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Yes some one can paint there car what ever color they want. But you can not do what ever you want with your land properity.

Actually, yes, you can -- right up to the point where what you do affect others or society as a whole. Building a shanty in an upscale neighborhood does affect others, it decreases property values and creates an eyesore. Cutting down trees affects the environment as well as changing the esthetics of the neighborhood.

-- Kirbert
- who lives on 73 wooded acres and goes days at a time without clothes

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-- Kirbert
- who lives on 73 wooded acres and goes days at a time without clothes

I think this discussion just "JUMPED THE SHARK".

Don

-- Kirbert
- who lives on 73 wooded acres and goes days at a time without clothes

Does this mean that right now, the ONLY thing you are wearing is a Panty Liner?

-wassamatta_u_musta_figured_I_would_respond

- who lives on 73 wooded acres and goes days at a time without clothes

I sorry but this is just way tooooooo funny, I spit coffee across my desk and laughed hard enough to cry!
I guess your friends found out early never to come over without calling first.....

No. I also have my watch on.

You don't use a sundial??

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I guess your friends found out early never to come over without calling first.....

Might bother them, wouldn't bother me! :-)

Actually, it's never been a problem. If I'm outside, I can hear a car coming long before they get here. If I'm inside, I can toss something on before answering the door.

I've regretted that exactly twice, when Jehovah's Witnesses found their way down here to spread their drivel. I wished I hadn't tossed something on; it would have been a much more interesting conversation. At one time we owned a few chickens, and my brother once suggested that I should greet the Jehovah's Witnesses naked, with a live chicken under one arm, and a couple of carefully placed feathers here and there.

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-- Kirbert
- who lives on 73 wooded acres and goes days at a time without clothes

Does this mean that right now, the ONLY thing you are wearing is a Panty Liner?

No. I also have my watch on.

and a couple of carefully placed feathers here and there.

OMG! You can get arrested for that (unless you live in GA)

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Actually, yes, you can -- right up to the point where what you do affect others or society as a whole.

Nice arrgument but still no, you can state that it is affecting society as a whole but some rules out there just don't make sense. Like if you are in an area where they dictate when you cut your grass how many vehicals you park on the street, 1 or 2. These are little things that in reallity don't affect society as a whole. But the whole neighbor hood voted and the one person that did not like still has to keep his grass at 2in instead of 3. You could arrgue that his personal rights are being removed, but it does not change the fact that the rule stands and he now has to follow it because of the majority.

Mystic Dreamer

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No. I also have my watch on.

You don't use a sundial??

That would require a certain level of enthusiam on my part.

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Actually, yes, you can -- right up to the point where what you do affect others or society as a whole.

Nice arrgument but still no, you can state that it is affecting society as a whole but some rules out there just don't make sense. Like if you are in an area where they dictate when you cut your grass how many vehicals you park on the street, 1 or 2.

Both of which affect others. Just as an example, visit a neighborhood where everyone's cars are neatly stored away in garages and a neighborhood where everyone's car is out in the street and tell me which neighborhood has higher property values.

No. I also have my watch on.

You don't use a sundial??

That would require a certain level of enthusiam on my part.

Ok, that has to be one of the funniest threads I have read in a long time. I'm not taking it any farther, I give up! LMAO
-wassamatta_u

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But the whole neighbor hood voted and the one person that did not like still has to keep his grass at 2in instead of 3.

Oh lordy do rules like this actually exist??? I could never live in a neighborhood like that, the neighborhood would vote me out in like two seconds. :D

-gollygee (lazy, and still renting anyway :D)

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Ok, that has to be one of the funniest threads I have read in a long time. I'm not taking it any farther, I give up!

I'm still hoping that someone will explain what "Jumped the shark" means.

I'm not taking it any farther, I give up!

You give up??? I never thought I'd hear that!
I really was waiting for you to come back with saying something like "a certain level of enthusiam or some good meds"

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I've regretted that exactly twice, when Jehovah's Witnesses found their way down here to spread their drivel. I wished I hadn't tossed something on

Just have to share a story. Hope I'm not offending anyone . . .

Before my ex-husband & I met, he was living with a girlfriend. They were still in bed Saturday morning when there was a knock at the door. Ex threw his robe on and answered the door. There were some people talking about their religion/church. My ex didn't really want to listen, as he knew where he stood on all of this and wasn't going to change (heck, I couldn't change him in 14 years, they weren't going to.)

He was trying to figure out a way to politely tell them he wasn't interested and needed to go now.

Girlfriend came out obviously naked and wrapped in a blanket. She announced loudly, "If you don't hurry up, I'm going to get dressed!"

Needless to say, that shocked said religious folk and they were quite willing to end the conversation!

KuKu

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I'm still hoping that someone will explain what "Jumped the shark" means.

Wikipedia has a good article on it.

" jumped the shark" = the low point of something / decline

Oh lordy do rules like this actually exist???

Why yes they do! We recently moved to the Atlanta area...after days of searching for the right house to purchase, we finally started the paperwork to put in an offer. In the process, the "neighborhood covenants" were plopped down on the table (HUGE document!). I started reading and couldn't believe it...the neighborhood had to approve any wreath put on the door and all holiday decorations before anything could be displayed...oh, there was also a $100 fine that could be imposed anytime your garage door was left open for any reason other than getting a vehicle in or out. Needless to say, we decided that neighborhood was not a good fit for us. I understand some rules...but, wow...

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the neighborhood had to approve any wreath put on the door and all holiday decorations before anything could be displayed...oh, there was also a $100 fine that could be imposed anytime your garage door was left open for any reason other than getting a vehicle in or out. Needless to say, we decided that neighborhood was not a good fit for us. I understand some rules...but, wow...

