Hello to all my readers and my most sincere apologies for the lengthy delay in my follow up post. Life in the Delacroix household has been very hectic of late.
This post begins in 2018 and will be a long read.
The reason I purchased this home in particular is that it had 9/10 “must haves” I was looking for: 4 bedrooms, hardwood floors, tile, 2250 sq. ft., attached garage, in ground heated pool, but most importantly, a South facing backyard with little to no shade. WINNER for this sun worshiper! As a pool owner, you are responsible for the proper maintenance of a fence so you don’t get sued.
In August 2018, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and told I would need to undergo immediate surgery – it happened so quickly it made my head spin. At the time, the ORs were all closed as a cost saving measure but from my colonoscopy to my surgery, 10 days elapsed. I returned home to recover on September 6. The following fall we had a series of severe thunderstorms and though I knew our wood fence was in bad shape, I didn’t realize just how bad it was until the South East corner of the fence completely folded down on itself. The neighbour, let’s call him Donald, propped up the back fence with a post after the storm.
I was using cannabis heavily to recover from my surgery. The doctors had sent me home with opioids, but I refused to use any of that opting for Tylenol #3 to help me sleep and a cannabis cocktail thru the day. Having a right hemicolectomy is rather unpleasant and one of the most painful surgeries you can have because they cut through all your nerves and in my particular case, the 25 cm or so tumor caused me to lose two feet of my colon. I returned to work healed, and 35 pounds lighter, in November 2018.
By May of 2019, I was in a full mental breakdown and had just been diagnosed with PTSD after having received the devastating news that I had genetic cancer, I was MSH6 Lynch positive and I would require more surgeries to prevent further cancers. In addition, I would have to be monitored yearly by several specialists because all my internal organs are susceptible to developing tumors. What caused my breakdown, in my opinion was the knowledge that I had doomed my children to certain death. I was fine knowing I’d die of cancer some day, but I was unable to deal with/process/handle the thought that my wrongness would kill them too.
I had been in touch with my landscaper to get a quote on the fence, but so late in the season, I wasn’t able to get anyone to come by. Not to mention, I was pretty exhausted mentally, my surgery, subsequent diagnosis, and PTSD had taken a toll on my emotional well-being. Believing you are going to die will do that. I decided to defer until 2020.
I was deeply depressed and in a pit of total despair for several months. I had severe insomnia, didn’t like to speak, be touched, leave my house, or even go outside. I didn’t go outside during the day. As a sun worshipper and someone who loves her pool, this was highly concerning to my family. Instead, I would sit on my front porch late at night and well into the wee hours smoking cannabis and admiring my garden by soft torch light. I was at peace between 11:00 pm and 3:00 am because not many people were out and about meaning I didn’t have to communicate with anyone… just sit and smoke my joints one after another.
Eventually, I remembered about the fence. I sent Donald’s wife, Carine an email stating that I knew the fence needed replacing and that I’d be contacting service providers for quotes and would get back to them (likely) in early spring. I did not receive a response and completely forgot I had sent the email. I reached out to several companies in 2020 but was unsuccessful at finding anyone to come and provide me with any quotes. It seemed I had to reach out to people in the winter to schedule any work for spring. In the meantime, my husband added boards on the fence to ensure it did not fall over. He drilled wooden 5-foot length boards across the top and bottom of the wood fence for additional support.
In June 2019, Donald updated the light fixtures on the front of his house to super bright LEDs that no longer had a back or side cover making my nightly porch vigils impossible. In addition, Donald added a motion activated flood light over the side door of his garage. My porch and my little sitting perch are right between both lights. A few days after the lights were changed to ultra bright LEDs and the flood light set to a sensitive motion setting, I went over to Carine’s house with several bags of clothes my son had outgrown. While we were chatting, I mentioned that the fence needed either repair or replacement and I told her I would follow up and send her an email. She said “Sure! No problem! While I was at it, I also inquired about the possibility of perhaps changing the light back to what it was, blacking out the side and back (please) because it hits me square in the face while sitting in my living room, thus causing migraines. I also asked if they could turn down the sensitivity on the motion sensor. Carine was very amenable and stated she’d ask Donald to take care of it. Satisfied, I went home.
