Thorp and Sailor's Grave Board

man I love LA (long fucking rant)

defstarsteve - 6-25-2008 at 06:03 PM

'Major takedown' targets members of Glassell Park's Drew Street gang

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drew26-2008jun26,0,7...

they busted up a pretty large gang in LA today
and you might ask why I would post this, other than the obvious reasons (cleaning up the shit in the city)...

well I'll tell you

my wife got a knock on the door this morning, not from the police, but from the city attorney...
seems the people who own my property also own the majority of properties where these fine citizens were living and doing business....
and the police are on the lookout for them….at our house….

I swear I don’t know who I killed in my last life but it must have been a fucking saint because I have had nothing but bad luck for the last few years…
I am now going into a short list of things that have gone wrong since we have lived in LA
You can stop reading here if you like…

So we move to LA into which seems like a pretty nice home….
Until we get there from Pittsburgh and find it’s not inhabitable,
It needs about $3000 in repairs in all the major appliances.
My rent is $2800.00 a month and the landlord lives about 2 hours away, too far to show up and pay repair men….
And claims we can deduct the repairs from our rent…
Not a big deal, but we just spent $8,000 in deposit and about $10,000 in the move expenses
So we don’t have a lot of saving left, but we say fuck it and put out our last bit of cash to make this work…
Then the landlord quits answering our calls and emails….
So we get a little sketched out but no big deal really….
Then I’m at home working with my son and hear someone open the door…
I think it’s my wife coming home, when I hear a guy’s voice say hello…
I go to door and look and there is a gentleman I have never seen before asking me who I am and what I am doing in his house….
Apparently the person we gave our money to was a conman who got a copy of the key somehow and rented the house to us…
And this guy has no idea about any of this and lives 2 hours in the opposite direction, but was just out checking his properties…
But dude seems cool and says we can stay till we get this all figured out…
We call the police, they laugh
Under 15,000 they don’t care, dude took us for 13….
But we have a house for now right…
Then we get notice that the house is being foreclosed upon and we couldn’t stay if we wanted too….
We then begin to suspect dude one is in with dude two, and they made fat bank….

So we have no choice but to move, but oh yeah we are out of saving and the recession is hitting hard, especially on small business owners…
But we find a place, through a real estate agent this time, and things a looking better, except the house is smaller and more expensive
But we have to move and have little choice….
So we get into the new house and find out we cannot even sue the idiots except in small claims court for 7500.00 each, but they don’t ever have to pay if they don’t have the money…
So things are going okay until the new landlord shows up asking for 2 months rent in advance as he has to leave for Israel as his son is sick….
He said we could post date them he just needed them as he couldn’t be back in time to collect them…
We say no problem…
And then the next fucking day the phone starts ringing.
Dude has fled the country owing millions in dollars on investments…
His brother takes on the property thru a power of attorney and I have people showing up on my door step all hours of the day and night looking for this guy….
People with no necks and no pinkies if you get my drift…
And then we get this shit today…
Apparently the 2 brothers own the properties together as well a few porn shops to help clean money…

So we get to move again…
Asap
But oh yeah I’m back in Pittsburgh for the 2nd time in 2 months because my idiot employees can’t seem to do their jobs anymore….

All of his in less than 8 months in LA as well as getting sideswiped the first week in LA and having our car totaled…
Going out and buying a new one (our first new car ever) with every kind of lojack and alarm system…
Only to have it stolen in broad daylight right outside of my house…
And I am still making payments on the fucking thing waiting for the insurance companies to get their shit straight, while having to ride the bus everywhere for the last 3 months…

And business is still slow….
Fucking recession

Anyhow I’ll close out this live journal session by saying this year has been shit and I can’t wait for it to be over…

So anyone know of any good rentals in the LA area.

BDx13 - 6-25-2008 at 06:24 PM

good god, man!

defstarsteve - 6-25-2008 at 06:30 PM

all this and I can still seem to keep my cool... and a smile on my face
I would be become a bhuddist monk or something, but I hate religion

Discipline - 6-25-2008 at 06:48 PM

And people wonder why I think life sucks. Hope things pick up for you bro.

newbreedbrian - 6-25-2008 at 06:53 PM

shit steve that's crazy man.

