Time to fire the yard guy.

This story requires me to take two steps backwards first. I promise their are pictures at the end though.

Part of our monthly dues go toward yard maintenance. And let me just say: ya don't get much for your money. This is partially due to the bewildering nature of the yard maintenance guy. Let's just say either he's a few cherries short of a bowl or he totally gets that the landlords are over 100 miles away and never follow up on him.

AND: HE'S CREEPY WEIRD. As in, in his late 50s/early 60s, clearly partied in hardy with who knows what and who, and doesn't really process what you say. Like when he came over to do something on our roof and just started doing it, freaking the heck out of me, inside, who had just come out of the shower and now there's a burglar on the roof. I asked him to knock next time, letting me know he was here (so I don't call the cops on him), and he just stared at my blankly.

This is who I am dealing with.

This same guy came and cleared our rain gutters. He's contracted to do it once a year. But this um... interesting... fellow decided to clear the rain gutters in early October. That is a problem because only about 25% of the leaves had fallen at that point.

I kindly let the landlords know that they weren't getting a great service for their money, and maybe next year, oh, they should let the guy know to WAIT UNTIL THE LEAVES FELL before clearing the gutters.

When the landlords visited in early December, they were told by the maintenance men that the vast number of leaves on our roof was contributing to our roof problems.

Keep in mind: the landlord understands this liability issue, and does not want us on ladders on the roof. I don't blame him. So please no comments about the fact that I am lazy and don't clean the roof myself.

So, a couple weeks ago, we got an email from the landlord: "Your roofs will be cleared sometime soon." While I detest the open-ended notification (not quite what Oregon law requires for notification, but I'm not going to belabor that issue with them), I was happy to know that the roof was going to get cleared. No more overflowing gutters!

And then, yesterday morning (after coming home in the dark the night before), I saw this:





Yes, our roof was clean. But the contents of the roof (the rotting, composting, smelly contents) were merely just chucked from the roof to the ground. ALL AROUND OUR HOUSE. Our yard that had been carefully cleaned for fall/winter. The guy even dumped the roof contents ON TOP OF OUR YARD DEBRIS TRASH CONTAINER. And our wheelbarrow was clearly visible too. While I'm of the firm belief that a YARD MAINTENANCE MAN should have his own tools of the trade, I'm not beyond him using our tools to avoid a hideous mess.

Rotten, decomposing leaves all over.

So, carefully worded, an email was send to our landlords, WITH the photos attached. No response yet. Perfect world? They make their yard maintenance guy pick up the leaves for free. My world? I suspect I may get a response something like "we'll talk to them about next year."

And yes, I did discover this yesterday. No posting yesterday though because I was so livid I might cause the computer to explode with my fierce typing.

Anyone want to visit? My yard smells lovely. Like rotten, slimy leaves.