code enforcement follies v.ii

I've been keeping this on the down low,

but last October we had a couple code enforcement complaints.

Seems that car repair and junk storage were bugging our neighbors.

This involved inspections from our management,

and also a San Diego Code Enforcement Officer - TT

TT had a long list of possible violations from supposed multiple complainers -

a sailboat, used oil containers, rusty car parts, old cars...
Someone had been snooping.

His main guideline was "incidental to the residential use of the property."

What the heck does that mean?

Basically if it's a hobby we should be ok,

and between the kids and I,

we have a lot of hobbies!

It was obvious the complaints were exaggerated.

Many photos were taken,

so his supervisor could double check for any hidden problems.

The worst case scenario would have been a notice for reinspection,

however only an administrative warning was given,

keeping our case on file to maintain a history.

TT noted that 90% of his calls were from neighbors that have issues.

Yep!
The best course was to limit interaction and be mellow.

Fast forward 5 or 6 months.
Only a couple police visits for skateboarding...
We thought they had toned down.

Nope.
Seems someone had complained directly to our property owner,
about issues that the Code Enforcement had absolved us on months earlier.
It gave me a chance to write a lengthy reply,
and a couple neighbors pitched in with their own letters.

This gave me a chance to clarify that I do work on my own stuff at our home,
my kids like to be outside and not cooped up,
friends and family do come over occasionally and hang out,
and we've been living here for 6 years way under the radar!
It is obvious to any reader what I like to do,
we're not trying to hide anything.
A simple name search reveals most of the fun stuff that we get ourselves into,
and also some of these sticky situations as well!

Last month during a somewhat minor altercation with our neighbor,

he admitted that he had sicced CE on us,
and would do so again,

called the police multiple times,
spoken to neighbors to get them as character witnesses,

and had recently written that letter to the owner.
Like anyone is the perfect neighbor.

Funny thing is this was while cutting grass that was over our property line,

technically our responsibility,
technically trespassing.

See that dark spot the sidewalk?

That is the property button or pin.

I was as civil as possible asking him to stay off our property,

mainly due to liability in potential injuries.

Sounds petty,

but if someone can trip over a planter while walking in a Lowe's,

why would I want them anywhere near our property?
$10K is more than I have in all our hot rods!

Even after a couple minute conversation,

he continued mowing like nothing happened,
right down our little strip.

After I took this photo he or a family member called the police.

This was the first time I had actually heard the complaints firsthand,

and most of them were over 6 months old!
Even though he's been using his cellphone to video me, the kids and our friends for weeks,
he thought it was illegal for me to video him actually doing something wrong.

Fortunately I have a mountain of paperwork,

including a copy of the trip and fall suit,
and an old domestic violence restraining order justifying my concerns for safety and liability.
Who bangs their head against a locker and punches walls?

So what do you think happened?

Less than 3 weeks later the grass is cut again.

Holey chit this guy!

After some consultation I wrote up a little letter...

So you'd think that was it right?

Nope.

By the first lawn incident CE had already been contacted.

Fortunately TT remembered the property,

and instead of requesting a $500 2nd inspection,

he only asked for current pictures of the property by the management,

basically what you see above,
way cleaner then in October.

The kicker is T, our property manager,

received a call from another CE officer about us right before showing up.
They must have these guys on speed dial!

All in all the police have shown up maybe 8 times,

for kids skating, noise and me taking a video of him trespassing.

At least 4 complaints have been received by Code Enforcement,

enough that an email is all they want now!

You may be wondering,

why would I write about this?

Is it safe?

Well it is so unbelievable to read,

that we are trying to make sense of it.

The reason why I write this blog!

What if they somehow find this and read it?

I'm not too concerned with liable or slander,

as all their cases are public, free and easy to find locally.

No need to make anything up!

The personal interactions are from my point of view.

Names are withheld for privacy.

Now our management and TT also have their legal information on file,

which helps understand the nature of who we're dealing with.

Sadly the kids now realize that adults can act this way.

My family - wife, two boys and a little 7 year old girl,

aren't accustomed to being the targets of this craziness.

If we wanted conformity we'd live in an HOA,

where people like this thrive.

Why don't we move?

Well the kids are stable in their schools,

and my 98 year old grandmother lives alone two houses up.

We consider ourselves lucky to be where we are.

This is our home!

Anyway excuse the rant.

Hopefully the future will lighten up a bit.

I'll make sure to get back to more fun stuff next time!

