Blogging Pulpit

Mr. B and I have been trying to plan a couple of days after my next conference to see his parents and to take a couple of days vacation on a beach. Since my airfare is covered, it all makes sense. How do we go about doing this? Well, the first thought was the Keys. I have never been there and tis himself hasn't ventured out there in close to 30 years.

We researched a couple of great places on line. I decided to see what might be going on in Key West those couple of days. Guess What!! That seems to be "Pride Week". Perhaps, we would be better off going out to the keys another time. I put away the Hemingway novels I had thought about reading.

Next idea, I am a gorgeous resort for our event... why not just stay on there? Himself read the reviews.... yikes .. The reviews on Tripadvisor and epinnions were not so great. So my question is..... DO YOU BOTHER TO RATE PLACES AND EXPERIENCES THAT ARE GOOD?

I am guilty .. I don't. I only use the "Blogging pulpit" many times for ranting about horrid restaurants, experiences, bad customer service, and more.

As I was sitting here, I wanted to share a recent great experience. I have been shopping for new places since the move. A new drycleaner, groomer, nail salon, liquor store, carpet installer, you name it .. We need to find it all over again.

Kudos to the following:

• Tiffany Nails - Great people, awesome value, and clean
• Kovac Carpet - Family business, on time, great advice, and good follow up (they install the runner on the stairs tomorrow
• Ne Jaime Beverages - Have an email newsletter, invited me to a tasting, and have a charity wine tasting event to help buy mammogram machines for the New Milford Hospital.
• Village Green Drycleaners - Have a bin to recycle wire hangers and the plastic, tons of coupons and very welcoming staff

The difference may be I ask questions. I ask politely for recommendations and I tend to like to do business with locals rather than large chains if possible or I just shop the Internet. It was difficult to do this in Georgia with the multitude of strip malls and chains.. but some great local businesses are:

• The Biscuit (homemade biscuits open mornings Wednesday - Saturday - cash only)
• Rose Cottage - Home Decor and gifts
• The Big Shanty Barbershop - my dad loved that place

Okay... that is enough "Do Gooding for the Day"

Ready Set Move.... Good-bye after 9 months to the dreaded Lexington Meadows

Well the Real Estate gods along with St. Joesph were in alignment and we sold the townhouse without listing it! Our WONDERFUL broker brought us a buyer... showed it once and got a fair asking price.

We are hot in pursuit of a single family home in the area to be able to move fast to... Townhouse living isn't for us anymore. I have lived most of my life with someone else in very close proximity to me. My grandparents, dorm mates, apartment neighbors, very close neighbors, townhouse neighbors etc.

Time for our own place like back in Georgia. Maybe a lot more land. Probably still plenty of wildlife. Dates and location TBD... stay tuned

Life at Lexington Meadows has to put it bluntly - IT HAS SHORTENED MY LIFE. I HATE IT!! The community is a bunch of gossiping back stabbing new yorkers that haven't ever owned property in their miserable lives. The hate pets and children CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION!!

Promised rant....Lexington Meadow is a HORRID PLACE TO HAVE PETS - WARNING !!!

As I read back through the postings, I see a common promise and rage in my blog about the community we live in currently. I am going to give you a bit of back ground today.

1) My husband and I have lived in successful with Annie a townhouse community prior with more units and in New England.
2) Our pets = our children .... Like it or leave it ... I don't have to think your kids are cute have rights or anything more than my dogs. Under the law they are treated equally as property. Unfortunately, your human children cause me a terrific burden in taxes.
3) Prior to signing putting in a contract on the property, a -we called b- our realtor called multiple times to the property management office asking about the "pet friendliness" and ANYTHING WE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT HAVING TWO LARGE DOGS prior to purchasing the property. See we realize that many communities are geared to the smaller lap breeds... We had another property we were on the fence with and were weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each.
4) Nothing was mentioned about the issue at hand ... There was conversation about appropriately picking up after them. no problem. See my kids will never grow out of diapers.. the good thing is that they are free at the grocery store.

State of the Community:

Three Issues:

I) Pets - not able to walk, void (1 or 2) on the grass anywhere in the community but two roughly 300 sq ft areas of bark mulch that all canines in the community use. IE - dirty toliet. Okay, well here is the kicker... letter received because Seamus went out the door on a leash and urinated on the grass beside our end unit that abuts a wildlife preserve. We constantly have the following doing the same thing: Turkeys, geese, snapping turtles, bobcat, coyotes, deer, groundhogs, muskrat, ducks, blue heron etc...

Now I task you to find the "areas" in our community by walking or driving around. They are not posted and shielded by evergreens .. much like you might do to disguise a sewer pipe or an air conditioning unit etc. No one ever came over to welcome us from the Board etc.

II) Leaks - We have a window leaking that has caused internal damage and getting them to respond and fix it is like pulling teeth.

III) Garbage pickup - Got a letter because I didn't put the recyclables in a "blue" bag the first week we moved in and "tie up the cardboard" - BTW - Nothing in the rules about this regulations and on my call to the err "Mis - Management" company they couldn't find anything to tell me how to do it either. So I now truck it to the Town Transfer station twice a month..

So this is what we are living with here. The Space and lay out, location, and our direct neighbor are terrific. I have become somewhat friendly with the board president. I met her in the park with her chocolate lab. Is it getting better, perhaps.... However, the wound refreshes itself every morning at o'dark hundred when Annie and Seamus have to go out. I have to get them into the car and bring them to the park. Fine know.. wait until the winter... At least, I hear they plow the path.