Yeah that's just insane! When I get a house I'm hoping to live deep in the woods with no neighbors. I could never live in a community with preposterous rules like those! :D

-gollygee

deep in the woods

That's my goal, too...

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I'm still hoping that someone will explain what "Jumped the shark" means.

Wikipedia has a good article on it.

Thanks! Didn't mean what I expected it meant; that might need to go into the "things that sound dirty..." file.

"Jumped the shark" is clearly a colorful and useful expression, though. I have not only added it to my vocabulary, but I've posted e-mails to a few friends and relatives suggesting they do as well.

MY in-laws live in a neighborhood like this too... they are common out here. You cannot paint your house any color you want, you have to get it approved. Same with landscaping, vehicles seen from the street, etc.

There are lots of HOA's around here, and they are good and bad I can see both sides.

Cheers!
Rhea

Part of Wikipedia's entry re: Jump the Shark:

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In those cases, they are viewed as a desperate and futile attempt to keep a series fresh in the face of a decline in ratings.

Ah! Now I get the panty liners reference. At least in my own goofy mind...

snort ™
pre

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there was also a $100 fine that could be imposed anytime your garage door was left open for any reason other than getting a vehicle in or out.

Yeah that's just insane! When I get a house I'm hoping to live deep in the woods with no neighbors.

73 wooded acres...

I actually appreciate the rules, though. If I had my druthers, I'd require that all houses have garages. There are entire housing developments here in FL with no garages at all and others with "carports", and the result is apparent just driving through such neighborhoods. Everybody's junk is scattered all over the lawns, the whole area looks terrible.

Everybody thinks those rules are overboard -- until somebody moves in next door and turns their place into a pig sty and there are no such rules in place to do anything about it.

Perhaps the best thing about those rules is that it makes it clear whether or not you're the type of person that should even consider living there. What makes everyone happy is if you're the type of person that wouldn't need the rules anyway, you're going to keep your place nice and tidy and hope that everyone around you does the same. If you plan to live in a pig sty, you should look for -- 73 wooded acres.

Seriously, when we lived in S FL, we lived on a 1-1/4 acre lot, and bought the vacant lot next door. We found that 1-1/4 acres is exactly the wrong size parcel to own. It's just big enough that everyone thinks they can behave like perfect a**holes without regard to their neighbors -- but it'd not really. So you end up with a lot of neighbors that are perfect a**holes. We had one neighbor who kept a dog tied up on a six-foot leash in an ant pile for two years. That dog howled constantly, 24/7, for two years. And, no, nobody could do anything about it. People told us that we should get a dog, as though that would somehow solve the problem.

Based on that experience, we decided that the minimum size parcel to own -- where you quite literally won't care what your neighbors do -- is ten acres. And for that to work, it has to be a square ten acres with your house right in the center.

Unfortunately, here in FL it's not easy to buy ten acres. Land is either sold in huge tracts, hundreds of acres, or some developer buys such a tract and divides it into lots. If he doesn't want to build a sewer system, the lots are five acres each. If a sewer system is in the plans, the lots are much smaller, you'll need a small walk-behind mower to mow the little strip of grass between your houser and your neighbor's, a riding mower won't fit.

Buying two five-acres lots would work, but it's expensive, the developer hopes to make a huge profit. We found that for about the same cost as the two lots, we could buy part of one of the tracts the developers were buying. So we ended up with a 70-acre wooded tract, 1/3 of a 210-acre parcel being sold by a farmer. We since purchased an adjoining 3-acre lot in a neighboring community. If I told you how little we spent on all this land, you'd all want tips on how to do it.

I guess we jumped the shark again?

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-- Kirbert
- who lives on 73 wooded acres and goes days at a time without clothes

LbNA really stands for Letter Boxer's Naked (ummm) Assets (yeah, good word, that's the ticket!)

KuKu
who just KNOWS Kirbert being naked with only a panty liner on his cut finger is ending up in Boxers & Briefs!

Perhaps the best thing about those rules is that it makes it clear whether or not you're the type of person that should even consider living there.

I agree...the rules are not always a bad thing. Just comes down to the right "fit". Having two children running in and out of the garage all day was going to put me in the poor house with the garage door fines so that was not the neighborhood for me. We still have a "garage door closed" policy in our new neighborhood but, thankfully, no fines attached.

I think there is probably a "keep your clothes on" policy, too, but the whole chicken idea might work when all of those folks who can't read "No Solicitors" come knocking...hmmm...

Garages aren't even enough in some neighborhoods. When we looked for each of our houses, I eliminated entire subdivisions (houses with garages especially) that had lots and lots of cars parked on the streets at 2PM in the afternoon. What I suspected was the garage was already filled with crap that did't fit in the house (read weekly garage sales), and/or there were an awful lot of adult kids living with mom and dad, and the don't have regular jobs (that's why there are too many cars on the streets.) These neighborhoods just were appealing to the investor in me.

I eliminated entire subdivisions (houses with garages especially) that had lots and lots of cars parked on the streets

That must be a mid-west thing. Out in California, nobody ever parks their car in a garage. That's just not what they're for! It doesn't necessarily mean there's a bunch of crap in the garage--that's just not where we store cars. =)

-- Ryan

It's a bad weather thing. Places that have bad winter weather, have garages. Places down south, if you've got an upscale house, have carports. If you've got a down scale house, you have the driveway or the street. If you have a mobile home, you've got the front yard. And there's always the field out back where you can find several other cars that have been "parked" there for a few years.

I never had a house for my car until last year. Now Lil' Honda is spoiled rotten, he has a carport at home and a parking garage for work.