A week later, the lights were now even brighter and stayed on until 4 a.m. I had taken photos because in the middle of the night, coming down for water, I definitely didn’t need any of my interior lights on – in fact, I thought I left a light on downstairs! Nope, it’s their front porch light and sitting on my sofa, I could easily read the titles on my vinyl records a few feet away. The brightness of the light would trigger daily migraines and in the morning, I asked Mr. GQ to please follow up with Donald and ask when the light bulb would be changed for a less “car headlight blinding” colour. Mr. GQ didn’t really want to go speak to Donald, but I was seriously not in any condition to be speaking to many people without crying, or checking out, or shaking, or, or, or…. I was terrified of everyone, and intimidated by Donald because of his size, the fact he always had his face in my backyard, peering over the fence when I had friends over, was alone in the yard, or what finally sent me over the edge, when he would be ogling my 12-year-old daughter while sunbathing. Even my sister notice while we were hanging out poolside with our kids just having wine, chatting, enjoying the day when all of a sudden Roxanne turned to me and said “Who the fuck, and why is that guy always looking over here?” I rolled my eyes and said, “He’s the creepy neighbour I told you about, that’s why I want a wooden privacy fence now, all the way up to the maximum height.”
When Mr. GQ came back inside from speaking to Donald that morning, not all was well, Mr. GQ looked livid. I already felt guilty for asking him to speak to Donald about the lights on my behalf and now Mr. GQ was super pissed about it. Donald flat out told him the lights would be staying because we “smoke weed.” What? In April 2018, cannabis was legalized in Canada and I had a prescription to grow my own supply. In 2018, I had grown 4 plants and at the time, my prescription was for 3 oz a month. During my recovery from surgery, my prescription was increased to 8 oz a month which was financially unfeasible and the reason I applied for a production license thru Health Canada. Once my PTSD diagnosis came in and I required more cannabis, my prescription was increased again to 15 oz a month. In 2018, I was paying $300 for 1.5 oz of medical cannabis – no way was I affording my full prescription.
Donald, Carine, Karen and Kyle were all fully aware of my diagnoses, I mean I’d been living here since July 2007 after all and I’m pretty open about my mental health. The fact that Donald was livid that we smoked weed was … kinda shocking to be honest. For one, Donald and Carine rarely picked up their dogs' shit and that smelled very ripe come spring. Both of the homes I’m sandwiched between are pretty hard core tobacco houses, so… what’s the difference? I hate the smell of tobacco, my kids have never been able to open their windows since we moved in to this house. The Karen and Kyle house was the party house and they’d entertain in their yard every weekend until super late… not a big deal, but Mr. GQ was on shift work at the time, so again… no one in my house could open a window. and I never complained… I figured they put up with me I put up with them, right? Wrong. I’d also never lived in a residential area because I was raised in a business, in the commercial area of town.
After the light incident I was even more terrified of my own shadow because now I needed to replace a fence and I didn’t want to fight with the neighbours. I just wanted my privacy and my right to enjoy my backyard, but the enjoyment of my own property was quickly ruined by 817¢π 7717$ Donald. I call him that now because of Covid. He gained like 40 pounds and in my own personal opinion, he should definitely consider a man-bra.
I’d just started seeing my psychiatrist in June of 2019 and he was adjusting my medication for severe depression and severe anxiety. Apparently, the constant shaking and upper lip sweat was due to constant panic attacks. I had no idea… it just felt like the inside of my body wouldn’t stop vibrating. After a month, I found myself on 30 mg of Cipralex, a dose 50% higher than clinically recommended and advised to consider adding Abilify to that cocktail. When I asked my psychiatrist about the side effects, number 1 was weight gain and my response became a hard no. I already have issues with my weight, and self esteem and he was on crack cocaine if he thought I was gonna gain back the now 45 pounds I’d worked hard to lose… not really, I just stopped eating after my colon cancer surgery.
At first, I stopped eating because everything gave me gas, everything hurt because there were just too many ingredients in a typical meal so I stuck to one egg, a slice of toast and an avocado for weeks. Then I got used to “Intermittent Fasting” as I call it. Works for me. Yes, I still eat that way… only some days I don’t eat at all and I’m 4 years out of my surgery. I’m terrified of gaining weight and waking up one day looking like HER. I’ll never ever let that happen. I’d kill myself first, so intermittent fasting it is.
