‘Yes, I agree fences have a lot to do with feelings. So how do you feel about this one? What would you like to do?”

‘Well I don’t know. I have been trying to find out about this. I have been looking into it for a year. I know a lot about these fences,” he said.

“You do? What did you find out?” I asked.

‘Well, nothing yet,” he said.

“I see. So what would you like to do? Would it be okay with you if I put this fence back up? I’ll be happy to pay.”

“Well I don’t know. I can’t say if that would be okay or not. I’m not going to tell you to do it, or not do it.” And then he starts repeating: ‘For all I know, that fence belongs to the city. That fence is part of the ecosystem around here and those posts are expensive…”

And the guy fixing the fence? Well, he’s a Mars figure. And he’s fixing the fence between my house and two other houses… we’re all cooperating. So when I told him that he may not be able to go on this guy’s property to fix the fence, he flared. He said he was going to go over and “talk” to him… be my hero. Well that’s all I need! I need that like I need a hole in my head. Don’t be punching anyone on my behalf.

So I can get rid of the fence guy but then negotiations with my other two neighbors (which were effortless) will fall through which I am sure would please this other guy. He would love it if no one got their fence fixed. So I don’t know what to do. I do think I have to get this guy’s consent and I don’t think he is going to give it.

I thought about putting the fence back up but in closer in so it’s on my property but if this guy is hell bent… I think I’d better get his consent for that as well, which is of course going to be withheld, although I am sure he would love to see me coming over to talk to him again… he gets to waste another half hour of my life.

There are chunks of his fence missing all the way around. I think this is this guy’s gig.

“If you want this fence put up, well what are you going to do for me? What do I get out of having that fence back up?” he said. “Tell me what you’re going to do for me and maybe I’ll agree to something…”

::shiver::