One of those days

     Have you ever had one of those days....? Those "Why me?", "What did I do to deserve this?", kind of days. I've had a couple in a row, made worse by the fact I had such a great time home last weekend with my family. They will be the source of the next couple of posts, after I clear my aura, release this negative energy out in to the universe and find my happy spot again.

     First, I arrived back in Toronto on Tuesday with a cold. Not really all that surprising seeing as how I spent half the weekend outside. It's that time of year, you can never really dress just right. No big deal, I'm a big boy I'll survive.

     My cable still isn't working. I am now on my fourth digital box in the last ten days. Rogers has been great about trying to solve the problem, but still it persists. I missed the second tech home visit because the technician called the house line rather than the number I gave the operator when I booked the appointment. I was home but I can't hear the house line from my room, or the door bell. Maybe the third time will be the charm. Again, no big deal, just kind of annoying. I'm vegging in front of a blank screen instead of bad television.

     Wednesday, I got a notice to pick up a registered letter and it was garbage night.

     Thursday, I'm off to work. It's dark when I leave. After work, I go get the registered letter. It's from the City of Toronto??? Curious, I open it and give it a quick read on the walk home. It is a notice of violation of city code. Huh?? I have failed to maintain my property free of graffiti. WTF

The offending portion of my fence

     What you can't see is the fact this is actually the third time my property has been vandalised. At the top of the fence in the left corner of the picture you can just see the graffiti that was sprayed on the brick wall before the fence went up. The graffiti on the fence has actually been done twice. I guess they weren't satisfied with the results the first time.

     So I guess being the victim of a crime isn't quite enough, I can face a fine, inspection fees and paying for the city to remove the offending material. I can not even begin to describe how pleased I am that my tax dollars are paying for an inspector to go around the city checking for these things. Rather than focusing on catching the offenders and having them make restitution, I'm on the hook for this one. Thanks.

     I'm not alone on this either. This particular graffiti is all over the neighbourhood.

     I continue on home and now I'm not pleased. Here is what greeted me as I approached the house.

A little further down the fence

      That's right, one of my beloved neighbours has once again dumped their garbage along the side of my house. I guess I should be happy they didn't block my driveway like they did the last two times. Seriously,  where was that inspector when the illegal dumping was going on. Yet another call to the city garbage collection, another complaint and a chance to try some new and colourful language and a few old favourites.

    Now it's Friday. Work is finished. I got out my sander and did my best to remove the offending material.

Doesn't that just look so much better?

I can feel property values rising even as I write this

A clean slate just waiting to be redrawn

     It didn't take all that long but the fact I had to spend a minute on it just burns me. It was on the list of things to do around the house but so far down as to be non existent. Why, because it will be re done probably before the inspector is by to see it was ever removed.

     So that's how my week shaped up. Going forward, I still have my cold, my television still isn't working, the garbage is still along side my house but that graffiti is gone. At least for now.

     Are you having one of those days, weeks, months? Feel free to share, misery loves company.