TP

urban hunting

Last year I mentioned something about Papa's Shed...
perich brothers (and sister): Papa's Shed - penetray color wheel
We had cleaned it out a little too good,
and now it was a stash spot for all my grandmother's (Nana) recycling.

papa's shed

This was a picture over a year ago.

jaxon & jakob perich

This is a picture today.
Check out the bottom of the doors there.

tom & jerry style

I watched a ton of cartoons as a kid,
like Tom & Jerry,
so I know a mouse hole when I see it.

Supposedly a rat or 2 was seen lurking in the shed.
You don't want to tell my grandmother there are rat's on her property,
she won't sleep at night.

I made sure to get some big ole rat traps,
and set them up in the shed,
using my Dad's tried and true concoction of bacon and peanut butter.

The next day I had my plastic bag ready to get rid of some dead bodies.
But nope,
I got skunked.
Somehow the little buggers had licked the peanut butter clean off the traps,
without setting them off.
Mice...

victor mouse trap history

Fortunately I had also bought some mouse traps for the kids to play with.
It's always a fun toy for 5-11 year olds.

vintage victor mouse trap

They are so fun that Jake tried to sneak one out of the pack.
Lucky for him my grandfather had a bunch of them in the shed.
Good ole Pop.
Check out this old one that was hanging up on the door.
This was before they integrated the fancy rat face into the V.

old victor mouse trap

This one is also an oldie but goodie.
Instead of the metal bait holder,
it is a piece of wood.
While we were dosing them with the  bacon and peanut butter,
I was wondering why they would go through all the hassle with the wood.

5 mouse traps

With the traps set up in the shed,
it was only a matter of time.

Of course the Perich Museum of Victor Mouse Traps got me to thinking.
I spent a couple minutes perusing the internet and wow there are so many types of traps now.
These old spring types are like traditional hot rods.

cheesy trap

This one caught my eye cause of the piece of plastic cheese that is the pad.
Why would they do this?
Ahhhh...
I found out the traps are supposed to be perpendicular to the path,
and baiting the traps was just an option.

properly set mouse traps

Back we went to properly set the mouse and rat traps
in a perpendicular to path orientation.
There are 8 traps set in total.

Another trick is to train the mice or rats to eat from tripped traps,
so they get comfortable with the traps as a food source.
I am hoping this won't be that difficult so let's see what happens.

TP

sunday funday - bottlecap soccer

Your 9 or 10 years old,
stuck at the shop.
Whatcha gonna do?

boys will be boys

Scrounge up a piece of wood, some metal bar, string and some bottlecaps...

bottlecap soccer

Jake (left) had actually been planning his game out for a couple days.

If you look closely there are score pegs along the side.

who needs video games

The only modification is adding a penny in the puck,
using some candle wax to glue it in.

Good times!

TP

big 3

Down here we are lucky to have one of the best car related swap meets around -
"The Big 3".
There's always some cool stuff,
and its a bummer to not go with a big wad of cash.

toys for the kids

Last year we went and it was totally pouring.
It was ridiculous, but fun.
I'm talking little rivers crisscrossing the lot, 6" or 8" deep!
Good times.

Sloppy's Pick of the Show

This was pretty cool too.

expensive toy

The place has everything,  even boats.

aluminum albatross

Usually there's a mini car show inside the show too.
This one looks like a good daily driver.

daily driver

But this one would hold the whole family,
in style.

big pimpin

I need one of those.

The best day for scores is Friday.
The best day to make money is Saturday.
The best day for deals is Sunday.
The best day for meals is Saturday,
the Bean Bandits usually host a BBQ.

bean bandits bbq

Typically I have very little money to blow,
but there's always something - tools, parts.

Of course I never take pictures of peoples piles of parts!

Anyway, see ya out there.

TP

Papa's Shed - penetray color wheel

So my grandmother (Nana) has been bugging us about cleaning up Papa's shed.
He died a couple years ago and she's been trying to clear out all his treasures.

papa's shed & truck

She had warned us that the gardener was going to be taking a bunch of stuff,
so yesterday my brother and I went to check it out.

*good thing Nana's doesn't go on the computer.
She would be really upset of that picture with all the junk outside!

treasure chest

In his later years,
he would hang out here for hours,
listening to the ballgame, tinkering with stuff,
talking to the people walking up and down the alley...

papa's treasures

Yep, this is it.
What were you expecting?
It was just a garden tool shed!
Full of the typical paint, nuts/bolts, car fluids, bug poisons...
But hey, what's that down there...

penetray motorized color wheel 

If you know anything about 60's car shows,
you'll know what this is!

deluxe model

Not quite sure why he had this,
there was no electricity back there.
He did have a knack for picking up cool stuff though.

