The Complete Idiot's Guide to Landscaping

August 15, 2013

Well, the day got off to a great start with a full blown brawl with our property manager. Ugh! Last month we had a $292 water bill. Instead of taking responsibility and even considering the slight possibility that maybe it was due to her choice of incompetent landscapers who flooded our backyard for about three-weeks, she was dead set on pointing the finger at the City of Phoenix, claiming that they intentionally misread the meter to over bill us. I had a paper trail of emails between us, along with images of the yard from November 2012 to present that proved our landscaping had been flooded at various times, a print out of our water history for the past year showing the units drastically went up when the landscapers were over-watering and several nods-of-the-head from her licensed plumber that she brought over to prove me wrong (which really didn’t work out in her favor). I thought we could come to a compromise and she would reimburse us the extra amount that we had to pay due to her inept contractors, but she was determined to ‘be right’ and never heard anything except the rattling of her own brain.

After that fun little adventure, I met one of my fellow martial arts friends from the dojo we train at for brunch. We talked about the incident during my test and my injury. He also helped me put in to perspective what to expect and what not to expect from certain people, as they’ve always been that way so there’s no reason for me to be surprised. I wish I could be as detached as him, but my emotions and aspiration to feel included are still there. It’s starting to go away slowly though.

I went to my office/dojo and worked through the day. My in-house PT came by and gave me some more exercises. I’ve now progressed to mini-squats and walking with no brace! She also gave me clearance to go back to the dojo and work hand techniques only.

Afterwards, Richard and I decided to try to go grocery shopping again. Averting our eyes from the wine bar, we made our rounds and finished with a full cart and now, a full fridge!