I was talking with a nearby surveyor last night and he was asking me if I would be willing to help out a couple of folks if he sent them my way and I of course told him, "Why Soitently, yuk yuk yuk"
Anyway he warned me about one of the neighbors being a difficult and crazy woman and after describing her I was reminded of one I had a long time ago in which the woman was very demanding and difficult and was badgering me. I had finally had enough and while she had went in her house I decided to pack up and find less bothersome clients. She must have spied me because she came flying out of her house badgering me and demanding this and that so I told her she owes me nothing and I'm leaving because I don't have to deal with this kind of treatment. Well by golly she broke down bawling, giant emotional breakdown right there and it was the weirdest most surreal thing I have ever witnessed. I tried to get away and continued putting my stuff in the truck so I could make a hasty exit but the bawling continued for probably 20 minutes unabated and finally she began to get control of her emotions and begged me to finish and apologized profusely. I did so under the condition that I never hear from her after the job is finished and to date I have not but I have seen her in the grocery store a time or two and she hung her head down as we got close.
I have been chased by bulls and dogs. I've been confronted by angry neighbors brandishing guns. I've had shots fired in the trees over my head. I've been threatened in all manner of physical harm but to have someone go into a complete breakdown in front of me was the most uncomfortable experience I have ever had. I kept thinking that at any moment she was gonna pull out a steak knife and go to slicing and dicing.
There was something going on in her life and it was not survey related but it was really hurting her and I was witness to the consequences.
I experienced most of that "crazy old lady" experience in the mid 1970s.
I told her that if she would go and stay in her house until I finished, I would do so.
She did, I finished, she came out and wanted me to set a 6ft long 2in pipe with 4ft left out of ground in the center of a common entrance to circular drives.
I said no and left.
The boss was not happy, she had a long talk with him as we drove back.
He loaded up with a helper and headed out to drive the pipe in place.
Next morning he said he did not drive the pipe in the asphalt drive either and could not understand how I had stayed and finished the job without choking the crazy out of her.
We agreed to screen little old ladies for crazy signs in the future.
Just A. Surveyor, post: 455884, member: 12855 wrote: ...There was something going on in her life and it was not survey related but it was really hurting her and I was witness to the consequences.
We seem to get 'em all at times.
A few years ago I endured a similar "neighbor" to a vacant piece of property I was working on. This woman ranted and raved from the time I pulled up on the job until I left. I think I told her three times to "call the police" since she thought I was so out of line by parking on my client's property and working there.
After about an hour I had finally had enough. Mid-sentence I told her to "STFU" and reminded her I wasn't her husband and didn't enjoy be talked to in such a manner.
She told me "My husband left me a few years ago" after my 'husband' remark.
I laughed and told her "I can definitely see why!"
She lost all composure and started crying and wailing and puking telling me about her life. She went back inside when I finally told her I was a surveyor and not a preacher.
I kinda felt bad for bringing her to tears...but a man can only take so much.
paden cash, post: 455898, member: 20 wrote: We seem to get 'em all at times.
A few years ago I endured a similar "neighbor" to a vacant piece of property I was working on. This woman ranted and raved from the time I pulled up on the job until I left. I think I told her three times to "call the police" since she thought I was so out of line by parking on my client's property and working there.
After about an hour I had finally had enough. Mid-sentence I told her to "STFU" and reminded her I wasn't her husband and didn't enjoy be talked to in such a manner.
She told me "My husband left me a few years ago" after my 'husband' remark.
I laughed and told her "I can definitely see why!"
She lost all composure and started crying and wailing and puking telling me about her life. She went back inside when I finally told her I was a surveyor and not a preacher.
I kinda felt bad for bringing her to tears...but a man can only take so much.
Oh, you met my ex-wife.
had one a few years ago who must have watched a bunch of HLN flipper-type shows while her ex was off making his escape plans.
she'd "stolen" a lot at the courthouse "for pennies"- out at the lake, and bygawd was gonna make a fortune. and it was an incredible lot- bout an acre and a half, the entirety of a small peninsula that had shoreline for about 92% of its boundary. met her out there and she gave off concurrent vibes of being a little... speedy... and a little randy. was waiting to be offered alternative forms of payment.
well, turns out i was about the 8th surveyor she'd dealt with, and she kept talking about suing the previous 7. turns out they'd all told her that she only had about 600 square feet of usable land out of her acre and a half- that the marina floating out at the end of the lot had an easement over all the rest for the parking lot that sat on top of it.
to be clear- the reality of the situation became evident to me almost immediately, but her demeanor was making it difficult to make a clean exit. at any point i thought i might either be fighting off a naked woman in a gravel parking lot, or else trying to dodge the rounds coming out of whatever little peashooter she might pull out of her purse.
after telling her, multiple times, that all those t-posts some previous surveyor had set looked to be pretty well in the right place, and that no she probably shouldn't take the tack of having a few large boulders delivered to block the entrance of the working marina, i agreed to "go back to the office and do some more digging to see what we might figure out" (read: gtfo of there). then her brand new beemer wouldn't start. so yeah, she asked for a ride back to her house, just a couple miles up the road.
"begrudging" doesn't even begin to describe it. whole ride back i'm both explaining to her to hold off on writing me any kind of check for services rendered or to-be-rendered (i wanted zero evidence on paper of me even having spoken with her), allthewhile waiting for that gun or that wandering hand to make an appearance. get to her house, she starts in on some kabuki-theater-type expression of gratitude and desperation, and begs me to call her as soon as i have the first breakthrough on what's gonna fix this for her (oh, turns out she paid cash- borrowed from her formerly long-estranged brother- for her 600 square foot lakeside lot. to the tune of 6 figures...). i politely-as-i-can go through the motions, just anxiously waiting for her to exit the truck. she opens the door, stands up and exits the truck, and couple-ounce bag of weed falls out on the seat.
never talked to her again. she called a few times, then i'm guessing either chased somebody else down or else decided to actually go after whichever unlucky guy preceded me out there.