While I was trying to unpack my life and figuring how I even found myself in the position I was in, I still had to deal with daily life … and my main panic of the moment was a fence. We had 5 broken posts, it was the middle of a Covid pandemic and now I couldn’t get anyone to come and attend my property or even give me a quote. I had to wait another year. I was seriously stressed out.
In October 2019, I decided to send them an email so I’d have a written record that I did try to deal with the fence. I never received a response to that email. When it seemed that relations were less tense, I mentioned I’d sent it to her. She said it was an email she didn’t use all that often, curious, I thought since it’s the email she uses for Donald’s business. [It’s also the EXACT same email they used to correspond when they finally hired a paralegal!].
Copy of the email I sent in October 2019:
.png)
The contractor I ended up selecting came in $1,000 under all the others and he could fit me in at the beginning of the season, which came as a great relief to me. I was hoping for the fence to be installed before the pool opening so I could then plan my 15 cannabis plant locations. As stipulated in the Town’s By-Laws, I sent the quotes by registered mail to both Donald and Carine, along with the back neighbour. The original tentative date for the fence was to be early June. Three weeks later, in March the contractor returned my deposit and I found my address blackballed by all the contractors in my Region. I soon found out why… Carine and Donald had called my contractor on numerous occasions and threatened his business and livelihood if they touched the fence. They said they would take them to court, sue for trespassing, and destroy their family business. I had left the contact information on the quote I included because it never occurred to me that I lived next to fucking assholes.
The contractor told me he had been harassed by my neighbours and in the 3-page response letter, she details how many times she contacted them:
Once I
figured out I had been blackballed, I called the Town and complained about the
assholes’ actions next door. Yes, I was legitimately pissed off. I didn’t even
want them to pay for the whole fence, in fact, I just wanted to open a line of
dialogue. The complete opposite happened. In response to a QUOTE FOR A FENCE, I
received a 3-page letter outlining what dicks they are. Included are pertinent
and hilarious screenshots in this post so you can all read it too. For the record,
I have weeping tile in my yard which was installed when the pool went in
because our subdivision was built on a swamp. The two f&$#5@!& next door haven’t
figured out it’s a swamp yet… I’m not entirely sure why not… but probably
because they're not playing with a full deck.
For the record, whenever the fence needed repair, Donald disappeared and we ended up doing the work ourselves.
First quote and see attached photos of the fence leaning significantly thanks to a broken post and one of the boards holding my fence together:
Because this is my first ever home I’ve owned I was unsure how to proceed and didn’t want to get charged with trespassing. The Town was very unhelpful saying I needed a proper fence but how that happened was a ‘civil’ matter. I hired a paralegal to ask her advice and followed her guidance. Long story short, it cost me $3K in legal fees and I now have a beautiful full vinyl privacy fence, with a 25 year warranty, installed by a wonderful company located in the West-end of the Big City. Best of all, I hired Russians…. cuz momma didn’t raise no fool. I was done with their bullshit and done with them ignoring every single letter sent by my paralegal in an attempt to come to an agreement. I offered 2 options: a) please black out the back and side of the front house light and reduce the motion sensor sensitivity and I’ll pay for the entire fence myself of b) we split the cost. I felt that was fair but…. apparently, I’m the asshole.
For the record, I moved to this house July 2007 so.. in 2021 we’d been neighbours for nearly 14 years because they moved in December 2007. In addition, I never smoked TOBACCO in front of my kids or family… I never had a problem with cannabis, but clearly they spend their time spying on me if they claim to know ‘what I do’ in my own backyard. Furthermore, all my friends smoke cannabis and WHO THE FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY ARE TELLING ME WHERE TO SMOKE MY OWN LEGAL CANNABIS?
Under my paralegal’s advice, I booked my fence replacement and provided them with notice as soon as I had a date. Technically I’d already provided them with several months notice back in early March 2021. My fence was finally installed in August 2021. I was still afraid of getting sued for something later down the road and it was important to me that we have something in writing… you know.. because I trust NO ONE. I pursued the issue and demanded payment – mostly for a response, any response. They finally did respond and offered $400 for their $1,600 portion. I accepted, I didn’t really care at that point and just wanted to move on with my life.
