The House

[Fifty150]

Built in 1945

The house halfway down the block is on the market, and the listing information shows it was built in 1944.

Makes sense. They started building at one end.

As you can imagine, everything is old, and needs service. The last few weeks, the guy uphill from me was having problems with plumbing. Thanks to gravity, it goes downhill. All the homes on the block feed into the main sewer line.

Fortunately, I have a few tools. I own a "sewer jet" and a plumber's snake. Not a plumber by trade. But I've seen enough plumbers work, and seen their bills. I do understand that plumbing is gravity operated. Pipes have a certain drop, and gravity takes it down. I understand that I can afford a few tools, but not a call for service.

A "rooter guy", not a plumber, just a guy who you call to clear clogged drains, once told me that the tools he uses cost less than what he charges for just 1 job. A plumber's pipe wrench, a few screw drivers, tongue and groove pliers, the snake, the high pressure line......his 1st service call paid for all his basic tools.

As I was out on the street, where I opened the access cover leading to The City's sewer line......cops came. Somebody saw me on the street, with the cleanout service cover lifted, and called the cops?

 

[Harp]

Reasonable inference, or perhaps chance. In either case you opened the access cover leading to a municipal
sewer line without city contractor licensure permit; committing "a tort of misadventure", the tortious act of trespass.

The cops probably issued verbal warning. Let you go, cut you a break.

When I was in law school I winter house-sat for a couple, and once after shoveling out the driveway and sidewalks,
a rap at the door came and a cop with drawn pistol told me to back up the stairs inside the kitchen.
I quickly explained the situ; while coincidentally one of my study group was a full time cop, part time law student,
whom he knew (Oak Lawn, Illinois has a relatively small police department), and he relaxed. Holstered the pistol,
a 9mm Barretta and we joked a bit. The lady across the street saw me shoveling, did the rat. And the cops explained
to her I was just house sitting.

The cops told me she thought I was a teenager. I mailed her a thank you card.

 

[Fifty150]

Oh, the story got better. I knew the cop. Her past and mine were briefly joined at the hip. From our days of being wild.

It turns out that some bat-crap crazy woman who lives 3 blocks away, appointed herself to be the custodial caregiver of the neighborhood.

She called the police.

"You've seen her. Walks around with a broom and a trash barrel, wearing an orange vest, and talking to herself. Just shy of being dangerous enough, that she can't get locked up. Comes down to The Station, and she's always trying to report suspicious activity to the Community Service Officer at the window. Today, you're the suspicious activity."

Casual small talk. Catch up on gossip about people we knew growing up. The patrol car is in my driveway. We're inside the garage, in the shade, where I'm enjoying a cold beverage. She's actually sitting on my bike, and telling her partner about how we used to ride everywhere when we were kids.

The crazy lady walks up the driveway, yelling, "that's the guy, he might be poisoning the water supply!"

"Lady, he's official. He's a city worker. He just forgot his truck with the flashing lights, and forgot to set up some cones. That's why we're going to light some flares for him. So that you don't get too close. You might get hurt. We'll draw a chalk line, and put up some yellow tape."

"a tort of misadventure"

Maybe if you look hard enough, there are a handful of municipal codes.

SF MUNICIPAL POLICE CODE
SEC. 6. BANANA PEELS, ETC., DEPOSIT ON SIDEWALK PROHiBiTED. It shall be unlawful for any person to throw any banana peel or orange peel or other rubbish on any sidewalk, or on the floor of any public building, street railway car or other public conveyance.

There was nothing going on worth official law enforcement action. It was not in the interest of justice to point a gun at me, or beat me with batons. In the garage, I have a refrigerator with chilled beverages, and sandwich fixings. It's important to have cold beer and sandwiches when you're doing work in the garage. Nobody wants to go upstairs when you're in the middle of rebuilding an engine or something like that. I offered. They did partake in a delightful, refreshments.

"No offense. You should shower. You smell like a wet hooker."

That really is one of those odors that is unique. You never forget it. When a hooker has been standing out in the rain for hours, and you get her in the backseat of your patrol car, the odor stays in the car the entire shift. I know I wasn't standing on the corner for hours in the rain, pleasuring chicken hawks. But I did smell like a wet hooker.

 

[Fifty150]

you opened the access cover leading to a municipal
sewer line without city contractor licensure permit

It should be noted that said described municipal sewer line access is a copper metal framed, hinged lid, copper metal grate, which covers an access pipe. Recognized as a ventilation pipe with a p-trap, which also serves as an overflow and service access port; it is physically within my property line. At any time when a public utility worker performs service, they enter my property to do so. Said device is not marked in anyway to indicate that it is municipal property. It is marked with the name of a plumbing company, which records indicate was an active business from 1912 to 1966, with an address which is now Japantown Plaza. The dissolved and defunct J. Gibbs & Sons can no longer lay claim to this installation.

 

[Harp]

^^^A tort of misadventure dates to the assize, incident without criminal penalty. Old Norman French, courts of remedy.
Your reference to the physical description of the sewer cover is irrelevant.

When I was in law school crim law covered old English trace back to the killing of the King's deer.
Loved that stuff.

 

[tonyb]

Up the block from us is what I think is called a “group home.” The young men living there have mental health “issues.”

I often see them standing outside smoking or whatever. I nod and wave on my way by.

