No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Dealing with a bit of frustration here lately. We have been mega-busy running around and dh has been working 7 day workweeks, many times more than 10 hours daily. Friday I decided I was going to hire somebody to help us catch up on the lawn work if it didn't get done over the weekend. I had hoped to mow early Saturday morning.

Saturday, when the inlaws delivered dd from their camp-out, we noticed a lot of debris littering the street in front of our house. Upon further examination it was the contents of some gal's wallet, including her social security card and student ID along with lots of other cards. Also, there was an unfamiliar car next door, with it's tire slashed and window open, lots of dents and scrapes all around. It's gas cap was open and so was that of our neighbors across the street.

I spent about 20 minutes trying to locate a phone number for the gal online before it dawned on me that she could be in some trouble. At first, I thought her purse was probably stolen and the theifs just wanted to get rid of anything that would ID their new found wealth as hers. So, dd and I went to the local police station and filled out a report, handing over all the cards we found. Dh went to work and the lawn remained unmowed. Due to my overdevloped skill of sunburning, I did not intend to do the already overdue yard work in the heat of the day, especially when I wasn't feeling well after hubby insisted that we walk to Subway for dinner, saving fuel. That night is when my migraine began.

A large part of the needed yard work involved moving some firewood from our driveway to the designated place beside the garage. It had been there for about a week, and we had moved it a little at a time but it still was blocking the driveway so that the Prius was parked over the sidewalk.

Sunday morning I called dh at work mid-morning to check in and he advised me that there was a parking ticket on the Prius! So, we were fined $25 for parking in our own driveway, because it blocked the sidewalk. It was my own dumb fault for calling the police's attention to our residence with the report, right? Still, the abandoned car next door remained. I wonder if Ashley Sommers' stuff got to her safely . . . I paid the fine online, moved my car to the street, and scheduled lawn maintenance for the next morning, even though I had scheduled to be out of state for the day visiting my mother.

Monday, my "lawn boy" arrived and by the time I came home, the wood was neatly stacked and the grass was cut nicer than I could've ever done myself. I was impressed. The man deserves a tip. Hubby was not angry that I hired out and was very happy that the work was done and that we were able to help a friend in need by offering him a side-job. Ticket paid, lawn cleaned, everybody's happy, right?

Today in the mail I received a notice from the municipal department of neighborhoods that my residence is considered a nuisance and we could be fined up to $300. What???!!?!?!!? It was dated yesterday. Of course, when I call for more information, like whether they stumbled upon this because of my act of being a good samaritan or if the snotty neighbor on the other end of the block made a complaint, there was nobody in the office.