I got what I wanted… my new fence is too tall for the perv to keep staring at me, my now 15-year-old daughter, or my friends. Why is wanting privacy so wrong? I moved to a house I love. I didn’t move to Wisteria Lane. I had no desire to be friends with my neighbours…. I just wanted to be left alone, to swim in my pool, sunbathe topless or naked if I want and grow cannabis. Let me be happy and leave me alone. This was too much to ask.
Once I received the cheque for $400, I knew relations weren’t good with 817¢π 7717$ and his 7¥47 ¥4¶¶|€ Carine, but …. Whatever, life goes on. I had planned to wait a bit and send a “sorry I was bitchy, here’s a gift basket, let’s at least be cordial” type thing…. However, that’s not what happened.
This is where Karen and Carine (see what I did there?) decided to join forces. In May 2022 I heard Karen say she planned to grow male cannabis plants to destroy my medical garden. They put up that “fuck you” structure so we moved all our pool equipment in to the garage. I needed to replace the fence on the Karen and Kyle side too because it was wood and falling apart and, because I wanted a matching fence, but mostly because the stipulation of my cannabis production license is to ensure it’s secure with cameras, proper fencing, not allowing photography or videos, etc, etc. Having learned my lesson with 817¢π 7717$ and the 7¥47 ¥4¶¶|€ , I decided to erect my fence in front of the old one thereby saving me the cost of a fence removal. I had planned to extend the fence to the front of my garage but the water pipes for the pool are under the property line, I was not able to do so this year.
Once my fence was installed, I most certainly did have signs made advising against photography and videos. It’s my property and people cannot just take pictures of my stuff without permission. The End. That’s in direct contravention of my production license stipulation and to cover my ass, I decided on signage. In the meantime, the 7¥47 ¥4¶¶|€ sent the police to my house on Canada Day 2022 claiming we threw a full bacon sandwich in to her yard. Yup. WTF?! Even the cop who showed up asking about it looked embarrassed. First off, as I told him, I don’t eat. Definitely not bread and I’m definitely not throwing bacon away. Who does that? Second, I verified whether this “incident” occurred in the back or front yard? Back yard… OK.. well, my husband was in the back yard all week building a deck and I assure you that he wasn’t throwing full sandwiches over the fence either. The case was closed and no report was even filed. Karen likes to feed the seagulls and other birds so .. that’s probably where the bread came from. Like I care.. I really think she just called the cops to stay relevant in my life or something. I don’t know, but from my point of view, the issue was closed. I have a fence and I have privacy.
A few days later, in early July, the police were back at my house accusing me of destroying Karen’s baby pot plants. The police in this Town can’t even see the forest for the trees, I reserve comment because clearly they’re going to believe the ones with the best story, honesty obviously doesn’t matter. I don’t even think they investigate in this Town. If you read news reports, most of the time the police in this Regions are being accused of corruption, toxic work environments, or beating teenage boys when parents call for wellness checks, etc. so.. really, what was I supposed to expect? I’d rather be on the shit end of that stick because being on the other end says something far worse about you. For the record, I thought I was dying of cancer and all I did was sleep for the first week of July. I slept extra hours so I could attend one concert before I died of stage 4 something or other.. it wasn’t until mid July I discovered I had Covid-19 and ended up sick for 8 weeks. I even have long Covid now. But yeah, OK.. I’m jumping over fences in the day? night? I don’t know…to destroy pot plants? No, I don’t think so.. what I did do was get legal advice. I maintain Karen destroyed her own plants just to see if she could have me arrested… looking back now, the 7¥47 ¥4¶¶|€ was unsuccessful at whatever charge she was aiming for and 3 or 4 days later another attempt? Come on. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.
In early or middle of August, I noticed that 817¢π 7717$ and the 7¥47 ¥4¶¶|€ were growing 3 pot plants on their deck. They had them hidden behind a wall; I assumed to hide their hypocrisy. Back when I was on speaking terms with Karen, she used to tell me all about how “Hairy’s grandmother” uses cannabis. Karen calls the 7¥47 ¥4¶¶|€ son “Hairy” IRL because she trash talks everyone. For me, trash talking a 7 year-old was my breaking point and I started to step back and really started to question her motives. She really hated Carine too and look at them all now… BFFs.
