RARELY does anyone other than Killary Clinton get into my head, but I was going to my neighborhood park yesterday when some middle-aged guy approached me and asked me what I thought I was doing.
Surprised and a little bit confused, I told him I was going to the park. He replies, "Until the park is open, this is private property, pal." and then added something like "Who do you think owns all this land?" to which I replied, "As far as I know, this is part of the 'green space' (it's a California thing) that all the homeowners are responsible for."
"Well, it's not - it's private."
Now, in his defense, I was about to cross the yellow Caution tape on the sidewalk, but in all fairness to me, I had simply assumed that they'd decided to do some more work on the parking lot as they had once before.
I should also point out that the park has been open for use for almost 3 months now. Prior to its first opening, there were 'keep out' and 'danger' signs posted, but once they came down and the parking lot was unlocked, people - correctly or incorrectly - assumed it was open for our use.
Until yesterday, that is.
Apparently, he was upset that he owns all this land and he can't keep people off it because they don't respect his signs. He specifically referenced a bike path that isn't a bike path at all that people think is open for their use. He then showed me a newly-constructed gate and fence to block off that area and said the tire swing in the big oak was now gone, too. We had just been up there on Tuesday, so I now he spent some serious cash to get that crap built so fast.
Where I'm from down South, all the big landowners were cool as hell. Why? Because they had more land than they could possibly keep an eye on...it took the good folks of the community to help protect their property from vandals, dumpers, etc.
I know it's his property and all, but c'mon now - what kind of asshole takes down a tire swing??
Thanks for allowing me to vent.
