Angry mob...

I am thinking about selling pitchforks and torches.

I live in a "village"... the villagers are uprising.  A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of the parking lot in Long Island Village...

Hart to tell it is a parking lot because of all the water.  We have had several heavy rains since we've been back.  The parking lot is in the middle of being replaced.  It is behind schedule.  No surprise to anyone who has tried to get anything done down here - everything is always behind schedule.

Our board of directors contracted to have the parking lot torn out and replaced, with a completion date of October 7th.  The buildings around that parking lot are our events center, owners area, indoor and outdoor pools, exercise room, and our private mail boxes (that is another topic that gets people up in arms around here, but don't get me started on the Post Office).  Almost a month behind schedule, and all that has been done is tearing out the old parking lot.  As near as I can tell, no work has been on it in a couple weeks.

There is a lot of finger pointing going on as to who is to blame for the delays.  Certainly, weather has played a part, but today there was a "community meeting" about the parking lot.  It has turned into a soap opera, with the contractor not getting the proper permits, people complaining about where the material taken out was being dumped.  Truly, a fiasco.  One that is costing the owners about $200k, 2/3 of which has already been paid out.  Yep, people are pissed about that, too.

The winter Texans will be showing up soon, and if they can't drive their golf cart to the pools, dances, their mailbox, quilting, and other activities, it is going to get uglier than it already is.  Such is life, living in a community that is mostly retired folks... who have the time to get all riled up about things like this.  Some have called for our Village Manager to be fired.  Calls to the mayor - and we aren't a part of the city (really, it's a separate village).  Calls to the parking lot contractor (who, incidentally, has had to move his staging area 3 times now because of complaints... hard to work on the parking lot where you are spending all your time moving stuff needlessly.

Other than having to walk a ways to get to our mailbox, we are not affected by this situation.  Joan thought people would be understanding of the delays.  Ummm, nope.  To be fair, not everyone at the meeting was angry.  Some of weren't surprised that this project wouldn't get done on time.  Some of us have other stuff to get worked up about.

I'm trying to decide which way to go with my big sale: buy two torches get the third free, OR 20% off when you buy a pitchfork and a torch at the same time!  Hurry - supplies are limited!  (Well, they wouldn't be if my order had been shipped when it was supposed to be.)  ;-)