Welcome to East Berlin, Georgia Part 2

So, back when I first started this blog, we were in the middle of re-doing our back yard. We were cutting down trees, bringing in 30 (oh yes - 30) truckloads of dirt in order to level the yard, and installing a fence. (OK, so we didn't do all of that. The people we hired did it. Are you kidding? ME?!?! Landscaping on that scale in the middle of a Georgia drought? Whatev.) And, of course, to have work done on our property that we own, property for which we pay the friggin' mortgage, we have to have home owners' association (HOA) approval and the sign-off of the neighbors living on either side of us.

I hate covenants. And some of ours? Are just ri-friggin-diculous. You can read about my frustration here.

Because of my frustrations, I have decided for once in my life to be pro-active instead of "sit around the house and bitch, glaring at any neighbors I pass on the street"-active. I have joined the covenants re-write committee.

Oh, I am such a sucker for punishment.

All of the HOA committees met last Wednesday to get acquainted and set goals for what we wanted to accomplish and when. As we were talking about what we wanted to do, over walks some busybody from the newsletter committee.

"Now, y'all just need to write a 'Covenants for Dummies' okay? Just dumb them things down, simplify them!"

I looked at her and said, "Yeaaaaah. Right. We're going to do that but we're also going to look over the covenants and get rid of anything that is outdated or overridden by federal, state, or local laws."

Busybody: "Like what?"

Me: "Well, the fact that our covenants state you can't have a video signal-capturing antenna on top of your house, but according to FCC rules and regulations, no one can be stopped from placing said antennae or satellite dishes on top of their homes to capture signals."

Busybody: "No, you're wrong about tha..."

Me: "No, I'm not. I looked it up a few months ago for my blog. You can't stop anyone from capturing video signals with antennae or dishes. No matter the size or position on or around the house."

Busybody: "Well, I don't know about that, but we need to stop those ham radios."

Me: "Excuse me?"

Busybody: "You know, those ham radio operators and their antennas."

Me: "Oh, well, I didn't know we had a proliferation of ham radio enthusiasts in our neighborhood."

Busybody: "Well, we just don't want all those big antennas in our community."

Me: "But, what if we suffer another 9/11 on a larger scale, or an earthquake, or a devastating event in which all TV, satellite, and commercial radio signals are knocked out? The ham radio operators will be our best line of communication. Shouldn't we therefore foster their hobby?"

Busybody: "Whatever. You just need to realize that if you re-write the covenants like that, it could take you close to two years!"

Me: "Yes, I realize that. That's why I'm sitting at this table, ready to get rid of the ridiculous fluff that has bogged down the residents of this community, not allowing them to better their homes or properties because of some outdated rules and regulations."

Busybody: Walks off in a huff.

GAD! Can we start working on that blogging compound tomorrow? Better yet, can I just give all of you my address, you guys start buying houses in this neighborhood, and we all get ham radio operator licenses and just pepper the place with 20ft tall antennae?

That would be sweet.