150 watts of fun

Fortunately the light bulb worked.
Now I just need to build a show car!

My wife was on one of her mekimusic tears,
usually means she was thinking about her family...

So you're wondering about that old green pickup?
We'll talk about that later.

TP

scooped

A while back I posted about my inflatable boat addiction over the summer.

During that little jaunt,

there were some issues with the the outboard that was on the keeper,

an 80's 2-stroke 15 hp johnson.

On the way back to the launch ramp,

it started bogging down at high speeds.

It was getting late and we had no lights,

so instead of popping the top off we just putted back.

The next day I did the freshwater hose cleaning trick and the engine acted the same way-

idled fine but didn't accelerate at all.

When I took off the top, the engine ran fine,

I'd close the lid back, and the engine would bog down.

Well, obviously it was an air issue, right?

There are 2 little holes hidden in the rear that allow air into the lid,

so the plan was to make a couple more holes in the cowl.

A month+ later and the lid was still at the shop,

the engine sitting outside in the past rains with just an old raincoat to cover it.

Nice.

Finally a couple nights ago I decided to have fun with a short project during the sweet spot hours.

holey

The first plan was to strategically place the new holes to not mess up the graphics.

Here you can see the 2 original air holes in the handle area too.

scoop templates

Next is making some templates for some scoops.

I like making 2 versions.

The smaller one is the actual footprint of the scoop, a guide to match during forming.

The larger one is the actual sheet metal size needed before hammering the curves in.

hammered scoops

After about an hour I had some decent scoops made out some thick 16 gauge stainless.

This isn't a yacht so its not a big deal if they're not perfect.

It took more time to fit them to the curve of the cowl than it did to hammer them out.

scooped

I used some silicone to seal the joint,

just so water won't drip in there, mainly during storage really.

15 hp johnson 2-stroke outboard

Here you can see the little air cleaner.

It's a really tight design compared to other outboards.

The 15 hp Johnson/Evinrudes are really small and light for their horsepower rating.

The cabrea/suzuki 9.9 hp is way heavier and taller in comparison.

And the Nissan/Tohatsu 9.9 hp had a huge block compared to the Johnson

and weighed a ton.

It did sound more solid, so maybe better for long hauls.

I definitely liked to carry the Johnson back to the van after a day of buzzing around!

Ok where was I.

buttoned up

So back home, I started the engine up without the cap,

and let it warm up a little.

Went to put on the lid, and wow it still ran, 

no change and revved nice and high.

Than out of curiosity,

I taped the inside of the scoop holes.

What!?

No change, kinda, revved similar but didn't bog at all.

So took the tape off, and really just a slight difference.

great little motor

I'm thinking that in my rush to believe it was air starvation,

and just cause I like hammering out scoops,

I overlooked the fact that it's just a simple 2-stroke engine.

You know the mechanic's rule-

check if there's gas in the tank before you rebuild the carburetor...

In between the rainstorms this December,

I did clean it up a little bit,

wiggled the spark plug wires and stuff which could have been rubbing the cowl?

Ahh I don't know, at least it works.

Oh well.

Was it a waste of time?

Nah

TP

inflatable frenzy - v-ii

I've got a habit of buying and selling stuff,
probably from the 14+ years of having the kayak shop up in Ventura.
Now our backyard looks like a swap meet, bikes, boats, motors, car parts...
so what I do is post a couple things on there at a price high enough to let go of stuff.
Sometimes I come up and sometimes break even.
Having fun with a cool toy(s) makes it all worth it in the end.

Well this summer I got caught up in an inflatable boat frenzy.
As you'll see, it got a little out of control, just a little.
We were able to put the yard to good use without freaking out our landlord!
I need to post this just to remember how crazy it got.

It all started with this thing...

avon 3.10

This is an Avon 3.10 rover.
It's a great boat, made out of Hypalon which is a rubber coated fabric,
the best material for durability and sun.
The Avon brand also uses a really heavy duty air valve.
(The wood floors aren't installed in this picture)
My family had this model when I was younger,
so when it appeared on craigslist I snatched it up cheap.

I also ended up finding a really clean Suzuki 9.9hp two stroke,
(they were relabeled Cabrea for a while)
and me and the kids had a blast tearing around San Diego Bay.
We quickly realized the boat was kinda small and it would be fun to have two...

