Cherries and guava and pears, oh my!

Several weeks ago, I planted an Asian pear and a Stella cherry. Today, I added a pink guava to the mix. I have no idea if it'll bear fruit in this climate, so it's more of an experiment than anything else. I was surprised to see one at the store, and bought it right away. I love fresh guava. In theory it's hot enough here, so we'll see.

I also picked up a Chinese wisteria for the front yard. I like wisteria, but this is the first time I've had one. It's going in front of the house, next to the walk from the drive way to the front door. It's only a couple feet tall right now, but considering how fast most vines grow, it could be eight feet by the end of June.

I'm taking a break from the whole Tara mess. The trip up on interesting. I haven't traveled much since getting the house and the dog. A trip to Hawaii, and holiday dinners in Paso, but that's it.

Ellensburg's an interesting little town, and kind of reminds me of San Luis Obispo 30 years ago. I like it. Of course the music sucks. It's all country-western and gospel (i.e. preaching channels, on FM -- very strange). It's also redneck-ville.

I visited my sister at the jail on Thursday, visited with my nephew at the "house" on Wednesday, and had breakfast with my nieces and one of their aunts on Friday. One of my nieces looks just like my sister. She got kicked out of Jr. High for selling prescription drugs (sigh).

My sister goes back to court on Friday. Hopefully she'll be able to get out on work release.

Cash down the toilet

<sigh>

So I stopped by the jail yesterday to leave $40 on Tara's books. This'll allow her to get a phone card, so she can talk to her kids. I asked about visiting hours, and they told me she had to make an appointment. I asked how she was supposed to make an appointment to speak with me, when she doesn't even know I'm here. The officer just shrugged his shoulders.

I spoke with her bondswoman, who told me that Tara had set up visiting hours every night this week for her kids. Yet none of them have shown up. I asked my nephew about it, and he said he hadn't heard anything about visiting hours. The bondswoman, Jackie, said she keeps leaving messages with the sister-in-law, where my nieces are staying, but hasn't been able to get hold of anybody. So near as I can tell, my nieces haven't been told anything about visiting hours. Tammy, the aunt, apparently hates my sister, and is also quite petty. Jackie's of the opinion that Tammy hasn't bothered telling the girls about visiting hours.

Today I stopped by the court house and paid $1,368 in back taxes on the property. Then I drove down to Yakima and paid $1,893 in back payments and late fees on the property. In November, it was $745 in back taxes, and $909 in back payments. So in property expenses alone, she's cost me just under $5,000.

Then there's the bail last early this month, for $2,500.

Yesterday, the driller gave me an estimate of $9,000 to drill, said the pump'll run around $3,000, and told me that the pump housing and excavating to lay a line from the well to the house'll run around $3,000 more. So we're looking at $15,000 to get a well installed and operational.

<double sigh>

In an odd turn of events, I called Gary, who initally sold us the property. He asked if I was interested in selling. It seems his brother-in-law is interested in acquiring the lot. I'll have to talk to Tara about it, but frankly, I just want to get rid of it. I do not want to spend $15,000 to install a well, when it's $15,000 I'll never see. Further, it's likely my sister'll continue flaking out on payments, and once again stick me with the bill. I'm getting sick of it. Unloading the lot, and voiding the prior contract, would be beneficial.

But there's the matter of my nephew and nieces.

<triple sigh>

I have an appointment to visit Tara this evening. It'll be interesting to see if I can maintain my calm, or if I'll just start yelling at her. Apparently she's been crying a lot, but you know what, this is a mess of her own making, not mine.

In Ellensburg

I left San Jose this morning for Seattle, and from there drove to Ellensburg. The drive was very nice. Alpine forest, rocky mountains, snow, waterfalls. It has just stopped raining when I arrived in Seattle, which was nice. I'd only been in Seattle three times before, and it had been raining each time.

