It's almost over...the move up to the mountains
Don Bradley
Dear friends,
The three months since Sukkot I have been through every conceivable hardship as regards this move out of Los Angeles and into...the forests and literal mountain top of the Tehachapis. It's almost over. Every single effort was pushed back against, stalled, interfered with, attacked. If it could happen it did.
Even yesterday, I tried to buy firewood (the 2nd time the witches of Tehachapi tried to take a bite out of me and hurt me. Firewood is necessary up here because to keep the heat at even 65 degrees costs between 20 and 30 dollars a day. For real. it's about 10 gallons of propane, which costs 3.09 a gallon. It comes out to about 900 a month on propane alone.
$900 a month just for heat up here.
So, unable to find anyone, I placed a wanted ad in hopes of getting someone to bring me wood. The first guy brought Eucalyptus, which is a medium density wood that burns fast, and does not provide high heat. Oak burns hot, lasts a long time, and is the stuff you want to buy. That's what my ad said, only oak.
So, Friday, someone contacted me. $500 for a full cord of oak. That would be enough, wisely used, to get me through the winter. He shows up with less than half of a cord of yellow pine (burns as fast as matches, very little heat) declaring it to be "red oak."
What showed up at my driveway was a burned out guy, jammed to the gills on crystal meth, constantly talking, waving his arms, proud of his scam business, and when I pointed out to him that the wood was neither even a half a cord and YELLOW PINE, not oak. He then started blaming HIS CHILDREN for the error. Then he gas-lighted me. Then he claimed it was his daughter's business and he was just the delivery guy. One lie on top of the other. I must have misread the ad (what ad? He contacted me on MY ad.) I reminded him that he texted me with a promise of ALL OAK for 500.
(500 is a great deal of money to me. It's a big expense to not freeze in the snow and tweekers like him are simply predators preying upon the weak and ignorant.)
I told him to pack it back up and leave at once, before he dumped any more yellow pine in my driveway. I gave him 100 bucks for the small pile of mostly useless wood and out of mercy.The tweeker grifter was counting on me being from the city and gullible and ignorant of wood and their types. When caught, all he did was blame children who have nothing to do with his "business" (what kind of man blames his children for his evil? Only a stunted soul does such things - coven.)
My two interactions with the people
up here were just like this. Lies, deceptions, and a grift.
 |
| Small useless pieces of yellow pine. |