I sent Donald a text offering to help them with a successful harvest – truly, I offered a truce to help his ailing mother in law. Just because I think he’s a fucking asshole doesn’t mean I feel some poor little old lady should suffer in pain… I provided some tips: “remove all the yellow leaves, and by the looks of the branches, you really need to fertilize.. I use chicken poop.” I even offered to provide some of my own to bridge them, no hard feelings, you know? I thought maybe it was all water under the bridge. But no. Apparently they grew a male plant to destroy my medical garden.
In reality, they destroyed it for smoking… but we’re making hash with it and I have all winter to work out an incense recipe for canna-scented incense. I love the smell of weed and I hate the smell of tobacco and in my yard, weed rules. So, this spring and summer and fall, when I smell tobacco I plan to light some incense.
I fail to see how I’m the loser in this scenario, I mean, I got 2 different households to voluntarily spend money on soil, pots, and deck space for MARIJUNA PLANTS! They VOLUNTEERED! I don’t care if they grow males… they grew plants on their deck, RIGHT OUTSIDE THEIR DOOR. Guess they learned they don’t smell that bad, right? Yes, they made sure to take down their male after we took down all our females. LOL who cares. Next year I’m growing autos and I’m growing clones. I hope they’re reading this because at this point, it’s all gibberish, I'm sure. Fortunately, Margeaux knows how to make the best of a shitty situation. Hahahaha I really do love my resourcefulness. If I’m successful at making cannabis-scented incense I intend to sell it on Etsy and use THAT to create a fund for anyone in need of legal assistance because they have a-hole neighbours. I already have the lawyer onboard…
You know the funniest part? I no longer require 15 oz a month. I grow because I enjoy it. I can grow what I need in my basement, but my giant plants offer me privacy because I use them as hedges. I’m also considering growing hemp next summer so I can harvest hemp seeds and use that in my baking as additional protein. Granted, it is more convenient to grow 15 plants outside and get my entire year’s worth… although this summer I only grew 12 as I’d planned to reduce my forest to a more manageable size and perhaps grow vegetables in my giant planters, but fuck that noise.
But… really. die hard pot haters grew weed. I hope they do it again next year… I honestly haven’t had this much fun since my sister and I lived together. I realize I’m not supposed to be having fun with it.. but .. seriously.. they didn’t even get creative.. they took my word and I don’t even think they researched anything at all… I’m disappointed a little.. Child’s Play.. I also didn’t think they liked it when I sunbathed topless.. but I guess they must otherwise.. why wouldn’t they want me to have my privacy? In any case.. I’m putting up an extended privacy fence this spring and I’ve got at least 18 bamboo shoots I’ve started in my winter garden. By next year, the light will not even be a bother and I hope Karen and Kyle have to hire a crane to remove their hot tub from their yard when it breaks down. Grown adults attack my children’s health and well-being: smoking; operating a generator, they set up directly under the kids’ windows during a 5 day-long power outage during a heat wave, meaning the kids had their windows shut tight so diesel exhaust wouldn’t make them ill. Later, we had to get rid of the pool heater because they erected a fuck you structure. GROWN ADULTS picking on and name-calling children is disgusting… but really, what did I expect from a grown ass 58-year-oldish woman who says “I wonder WHAT is moving in next” whenever a house is up for sale? I know because I lived with a crazy woman… I know to expect a racist, childish, immature ‘woman’. I’m glad we don’t speak, I realize I only want to surround myself with caring, empathetic, genuine and authentic people who don’t like narcissists. I hope Donald and Carine figure her out before too long… not because I like them.. but because I’m a human being.
TLDR: Keep written records of everything. Just do you and fuck everyone else.
Read from the beginning:
Prologue : Family
Chapter 1: The Early Years
Chapter 2: Protector: 1979-1981
Chapter 3: Pre-Teen Years 1981-1987
Chapter 4: Teen Years: 1987-1993
Reality Bites - The Truth Reveals Itself
Chapter 5: University: 1993-1998
Chapter 6: Young Adulthood
Healing
Comments
Post a Comment
Thank you!