This has been the very first morning I woke so cold I couldn't move my fingers, and still can't it seems. My daughter is 100% correct, I can't move into a trailer with rain pouring in. I can't even handle this weather in a metal shed anymore. My boss said that there was ice on the front deck, under the roof, of his house this morning.
Throughout the night it rained cats and dogs flooding everything. Raining cats and dogs!In the 1500's houses had thatch roofs. Thick straw, piled high, with no wood underneath. They were the only place for the little animals to get warm. So all the pets; dogs, cats and other small animals, mice, rats, bugs, all lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery so sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Here started the saying, "it's raining cats and dogs."
We still have thatched roof's in England, and still have thatchers. Those roof's last forever and, like dry stone walls, is something I probably have the skill to make. I wonder what New Mexico Construction Industries Division would think if I stuck a thatched roof on that trailer? Eee Gads!
I had a terribly fitful night. It was too cold to get up, yet sleep didn't come easily or peacefully. Between worrying about the rain going into the trailer and a frustrating conversation with John, I had a shocking migraine. Having spent most of the day speaking with Senator Adairs office, including a brief conversation with Rod Adair, I had spent an hour trying to locate anyone who could weld a carport type roof with the metal roofing and pipe I have sat on the ground - anything to give this trailer and the building material protection from this constant rain.
This is a standstill, a stand off, that has no answers. I can't get a permit because I can't afford to hire someone with mobile home builders license, and time isn't on my side here. If I don't find a resolve I will not have a home or building material left to work with. I just can't walk outside and stop the rain from causing further damage.
John told me "CID are going to give you fits if you try to put a roof up. " But John just wants to go on and party without having impending problems to deal with - especially those he can ignore.I just don't give damned anymore. What can the State of New Mexico DO to me anymore that they have not already done?
Someone could have warned me that I needed permits when I was wondering around asking people what I needed, when I was stood telling professionals that this was a last ditch effort to get into a home before winter but I had no idea what I was doing. All I was doing was the best I could, and it was exhausting me.
The reason why I wasn't told isn't that people didn't know, it is because this situation is being made into a bigger deal than it should have ever been allowed to be. No-one could have expected this.
This wasn't exactly a covert operation.
In the spring of 2010 John told me about a single wide in Carlsbad for $2,000 which he went to see and photograph for me and we, Suzie Stockton and I, tried everything possible to get that single wide transported. But it sold before we could find a way. So many people in Ruidoso had been contacted in that process. I was simply besides myself when that trailer was sold.
CID, having spoken to Don at the trailer moving company, could not ignore the reality that I was asking as many questions as possible, trying to find the rules and guidelines, trying to get guidance. It became clearly evident that I was trying to seek a rule book and the ONLY thing they had to do was let me have those homeowners permits when I applied for them on the 24th or 27th BEFORE the laws changed on the 28th and I could no longer get the permits - PERIOD.
Pete, Cheryl and Larry at Alto Cafe had done a benefit b-b-q & garage sale for me last year at this time. I just couldn't thank them enough, still can't. But throughout the day of the garage sale I was fretting about children having no Christmas presents. It was so depressing me.
It was so close to Christmas, and the economy was rocking so bad, that I was wracked with guilt at the thought that we were taking our eyes off the little ones. I have a real soft spot for kids. My own, others, those who are healthy, those who are sick. I'll protect a senior citizen, I'll give my last dime to a person in need. But whenever I walk into TR's Store, Lincoln Mercantile, Harvey's or any other business which has fund drives going they immediately give me updates on the children in need because I would give the air I breath for a child.
When Dianna & Chuck Stallings arrived I quietly told them that I can't keep going trying to come up with the finances to dry in this barn, and make a home out of it, I had to keep looking for another route to get a home.
I stood next to the b-b-q grill and looked at the old hospital MRI building that was in an adjacent lot. It's been sat there in two pieces for years, rain and snow pouring in, and it was severely damaged. I turned to Larry, Cheryl and Pete and said, "I'd be happy with that building to renovate. In fact I'd be tickled pink with it."
I had advertised on Craigslist in the winter of 2008 going all through 2009 for any building, modular or trailer that could be renovated - that was cheap. A local businessman e-mailed me and told me that his partner owned the old MRI building, and he gave me his phone number so I could phone him about it. When I phoned the partner he was in the airport so our conversation was quick, and he sprung a $15,000 asking price for it.
You could have absolutely knocked me down with a feather. I expected him to say $3,000 at the very most. This building is wrecked and needs totally re-building.
Almost a year later at the b-b-q Cheryl explained that he may lower his price. So after the b-b-q Suzie Stockton tried to phoned the owner of the MRI building yet again. I finally reached him 2 days later and he increased the asking price to $16,000 but said that he would accept payments.
There could be no missing the reality that I was going to accept anything that could be a starter project because I was so desperate for a home. This wasn't a secret and for the life in me I can't understand why New Mexico Construction Industries Division couldn't have shown SOME mercy and issued permits on the 24th or 27th of September when I tried to apply for them, because they knew after the 28th there would be NO CHANCE of my being able to get a homeowners permit.
And quite truthfully, I'm cold enough and exhausted enough to say, "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damned."
NOTHING is going to make me sit and watch a $9,000 investment ruin when I have tried so hard for so long. If the state wants to harass anyone they had better get over to Robert Huckins..
THIS IS HIS DEAL!
| Man arrested on embezzlement and fraud charges Dianne Stallings dstallings@ruidosonews.com Article Launched: 09/23/2008 08:45:27 PM MDT A Lincoln County contractor was arrested Saturday and charged with one count of embezzlement or in the alternative2nd-degree fraud in connection with a case involving a local resident. Assistant District Attorney Sandra Burson said Tuesday Robert M. Huckins is charged with embezzlement of $80000 and is scheduled to be arraigned today in Magistrate Court in Carrizozo in front of Judge Martha Proctor. His bail was set at $100,000 NO 10 percent bond allowed. Burson said she planned to attend the arraignment to advocate that Huckins remain in jail. Huckins was out of jail on two other criminal cases filed in February in magistrate court and bound over to district court she said. In those cases Huckins was scheduled to stand trial on three charges of fraud and one of embezzlement on Oct. 28in front of District Judge Jerry H. Ritter. A date was pending on another case because Huckins' attorney William Griffin withdrew. That case involves five counts of fraud in the 3rd degree one 4th-degree felony fraud and a 2nd-degree felony fraud in Judge Frank K. Wilson's court according to court records. "He was under a court order as a condition of re-lease from jail on those charges not to contract for any more jobs" Records show Huckins has amassed a list of civil cases since 1999 with several listed as still pending. They include a successful action for breach of contract brought by Dorothy McKeever and for debt and money due by nursery owner Ted Conley. In April 2002 the state Taxation and Revenue Department sought a restraining order to prohibit Huckins from doing business as Cabinet Craft. A department spokesman said Tuesday the order still stands. "We'd like to hear from people who think Mr. Huckins defrauded them even if they have contacted us before" Burson said. "They can contact me at 575-648-2383." Huckins has worked under the names of Cabinet Craft and Concept Pros according to Burson. "The investigation is continuing under our white collar crime division" she said. | ||
| |
*&^%$@#!&^%$#
If I said what I felt this morning this blog would turn x rated!
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.” - Theodore Roosevelt