Two questions:
- Hot or not?
- Good quality, or mostly seeds and stems?
James Fleming, post: 455943, member: 136 wrote: Two questions:
- Hot or not?
- Good quality, or mostly seeds and stems?
1. clearly, at one time, yes. possibly even currently. however, if you recall the conversation in pulp fiction about dogs and pigs and personality...
2. looked pretty good, but it was double-bagged so who knows? (i neither had the need for any nor the curiosity to keep her around for a second longer.)
I had a very strange experience with a client once that involved so many things that weren't right I can't even begin to document them all. Suffice to say that my crew chief returned from the job and told me the story and said that he had fired the client and would never go back. I phoned the client and after several minutes of insanity I fired him again.
Later that afternoon his wife came in to the office and apologized profusely for his behavior. She said that he had been having difficulty with reality and human interactions after starting some new drug. Apparently the realization that his fence appeared to be a few feet over onto the hated neighbor's property had sent him over the edge. She said she was taking him to the doctor when she was finished talking to me. She attempted to pay me, but I refused and wished her well.
As Just A. Surveyor mentioned, there can indeed be many things going on in peoples lives that affect the way they act (just look at me!)
[USER=12855]@Just A. Surveyor[/USER]
Yea, there??s always a few of them out there. In production housing surveying we put 40?? wide houses on 50?? wide lots with 5?? setbacks. After the sprinkler dudes and ??landscapers? get finished nobody knows where their property line really is, they just assume where it is and that??s when all hell breaks loose.
Needless to say the builder*** (my client) calls me as well as the disputing homeowners and wants an explanation/resolution to this misfortune.
Believe it or not I enjoy meeting with the ??hostile? neighbors. It??s easy, just listen to Him/Her/Them rant and rave for as long as it takes. They will usually shut up after a few minutes. Then we get down to business (after complimenting the disputing parties about their house, yard, cars, or whatever). By then the crew found and checked all our corners and we set up the gun on the disputed line. The participants are invited to look through the magic TS and view who has what and where with respect to bushes, sprinklers, etc.
Most of the time the problem is resolved then and there, however sometimes it isn??t and I am threatened with a law suit, verbal lashing with the best swear words I??d ever heard, and once a gun. On those occasions I respectfully bid whomever adieu and leave.
Patience and courtesy works best for me. (Most of the time :))
***No matter if the house burns down, springs a leak, or is struck by lightning, the Surveyor gets the blame.
FL/GA PLS., post: 455975, member: 379 wrote: Yea, there??s always a few of them out there. In production housing surveying we put 40?? wide houses on 50?? wide lots with 5?? setbacks. After the sprinkler dudes and ??landscapers? get finished nobody knows where their property line really is, they just assume where it is and that??s when all hell breaks loose.
Sounds like nothing short of a miracle that some of these folks aren't hacking each other to pieces if they can't step more than 5' away from their house without trespassing onto their neighbors lot.
Man o man, do I have it made.
The mass shooting in Tehama County on Tuesday started with a neighbor dispute. After the neighbor was disposed of the shooter took on the entire town. People are nuts.
Completed a survey on a residential lot. Turns out the neighbor's house has cement along their house to keep the water away from the foundation. The cement extends into the property we surveyed. We set pins and also drilled two 1/4" holes in the concrete and paint dots on the holes to show the property line. The neighbor purchased the house where the prior owner and the prior owner of the property we surveyed had made an agreement for the cement. Well the neighbor is upset and comes to our office complaining and going to sue the neighbor for drilling his concrete with paint and also believes our survey is wrong. We state that we drilled the holes and put the paint and they were still upset. We also stated we are confident that our survey is correct. Well the neighbor's wife is a paralegal and knows we are wrong and she is out to prove it. Several visits to the site and still not resolved with lots of issues and the cops involved. Last thing was her coming by our office stating that they are suing and we are being named in the lawsuit. I told her that was fine and we be ready. I don't think she expected that response since we haven't heard a word since.
Williwaw, post: 455979, member: 7066 wrote: Sounds like nothing short of a miracle that some of these folks aren't hacking each other to pieces if they can't step more than 5' away from their house without trespassing onto their neighbors lot.
The 50' wide lots are "Luxury" homesites, the 60' wide lots are "Estate" homesites. Plus if the homesite happens to back up to a retention pond (wet or dry) it's a "Luxury Waterfront Estate". 😉
FL/GA PLS., post: 455988, member: 379 wrote: The 50' wide lots are "Luxury" homesites, the 60' wide lots are "Estate" homesites. Plus if the homesite happens to back up to a retention pond (wet or dry) it's a "Luxury Waterfront Estate". 😉
I had a penny-pincher builder client that refused to pay for re-staking the lot pins after all the construction. One project he owned (I think) 7 lots in a row, all on the same side of the street and all the lots were 65' in width.
His "hot-shot" foundation crew laid them all out and poured them within a couple of days. It appeared as though they had merely measured over 10' then started the 'next' foundation. It turned into a mess. I don't think a one of them wasn't encroaching on a lot line and the last foundation was not only hanging over the B.L.L., it was a couple of feet off the lot entirely into the R/W.
He had to pay us to re-plat the entire 7 lots and he had to eat that last foundation (it went away in the back of a 10 wheeler). It was about six months before he could get those shacks on the market.
I love it when cheapskates get what's coming to them. 😉
[USER=20]@paden cash[/USER]
I've worked once or twice for "wannabe developers". Learned real quick to never work for those types again.
