June 5, 2003

• Yesterday's entry was full of grammatical errors, and for that I apologize, it was written about 3 mins after I woke up...the coffee had just started brewing and I was half asleep, not sure what the hell I was thinking typing an entry that soon but I did...anyway...

  
  

  I finally got a picture (albeit a bad one) of the male house finch..you can sort of see his head at least, his body looks like the female in yesterday's entry...click the picture it's much better bigger.

  
  

  
  See he's red, in the sunlight he has hints of purple/maroon.

  
  

   

  
  

  So, I was searching around realtor.com yesterday looking for houses in the area we live in now, just on at least 1 ac and with a pool.  I found a few but they're still in subdivisions.  So then I think "Heck I'll buy a HUGE house in a subdivision with a pool, YEAH!  So what if I don't have a bazillion acres, I just need at least one acre...let's go look at 'em." And I did....then I started looking at the little line that says "HOA FEES: XXX.XX" and realized that most of them wanted me to pay $400+ a year to live there.  Now, let's sit down and go through this whole HOA (Home Owner's Association) thing with a fine toothed common-sense/reality comb, shall we?

  
  

  1. You pay some person, that you don't really know, a nice little chunk of change annually or monthly.

  
  

  2. You have to follow the rules that this person (oh yeah, they're on a committee, so you have like a dozen people that you don't really know..yay!) sets.

  
  

  3. You're paying for the upkeep, supposedly, of the community pool and tennis courts and possible clubhouse, if they have one, whether you use it or not, you pay for it. (hey, wait! that sounds like the education/school tax that I pay every year..hmmmm)

  
  

  4.  These people that you don't know a thing about (and gawd forbid you'd actually ask them something so personal as "How did you vote last election? I mean I don't want to give my money to some stranger who has some weird political views, they may make crazy rules or something.") tell you how to live in your house, how your yard should look ,where you can park your cars, what color you can paint your house, etc.

  
  

  5.  If you fail to follow these rules that the strange people set forth, you get fined and you could even have these people take your house.

  
  

  Now, call me crazy but that all just seems a little too fucked up for me.  So no thanks HOA dude, I'll keep my $500.

  
  

  Then, I saw the other day how subdivisions (now they're called 'communities' or 'developments') are being run by BIG CORPORATIONS!!!! How fucked up is THAT? 

  
  

   "Look, you can live in this BIG NICE over-priced house and pay a big, nice over-priced mortgage payment, then pay us so much money a year or a month and we'll tell you how to live in your big, nice over-priced house! WON'T THAT BE FUN!?!?! And best of all, We'll get your nosey, gossipy elderly neighbors, or the most annoying soccer moms we can find, to 'run' our development and then you'll have to do what they tell you to!  And they get to set the rules, you don't need a say in it though, because really you're already so busy with your life, let US think for you..you'll be glad we did!"

  
  

  Yep, I sobered up and went back to looking out in the country for a home with or without a pool, I'll skip the pool just to have the peace of mind that no stupid gossipy nosey soccer moms will be ringing my doorbell telling me I owe them my $500 annual dues or they'll evict me from the house I pay my mortgage on.

  
  

  Tell me why, again, people actually WANT to live in dictatorship subdivisions???? Can we seriously not think for ourselves? Are we that 'busy' and wrapped up in our own stupid selfishness that we can't even figure out big business is RUNNING our lives???

  
  

  *Hops off her soapbox and runs for the hills, IN THE COUNTRY!!*

  
  

  WHERE'S MY FARM!?!?!?!?!?!

  • 9:59 am
  • 5 Comments