 2am - 8pm  yesterday. 

first they said "Planned outage"  but rumors say "Road Construction Accident"   affected about 3000 homes. 

so I managed to finish my fishing diorama. Kids also got a bunch of Arting done.   

 

Online school was a bit of a miss though.  The schools are open (as of this week) for hybrid or full time, but since the kids and I can stay home, and do remote, we do. 

 

8pm actually allowed me to catch most of my Online D&D game, so that rocked.

 

 

 

[LittleBluberry]

1 hour ago, TripleH said:

 

According to NOVA, cat meows affect people the same way as a baby crying. Which makes researchers ask if cats learned to meow just to get stuff from people.... 

[Marvin]

Hard to believe that I didn't have Internet access in my home until well after I was a grown man, and even then there was near a decade of dial-up.

 

How did I survive?

Edited September 30, 2020 by Marvin
inexplicable attachments

[Glitterwolf]

16 minutes ago, LittleBluberry said:

 

According to NOVA, cat meows affect people the same way as a baby crying. Which makes researchers ask if cats learned to meow just to get stuff from people.... 

 

Dogs also evolved to manipulate us

 

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/06/dogs-eyebrows-humans-communication/

[Zink]

5 minutes ago, Marvin said:

Hard to believe that I didn't have Internet access in my home until well after I was a grown man, and even then there was near a decade of dial-up.

 

How did I survive?

 

I was one of the early subscribers to internet here. It was '96 I think and I was 22. Had dial up until about 10 years ago and then a mifi using the cellular system for about 5 years before moving to town. I still keep the mifi at the farm for $10 a month plus extra for how much data I use. Using my old computer and that slow of internet is torture compared to in town and our town internet is slow compared to the city. Losing service is a major disaster in our house now because all of us are on the internet, streaming videos/music or playing games most of the time we're in the house. Even my 81 year old mother in law learned how to use youtube on the TV in the basement and sits and watches russian programs half the day.

[Jasper_the_2nd]

3 hours ago, Cygnwulf said:

<vent>

So I just got into an argument with one of our corporate IT guys who was pestering me wanting to know why I hadn't completed a mandantory training course. 

Well, let me tell you why. I deleted the email telling me that I had a required training course.  

Why did I delete it?  Oh, well, since you bought my company two and a half years ago, we've been taught that anything coming from corporate that requires action will be sent as an alert through our HR portal and only a reminder sent to our email that we need to check the portal. 

They have spent a ton of effort to train employees that they should never ever ever ever ever ever click on a link that comes by email that we weren't expecting.  They send out almost WEEKLY phishing emails as a test to make sure employees are staying vigilant and chastise you if you even mistakenly click on the link and then immediately close the browser window.

 

But apparently we should trust emails that say that they came from our corporate IT department.

</vent>

Sounds way too much like my work.
And also reminds me I have two annual security training sessions I'm supposed to do......hope I didn't delete the emails 

[Werkrobotwerk]

8 hours ago, aku-chan said:

 

Thanks for that, it clears up a lot of my confusion!

 

Still doesn't explain why planets keep joining the Separatists, despite them being very obvious scumbags. I guess their PR department is just that good at covering up the slave labour camps.

everyone in star wars are horrible slavers.

I mean anikin gets bought out of slavery on a republic world, and that's just counting humanoid slaves without getting into the grey area of obviously sapient machines being kept as slaves EVERYWHERE.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Werkrobotwerk
I completely forgot the clone army! they're humans constructed to be a disposable army. that's even worse than the regular slavery...

[Kuroneko]

1 hour ago, LittleBluberry said:

 

According to NOVA, cat meows affect people the same way as a baby crying. Which makes researchers ask if cats learned to meow just to get stuff from people.... 

 

Even better, each cat individually figures out which particular noises trigger the correct response from different humans. I'm far more sensitive to high pitched noises than my housemate, so our feline overlords use a different array of meeps and chirps depending on who they're trying to influence 

[TaleSpinner]

12 hours ago, buglips*the*goblin said:

 

So....Guindy make that list for you?

[FaekiasDracon]

8 minutes ago, TaleSpinner said:

 

So....Guindy make that list for you?

She's marinating him?

[Gadgetman!]

Anyone want to swap wednesday with me?   

 

At work I kept getting tickets, for users that hurried to leave the office and take their PC with them... 

And the laptop that I need to return to DELL since there's a short in it? instead of the promised email with printable address labels, I got an indian-sounding lady who wanted to confirm my address so that they could ship me a box to retrn the PC I had already packaged securely in original packaging...    It's just a $2000 high-end laptop and I want to get it fixed so that I can hand it out to a user...   

Checked tracking for a muffler I ordered... The post lists it as 'notified about it, but has not yet arrived in the system' It was ordered on Sunday. 

 

Guess what broke on my way home. 

It's NOT easy reach under a car parked on level ground and strap a muffler in place with cargo straps. And the long pipe with the middle box was even worse...   

And intead of watching Forged in Fire, I spnt the evening on my back under the jacked up car using metal strips, bailing wire and aluminium tape to bodge a repair that I really hope holds a few days...   

 

Of course,  my electric bicycle broke a couple of days ago(terminal rot in the bearings in the steering), and there's a bus strike going on, so my car is the only way for me to get to work. 

The folding bike is NOT an option as I'm fat and it's 30Km one way, with a mountain pass and a lot of other hills on the way. 

Also, the exercise room in the basement of the office, with wardrobe and showers is closed for the time being.

 

Did I mention that I've promised to visit my sister this weekend to help her swap out a couple of rotten boards on a wall of her  house, and maybe even get her stereo working...   

 

Now I just wonder how to keep this secret for my family.  Because if they learn about this they'll probably lend me the old Suzuki Baleno they've got parked at my parent's place. I'm 6'2" on a good day. I have to fold up double and nearly dislocate my knees to get into the driver's seat. 

 

 

[Cygnwulf]

15 minutes ago, Gadgetman! said:

Now I just wonder how to keep this secret for my family.  Because if they learn about this they'll probably lend me the old Suzuki Baleno they've got parked at my parent's place. I'm 6'2" on a good day. I have to fold up double and nearly dislocate my knees to get into the driver's seat. 

I think I can picture this.  for about the first decade of my life my dad (who was 6'5") drove a 60s model volkswagen franken-beetle... (a '66 chassis with a '67 transmission and a '68 body)

[Froggy the Great]

Two of the minis in my current Five Leagues campaign just informed me very clearly that they are now A Thing and I can't use them for town actions this turn, and I'm not allowed to roll any dice to find out what they're doing. 

[Gadgetman!]

47 minutes ago, Cygnwulf said:

I think I can picture this.  for about the first decade of my life my dad (who was 6'5") drove a 60s model volkswagen franken-beetle... (a '66 chassis with a '67 transmission and a '68 body)

 

The beetle has a height of 5'2", the Baleno(Cultus something in the USA) is about 4'5" high.

 

My car is a Citroën Berlingo, which is 5'8" or so high. 

I have more headroom than even the 2CV had, and Andre Citroën demanded that it should be high enough for a man with a top hat to be able to sit in without having to remove his hat.