Please Forgive Me

I got a letter from the city Planning office today. Apparently we have a volunteer shrub that grew too close to the road and too high. I had not noticed, but once it was brought to my attention I totally agreed that it and it’s neighboring shrubs all need to come down. Russ is cutting off the tops now to bring it into compliance of being over 2 and a half feet tall. Then I want to have them totally pulled out.

The letter started out with a sentence that “someone had complained” and the city inspector came to our house and measured and photographed the offending shrub and sent us a letter. That was a lot of work.

I wish the complainer had just put a note in our mailbox and said, “that shrub is blocking the view of the street.” Or anything else that made me aware it was a problem. I agree it’s a problem. I just did not pay attention to it. The complainer did not have to sign the note. Just be neighborly and let me know.

We are not getting fined, as long as we fix it in 30 days. I am happy this letter came while we were home so that we did not miss the 30 window.

I am sorry we did not pay attention to the shrub. Quite frankly most things have not been growing due to the drought, so anything that was growing I was just keeping. Of course we have gotten a lot of rain recently so things are growing again, but this complaint had to be made prior to that.

I will be calling my landscaper and let him know to keep an eye out for these kinds of problems. I am sorry the complainer did not feel like they could bring this to my attention. I hate that the city had to do it.

Also you can clearly see we have not watered our grass as there is a watering ban. I am not complaining about my neighbors whose automatic sprinklers are still running every night.

The city did come on trash day, which I can tell from their photo. I wish they had noticed we have the same trash can we inherited from the previous owners 34 years ago. It is cracked in three places with foot long holes, but we have kept it and never asked for a new one. As long as it can contain the one bag of trash we create a week I see no need to bother to ask for a new one. Does that count for anything? No.