On a balmy afternoon one of those fellows walked by my place. I was outside, doing one thing or another, with the garage door open. He told me some story that didn’t quite make sense about a dog he had to give away at some point in the indefinite past. I said something like, “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” He responded with another something that didn’t quite make sense.

The woman residing two doors down was also outside and witnessed the exchange. She came over, after the young man had walked on up the sidewalk, and said the fellow had been around the block at least a couple times. I said, “Well, it *is* a nice day.”

She asked if I wasn’t concerned about the goings-on in the neighborhood. I’m concerned, I said. There is crime here, mostly property crimes of opportunity — garage doors left open, cars left unlocked, etc., which prove too great a temptation for the light-fingered. But this guy, I said, is a nut, and it’s likelier he’ll be a victim of crime than a perpetrator.

The neighbor lady wore a perplexed expression. I believe it hadn’t occurred to her that the fellow she was worried might do her some injury was probably more vulnerable than either of us.

Some prey on the weak. And others, like the woman two doors down, are quick to assume the worst about them.

 

[belfastboy]

It should be noted that said described municipal sewer line access is a copper metal framed, hinged lid, copper metal grate, which covers an access pipe. Recognized as a ventilation pipe with a p-trap, which also serves as an overflow and service access port; it is physically within my property line. At any time when a public utility worker performs service, they enter my property to do so. Said device is not marked in anyway to indicate that it is municipal property. It is marked with the name of a plumbing company, which records indicate was an active business from 1912 to 1966, with an address which is now Japantown Plaza. The dissolved and defunct J. Gibbs & Sons can no longer lay claim to this installation.

View attachment 333830 View attachment 333832

Heck, if that amount of copper was used in our streets they all would be missing, stolen by the drug addicts and sold as scrap. We use pig iron....little value and too heavy to carry away.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
Might be drug addicts. Might not be. I’ve known junkies I wouldn’t trust any farther than I can spit and others I’ve put up at my place when their options were that or the freeway overpass.

It was mostly fear that kept me from injecting illicit drugs. Too easy to OD (I’ve lost friends and associates to that). Too much uncertainty as to just what was in that spoon. We didn’t know about Hepatitis C back when too many people I know got infected with it. I was greatly relieved when cures came on the scene. One good friend, a woman I’ve known more than 40 years, had been a heroin user back when we met, and yes, she got the Hep. And now she’s cured.

 

[Fifty150]

the killing of the King's deer

I'm just clearing plumbing, in a vintage home. I'm not Robin of Locksley. The municipal government has already waived their claim to the access lines from the buildings to the sewer, by refusing to service such access lines. According to the water department, the city is only responsible for the actual main sewer line, and access to the line is the property owner's responsibility.

Too much uncertainty as to just what was in that spoon.

I feel the same way about street racing On a track, you have controlled road conditions. I don't want to hit loose gravel or a pothole when racing on the street.

 

[Harp]

I'm just clearing plumbing, in a vintage home. I'm not Robin of Locksley. The municipal government has already waived their claim to the access lines from the buildings to the sewer, by refusing to service such access lines. According to the water department, the city is only responsible for the actual main sewer line, and access to the line is the property owner's responsibility.

That is standard city slicker disavowal but any private citizen work adjacent to municipal sewer system
should avail contract licensure/permit to further demarcate liability. You don't want to be robbed by any city hoods.

 

[Fifty150]

The City owns the street, the sidewalk, and the trees. However, The City also says that the property owner is responsible for maintaining the same. You are to water the trees, trim the trees, and maintain the health of the tree. You are not allowed to cut down the tree. When the tree grows into the overhead power lines, the property owner is responsible for hiring a tree service. If such tree develops a disease, the property owner is financially responsible for treatment of the tree, replacing the tree if needed, and pay a fine because the tree died.

My favorite is when they charge the property owner for painting the curbs...... red, yellow, green, white. The City decides that certain curbs are parking regulated. I have to pay for the red zone curb painted in front of my house. Imagine that. They paint the curb red so that I can't park in front of my house, and I have to pay for them to make it illegal for me to park in front of my house.

Luckily, I don't have a tree in front of my house. But I really do have a red curb. Instead of being able to park in front of my house, I have to find parking blocks away, and then walk home.

There is a municipal ordinance which says that garbage cans cannot be left on the street in plain view. I keep the trash inside, then bring it to the curb on pick up day. The garbage truck comes to collect the garbage, then leaves the empty container curbside in front of the house. I'm at work all day. When I get home, I bring the containers inside. Once, when The City needed extra revenue, a Dept of Health Inspector went along the garbage routes, and fined every home with garbage cans out on the sidewalk. The City's position was that the property owner's responsibility is to remove containers from the street after garbage pickup. They don't care that nobody could possibly take a day off from work every week to bring the trash cans in.

When you live in an old city, in an old house, there's a lot of things that make you scratch your head.

 

[Harp]

Politics is a practical profession similar to prostitution with all the attendant avarice, depraved heart indifference,
deliberate intent, premeditation, malice aforethought; except the political arena is a more depraved venue of the human heart.

 

[Fifty150]

I know some prostitutes who are pretty good people. Let's not drag hookers down to the level of an elected official.

 

[Harp]

I know some prostitutes who are pretty good people. Let's not drag hookers down to the level of an elected official.

So have I; truly gold hearts within the profession but life's circumference is a vortex.
Please nota bene my exception above, per curiam.

 

[Fifty150]

Several ex-girlfriends became prostitutes. Several prostitutes became ex-girlfriends.