[Magdalen] Crucible

[Allan Carr]

Camille rented an apartment for us at Leisure World in Orange county
because, as she stated, she couldn't bear watching me wasting away trying
to drive all the way from Ventura County  to Orange County and back every
day through Los Angeles. The owner, who had inherited this two story
apartment, was desperate to sell it for $27,000. I should have bought it
even as an investment, if nothing else. I wonder what i's worth now.

Anyway, ii bought a new Compaq computer in October, 1995, and quickly
discovered Anglicans Online, which, I think, was then edited in Vancouver,
Canada (am I right about that?). From there, I discovered the predecessor
of this list, Anglican L, or whatever, which was edited at American.edu.

I think that means I'm entering my 20th year, sometimes as a member
(someone who is constantly active  according to my recent discussion with
Brian Reid) and sometimes as a subscriber. (I never knew this distinction
before). However, i was usually more active on St Sam's where I enjoyed the
rough and tumble until that list became the province of just a very few
members and of one unbelievably snarky person.

I've had a rough time lately because of my neighbor immediately back of me.
A month ago I found all the locking hardware gone from my left backyard
gate. The hardware and screws were gone and the gate hung open. This was a
terrible thing to do because Camille has the habit of releasing little Joey
to the backyard when she herself uses the bathroom. The outside door to the
bathroom is immediately adjacent to this gate. Losing Joey or having him
run over would have demolished both of us.

Joey never ran away, thank God. I found that two of my backyard lights were
pushed down on their hinges. My presumption is that our neighbor objected
to the light coming over our bushes and fence. He could have said so
instead of robbing the premises.

He's always had a thing about water hitting our common wood fence because
of his terror of termites. This fence now only stands up because of poles I
installed at 30 degrees from the ground to each fence pole, and I'm not
aware of anything he's done to keep the fence up. One of the bushes I
planted to hide these poles was dying and i made the mistake of asking our
gardener to adjust the spray from a bang bang sprinkler in the corner to
hit the bush, and, apparently, the fence and, in spots I guess, through the
fence.

All the sprinklers, front and back, had stopped operating and I was
befuddled as to my mistake in programming the sprinkler electronics.
Finally, I found that the wires to two (2) sprinkler controls in the back
yard had been shorted. Fortunately, a breaker in the master electronics
(which I never knew existed) opened and protected the master unit.

The little plastic screw things you turn to connect wires were on the
ground and the wires just twisted together wrongly and re-taped. I had the
gardener re-connect the wires correctly, adjust the sprinkler in question
back,  and the sprinklers now operate correctly.

Also, the dying bush had also been trampled down to bring its branches
forward and divert the sprinkler spray. That pretty much implicates my
neighbor. Again, he could have just said something. I wrote him a note
saying that and to just let me know of an issue rather than doing these
things.

I'm afraid to report the guy to the police for fear of what additional
craziness this guy is capable of and am living a life where my blood
pressure screams up whenever i think of him, which is often at night. As
most of you may remember, I was very close to death from an aortic aneurism
caused by high blood pressure a year ago on Dec 26. I absolutely don't need
all this in my 83rd year of life and in my retirement.

Maybe I should put in a surveillance system of some kind, attached to a big
disk drive and actuated only by movement which will catch him in case I
offend him again unknowingly? Use ADT?  I really don't know what to do
except pray that it's all over, at least for the present.

-- 
Allan Carr