A day lost

Got up this morning to see a whole back corner of the yard covered in tree branches. A thunderstorm ripped through here yesterday; I assumed a large branch had given way.

But when I went over to the fence with pruning shears, I soon saw it was really a brush pile, and then I noticed some of the branches had been cut. It was easy to see a large branch had landed in a neighbor's yard, and he had chopped up the remains and tossed it over the fence into my yard.

It was a large pile, and the main part of the branch was so heavy it brought down part of my fence. I called the police.

The officer who responded looked over the pile and then went over to the next street. The person there said it was a tree than fell down in my yard.

The officer didn't buy it either, because there was no stump under the pile, the fence was crushed INTO my yard, and it was clear where his branch had broken off. I don't know what ticks me off more, the fact the guy lied so stupidly, or that he did so with such lousy English.

The officer suggested he toss all the stuff back into his yard, and I said that would be fine with me, but I said he needed to do it now. The Mexican copped an attitude when I said "now, and I warned him "I'm Italian. We invented attitiude. Don't give me that crap." And I left.

The officer stood there and watched as the guy and an accomplice threw most of the branches back over the fence. Then he left - maybe he got another call - and the pair disappreared, leaving the largest part of the branch still on my side of the fence.

After a while, I called the PD and asked if they had any idea what happened. No soap there. I got my chainsaw and sawed the branch into about eight pieces almost eight inches wide, and threw them over the fence. With the help of a visiting family member, we cleaned up the rest of the debris, and then it took three new t-posts to fix the fence.

I'll call the city tomorrow. The guy has a derelict vehicle in his back yard. There's also a camper in his yard. ICE will probably round up the bunch, anyway.

Meanwhile, a day I planned to use editing "Texas and Other Planets" went down the drain. Wonderful.