This afternoon, I'm stopping by the jail to chat with my sister. I need to call and find out visiting hours. I also need to visit assessor a visit at city hall, and get the back taxes on the property paid. This is going to cost me a small fortune, what with back taxes, back mortgage payments, and well installation. Part of this evening's visit to my sister is to inform her that her Ellensburg Blue needs to be sold to cover this expense (including the $2,500 I spent three weeks ago to bail her out of jail the first time).

I also need to call the driller, and set up an appointment for tomorrow morning. He's going to take a look at the property, and give me an estimate on the well. His preliminary estimate was $7,000-$9,000.

I sent a resume to Google yesterday, for a number of QA positions that sounded interesting. I also brought my Cocoa book with me, so I could do some reading. Of course I also brought five episodes of The Shield on DVD, so there's no telling when I'll actually get any reading done. :)

Tomorrow, after meeting with the driller, I need to drive down to Yakima to pay off the late property payments. I'm going to have all correspondence, from both the assessor and the mortgage holder, send directly to me from now on, and tell my sister she needs to start paying me rent each month.

The sister saga continues

Argh!

I just called up there to speak with my nephew, and the phone's been disconnected for non-payment. I called the phone company, and even though I own the property, they won't let me pay the bill and have the phone turned back on, 'cause the bill's not in my name!

Further, the previous owner of the property wants me to install the well, in order to stop foreclosure of the property. That's going to run me several thousand dollars!

Hmm, Mother's Day in jail

It just occured to me, she'll be in jail over Mother's Day. Hopefully she'll learn a lesson from this experience.

Bail Set

I just got off the phone with my nephew. Apparently the new bail is $100,000. Which means a $10,000 bond is required to get my sister out of jail prior to her court date.

She's going to be spending the next several days in jail. I am not bailing her out again.

Still no word

I called the bondswoman last night, to see if she could find out what happened. So far, I haven't yet heard anything.

My sister tried calling me last night, and twice this morning, but I can't speak with her. The jail uses some sort of phone service I need to subscribe to in order to accept calls from the jail. I guess it's to protect call recipients from harassment of inmates, but it's annoying.

This time she can rot

A couple of hours ago, I got a call from my sister telling me the guy she'd bought the property from had started foreclosure proceedings on the property when she was arrested last week. She asked him to speak with me first, about taking over the payments, and to shut down the foreclosure.

So I called up there about 20 minutes ago to speak with her, only to have my nephew answer the phone -- and deliver some bad news.

Apparently the stupid git went and got herself arrested again.

Here's what happened the first time (according to my sister):

Her new boyfriend made a deal to sell some pot and meth to a friend. The friend had apparently gotten himself in trouble, and had made arrangements with the police to participate in a sting. When my sister showed up to deliver the "goods" and collect the cash, the trap closed. She and the boyfriend were arrested.

Neither she nor the boyfriend have adult records. She feels since it was a first time offense as an adult, they'd both get off with drug court and probation.

Then today happened.

Apparently, after she called me, she called the narc and told him she had people out looking for him. Did you pick up on the implicit threat there? Well, he called the cops and they arrested her again.

So after costing me $2,500 just a few days ago, she's not in jail again, likely expecting me to bail her out again.

I just called the bondswoman to let her know my sister had again been arrested. She's going to call the jail and find out what the charges are, and whether there will be a new bail set.

Frankly, I doubt there will be. She basically threatened the narc. I doubt they're going to set a new bail. And even if they do, I'm not likely to pay it. I can't afford to keep dumping money into this situation.

But there's still the property. I don't know what's involved in a foreclosure, and I can't speak with the seller until after 7 PM this evening. The payments are low enough I should be able to take them over easily. But I'll first have to pay five months of back payments she's missed (sigh), a year's worth of property taxes she's missed (double sigh), and three years worth of late payments fees, somewhere in the range of $1,700 (triple sigh).

Argh!

