Over the last month and a half the management company of our housing complex has made “improvements”. Some are great and legitimate things. They have installed doggie bag stations. Of course, the bags don’t always get used by dog owners. Sometimes the bratty military children that plague this base just reel off the roll and use them for whatever game they have imagined up to play for the day. I don’t like to be so cynical about children, but I have never encountered military kids like these. Where discipline is usually the rule in military families, I have not seen a lot of it here. The children run wild, steal mail, play handball against their neighbors houses and garage doors, run out into the street without looking, walk four or five abreast down the middle of the street and only move if you yell at them.
I digress…the management team hired a new grounds keeping company and they had them tear all the big, ugly, bushes, that were overgrown and sections were dying. I was so happy to see those bushes go. They were taken out, but the roots were left. A few weeks went by and they came back to remove the majority of the roots. Then they came and planted ornamental grass in the front spot. It’s showing signs of dying. I have watered it, I don’t know that it’s going to make it.
Last week they came and put in 3 boxwood bushes. They are a miniature variety and they keep them well-trimmed and out-of-the-way. I went to take out the trash and noticed that they had not cleaned off our spray nozzle. It was covered in mud. I was irritated but figured I would clean it off before Matthew used it on Saturday, then we left for our little get-away and I forgot about it. On Tuesday I got home from the doctor’s office and they were out there again planting a few more bushes. Again, they used my hose to water them in and spray off the sidewalk.
Last night, Matthew wanted to clean his bike and get it ready for the weekend. The sprayer was not only still caked in mud, it was broken. It is leaking all over the place. No matter the setting it’s placed on, it’s leaking.
When I was growing up I was taught that if you used something that was not yours, you left it in the condition or better condition than you found it. I am hoping that our management office will do the right thing and replace the nozzle. It’s not a matter of the expense, it would just be the right thing for them to do.