So, I picked up this roach of a boat for super cheap.

Zodiac Green Roach

The boat was a Zodiac and was a hunk of crap,
both in its condition and just the way Zodiacs are built.
I talked Luke/Pigpen into taking this thing out one early evening with the kids,
and holy shit was it a toad - leaked water, couldn't hold a plane,
engine would flip up, and these tweaker wheels...

tweaker wheels

Someone rigged up these wheels and they constantly flopped down, ridiculous.
It was actually a good idea just poorly executed with gate latches on the bottom.
Luke was a trooper though,
I didn't know he had never been in a little boat with an outboard before.
Ask him about crossing the channel in front of the ferry with the spotlight.

The Roach purchase was worth it as it came with a good running Nissan 8hp outboard, tank,
a pump, and box of boat junk - anchor, repair kit, life jackets,
and one of those red utility trailers making it alot easier to launch.

8hp nissan

That little trailer came in real handy,
because one night, about 10pm someone posted an achilles inflatable for super cheap.
(One thing you DON'T do when selling on craigslist is post after 9pm,
unless it is overpriced or you don't really want to sell it.)
The guy had put a phone number on there and after a couple texts, an almost midnight deal,
our backyard was a little boat shop.

achilles beater

For $60 this thing was a great deal.
When I got it, it had black tar splotches all over it,
the reason why it was so cheap.
Boat workers use dinghys to paint the hulls in the water,
and this one definitely had some overspray/spills.
Achilles use a PVC material and a really cheesy air valve,
but this was a way better 2nd boat then the Green Roach,
so we offed the Zodiac and kept all the extra stuff.

Of course while it was posted on CL,
this thing showed up...

Patten Inflatable

A Marine from Oceanside was selling this at almost the exact time I posted the Zodiac.
This is a RIB - rigid inflatable bottom, instead of the roll-up soft-bottoms with inflatable keel.
They had been out of my price range up until now.
I had never heard of Patten, but found out that they make military inflatables,
really heavy duty and they had a really cool Bravo air valve.

This was my goal in doing this inflatable flipping,
as the RIB's were usually a little out of my budget.
These little boats are so bitchin,
they just plow through swells and it is so fun to surf on ship's wakes,
they are almost impossible to flip so you just do crazy stuff.

So then I tried to sell everything to keep the RIB and get a bigger motor,
but it totally backfired.
Instead of selling, people just wanted to swap stuff.
We ended up trading the 8hp Nissan for a really clean 9.9hp Nissan,
and did a 3-way trade on an old bike for a 15 hp Johnson, perfect for the RIB.

outboard crazy

And to top it off, instead of selling the AVON,
I ended up trading it for the next size up!

Avon 3.40 couch

This Avon 3.40 was immaculate for a mid-80's boat,
just needed a new valve seal.
The guy just wanted a smaller boat for camping,
and since we could use the extra space, perfect swap!
It also came with a non-opped pink slip which was great.
The other boats were either seriously delinquent or had no DMV papers.
(only motorized boats need CF numbers)

At this point I realized things were a little out of control.
The $$ was relatively low, it was just the amount of stuff in such a short time.
Fortunately the beater Achilles sold by itself which cleaned up the yard.
I didn't mind having 3 outboards in such good shape.

Fast forward a couple months...
School starts... daylight not-savings time starts...rain...we all get colds...excuses excuses.
After school started we used the boats one time, okay maybe twice.
It's a typical seasonal use I guess, but it's still a drag.
Another bummer was watching the RIB get weathered in the sun and rain.
The drawback of the rigid is they don't roll-up for storage.
Yacht owners leave them out but it's the sure way to ruin them.

So to free up some cash and some yard space, I posted the RIB on CL,
and it was quickly snapped up...
but not after a fun day that really made it all worth it.



The buyer wanted to see it out on the water, and I gave him the option of 2 engines,
so it was the perfect excuse to get us out there in both boats.
I'll admit it was a bit sad losing the RIB especially after watching the video,
but like I hinted earlier there is a price that makes it easier!
(Ok now on the hunt for a bigger one, cheap of course!)

These inflatables are a great way to get the kids close to the water.
Fortunately we still have the roll-up AVON and we kept the 15hp so we can still get out.

Thanks for tuning in...

TP

Okay,
had to edit this in.
This was the view from the other side...



Thanks Pig!

TP