JawnDiablo - 6-25-2008 at 07:00 PM

Jeeeez Steve, I hope things get better for ya and something comes of that bullshit.
that's probably the worst moving nightmare ive ever heard.

clevohardcore - 6-25-2008 at 07:36 PM

wow.

DAK - 6-25-2008 at 07:54 PM

You should write a screenplay and sell it.

defstarsteve - 6-25-2008 at 08:11 PM

i thought about writing it but fuck it
no one would want to produce it
no one died, so not interesting enough...

these are the things that make life interesting, the stories you tell your grand kids

positives out of all this
1) got a better car, with a cheaper payment, better mpg and lower intrest rate
2) get to move within 5 minuts of the water now so my kids can grow up to be surf bums
3) get to move half of my presses to LA (or ventura or san diego haven't choosen the new spot yet) but I get to keep my east coast production levels where they have been while trimming 2 employees and saving $800 a week...

so if I get the west coast working as well as the east coast I'll double my profits in no time...

life is shit, and will always be shit, but you gotta take risks to try to fight for your piece of the turd to float on

barc0debaby - 6-25-2008 at 09:06 PM

If ya end up in san diego or ventura I would be more than willing to lend a helping hand.

XHonusWagnerX - 6-25-2008 at 09:27 PM

Man Steve.... Im sorry to hear all that crap. There is a lot of crap going on in a lot of peoples lives, but for you to have been dealt all that you have been and keep a smile is amazing. Its a testament to what a good person you are.

Take care.

clevohardcore - 6-25-2008 at 09:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by defstarsteve
i thought about writing it but fuck it
no one would want to produce it
no one died, so not interesting enough...

these are the things that make life interesting, the stories you tell your grand kids

positives out of all this
1) got a better car, with a cheaper payment, better mpg and lower intrest rate
2) get to move within 5 minuts of the water now so my kids can grow up to be surf bums
3) get to move half of my presses to LA (or ventura or san diego haven't choosen the new spot yet) but I get to keep my east coast production levels where they have been while trimming 2 employees and saving $800 a week...

so if I get the west coast working as well as the east coast I'll double my profits in no time...

life is shit, and will always be shit, but you gotta take risks to try to fight for your piece of the turd to float on
















^^^^^^^^^^ Hire Mexicans. I hear they work actually work without bitching too much. Plus you labor is cheap.



^ This is a joke but hey, you do live in Cali now and own a business. ;)

defstarsteve - 6-25-2008 at 10:10 PM

and don't get me wrong I fucking love southern california and always have,
since the first day I got there when I was 7 in 1980...
I wouldn't trade living there for much of anything, seeing that I have lived pretty much everywhere else in the states

it's just the current level of scumbag living in society everywhere that makes it tough...

DaveMoral - 6-25-2008 at 10:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by defstarsteve
all this and I can still seem to keep my cool... and a smile on my face
I would be become a bhuddist monk or something, but I hate religion


Fuck it dude. Just become a Jedi, and go all Obi-Wan on it. Ride out into the desert somewhere, build a hut and just get off the grid. Forage, do what you gotta do.

After all that...

Murk - 6-26-2008 at 12:02 AM

damn dude....

Voodoobillyman - 6-26-2008 at 02:24 AM

I am sure the part that makes it hard is the fact you have a family to look out for. If it were just you you could totally say fuck it and go wherever. having people depending on you changes the whole damn game. Good on you Steve for keeping afloat through all this bullshit, most people would have crumbled a looooooong time ago, myself probably included.

Furly - 6-26-2008 at 06:13 AM

Wow, that shits crazy!

Thanks for teaching me a great way to fuck over tenants tho! ;)

thedog - 6-27-2008 at 12:45 AM

thats crazy.

hope things take a turn for the better for ya.

morgan - 6-27-2008 at 02:14 AM

That shits crazy. Hope it starts looking up for you.