Bail paid

Well, I did it. $2,500 in bail, plus another $22,500 somehow guaranteed by my sister. I had no idea she had anything of value, which really makes me wonder why it is she's so unable to keep up with the property payments.

Apparently she has a number of cars, a couple of snowmobiles, and a huge chunk of Ellensburg Blue. I'd never heard of it, but apparently it's the 3rd rarest gemstone on the planet, and can only be found in Ellensburg, WA and, for some reason, Israel.

I'm pissed about this whole situation. I should not have to continue bailing my sister out of her assorted financial troubles. Frankly, the only reason I bailed her out is because of the kids and the pets. They need taking care of. If it was just her, I'd have left her in there. She claims innocence, but I don't understand how she would have been charged with possession if the drugs the guy was carrying hadn't been out in the open somewhere. She's supposed to be getting out of jail within the next half hour, and in theory will be calling me. I have no idea if I'll be able to remain calm during the conversation.

Siblings, blogs and timing

Well this is interesting. Mere seconds after I submitted the previous blog entry, the phone rang. It was a woman named Jackie, who was calling on me to put up my sister's bond.

Apparently she went to court this morning, and was given a $25,000 bail. This means $2,500 plus collateral for the rest. The $2,500 is non-refundable, and the remainder will only be collected should my sister fail to appear at any of her court proceedings.

She has no money, therefore she referred them to me.

But of course, since I haven't been working since September, I can't afford to set aside $22,500 in collateral. I have relatives who can, in fact I have relatives who could pay off not only my mortgage, but the mortgage on the property in Washington. But it would be just as unfair to call on them for help as it is [frankly] for my sister to dump all this on me.

Maybe I'm a bad person, but I'm getting tired of having to keep bailing my sister out of her financial troubles.

The Jackie's going to speak with my sister to find out the date of her next court appearance. She's also going to speak with her boss to find out if there are any options for posting the bail. I can handle the $2,500 (though it'll hurt), but there's just no way I can cover the collateral. Jackie apparently knows my sister, and doesn't want to leave her sitting in jail for X number of weeks, but I'm not seeing much of an option.

I just can't deal with this right now!

The trouble with siblings

A few years back, I co-signed some loan papers for a property my sister wanted to buy in Washington state. Five acres and a trailer, where she and her three kids could be free from her troublesome husband.

Sadly, she failed to keep up with the payments. Late last year, I found myself not only making three months worth of back payments on the property, but also two years worth of back taxes. The last update I saw from the collection service is that she also owes almost three years worth of late penalties on the payments she did make.

Then yesterday happened. My nephew called to tell me my sister had been arrested. From the police blotter on the local news site...

A 35-year-old [omitted] woman was arrested by [omitted] County Sheriff's Office deputies for six counts of possession and delivery of marijuana over 40 grams, possession and delivery of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. No bail.

Sigh.

Worse, it seems that while in the middle of a divorce, she's now seeing some 49-year-old guy, who, according to my nephew, is the person the police had been after in the first place.

Double sigh.

As they were taking her away, she apparently told my nephew to find my number and call me. I have no idea what she expected me to do about it.

Spring is in the air

Ah, spring. The skies are clear, the rain is gone, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, the heater is off, the running shorts are on... and every trip outdoors is accompanied by a paroxysm of sneezing.

I like Spring. I hate Spring. And Safeway isn't helping.

Several allergy meds are no longer available off the shelf. Instead, there are notices on the shelves telling me I need to see the pharmacist. It seems people have been buying allergy meds to make meth. In theory the meds are being reformulated, but the meth labs'll just find something else to use. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with some allergy brand I've never tried before, and which seems to be making an effort, but still doesn't quite do the trick.

Since I'm not working (and still enjoying the break), I'm no longer carrying medical insurance. Normally I'd just see my doctor and get an Allegra prescription, but it's a bit more expensive out of pocket. So I enjoy and suffer through Spring at the same time.