THE Neighbor From Hell

Dealing With The Daily Barrage

2010-09-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

In our case, our NFH (Neighbor From Hell) slung verbal garbage our way almost every day. Many of them were threats. The only way we found we could deal with them was to file with the local court for a restraining order and to document everything they did to us with a diary and videotape. If you get the order then just keep calling the cops to report a violation of the court order every time. It's really wearing, but it is about the only way we found that we could fight back. Finally all the court appearances and fines drove him out and we now live in peace. It's a damned hard road. No easy way to deal with it, I'm afraid.

A Fine Line Between Caution and Paranoia

2010-08-09T12:58:00.000-07:00

Trying to maintain a balance between caution and paranoia is tricky. A few years ago, I became concerned that my former neighbor might sue me because of this blog. I took it down, lost all the previous posts and responses, all because I was slipping into paranoia. It is one of those more costly sides to post traumatic stress disorder that can hang on so long - long after the predator has left. Since then, of course, I started up the blog again. My paranoia has subsided just from getting out there every day and living the way I want to.

Notes to Yourself

2010-08-06T10:39:00.001-07:00

A predatory neighbor from hell loves to tear down and destroy. You have to fight back by keeping upbeat messages on your refrigerator, bathroom mirror, in front of your exercise machine, wherever. My husband drew a picture (stick figures) of the neighbors moving out in a moving van. I wrote simple signs - "I am a force for good," "Evil will consume itself," and other positive statements. Within six months, our neighbors moved out and I attribute at least some of that to our positive affirmations. Hang in there, stick together and think positive.

No Mediation

2010-07-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

Having lived through the hell of an NFH for four years, I can safely say that mediation with one of these people is unwise at the very least. NFHes have a talent for building trigger buttons in their targets. You get sick and tired of certain phrases or looks or whistles, whatever, and the NFH knows it. They then use that trigger in a mediated meeting and you are wounded again. If you don't go ballistic on the spot, you are lucky. Mediation with a serial bully or predator or psychopath is NOT a good idea.

Dealing With A Lying Neighbor

2010-07-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Our NFH told lies better than we told the truth and that was a real problem. He said we were racists, which we are not, but most of the police appeared to believe him, even though we offered them videotapes showing we did not call him or his family names. In fact, our NFH called us names. Most cops did not want to watch the tapes - I think because of the 'bad cops caught on tape' television programs.

Why Don't You Just Move?

2010-07-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Moving away from a predator is a lot harder for some people. Financial situations, in particular, make it difficult. In our case, our place needed a lot of work just to get it into selling order. Painting our two-story needed scaffolding and with our predator's penchant for shooting and using a wrist-rocket, we would be in peril of being shot and falling. No thanks. We didn't have much choice but to hope the cops and the courts would do their job.

Writing

2010-07-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I finally began writing about my experiences with this predator. Today I worked on the most disturbing part - his accusation that my husband and I are racists. We are not and never have been, but he knew that by accusing us of that it would undermine anything we tried to do to stop him from harassing us. The cops appeared to happily believe him and easily dismissed our complaints. We are white, he was Hispanic. They apparently preferred to believe him, rather than believe he could be pulling the race card. It made our lives all that much more difficult.

Any Ideas For This Target of A Bully?

2010-02-03T13:58:00.001-08:00

I am going through the same thing. I am college student who is saving up to move out who lives eith a disabled parent in apartment complex. The neighbors above us are rude young college kids. The toture started when we said something to the office about them entarining to ludly and arguing before that it was quiet. All of a sudden they started slamming doors hard and throwing objects down that sounded like heavy furniture all hours of the night and blasting music from 9am to 4am. The area targeted is mt room there room is above my room constantly I loud music is bouncing at 1 and 3 am. Everytime I enter the bathroom someone starts slaming cabnients and each time at 4 in the morning someone starts making a banging or tapping noise usually in the bathroom area or by the closet. Because alot of times my mother is sleep she gets mad at me because I am help trying to find solution or venting. I get blamed and because this happens when she is sleep or not by her room but sge has witnessed inicidence she feels I am being to sensitive. I feel uncomfortable in the place and feel dread in reentering. We have notifiedf the rental management but they just give us the run around. The cops will probably be no help because the neighbors are able to but on front and con people by there all american appearance. Things have gotten so bad that it is causing disention in my house my mother doesn't really want hear about the situation and I feel like no one truly believes this is happening. I feel nervous and have anxiety when I return to the residence. I have ocd I feel that they are doing this partly because of I might do things differently and they think it us fun to target me. She tells other families that I am just being sensitive and they start fussing at me. I am looking for suggestions.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

2010-01-21T15:22:00.000-08:00

The medical community now recognizes Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as resulting not just from war, but from intense stress from a bully / sociopath / psychopath. The daily barrage that a bully is capable of, when directed at one person or a small number of people can result in PTSD. If you have the shakes, severe memory loss, can't concentrate, and feel unemployable - see a doctor, psychologist or psychiatrist. If your doctor thinks you have PTSD you can get one more mark against the bully who has targetted you. It can eventually help if you go to court.

2010-01-20T17:56:00.000-08:00

Bullies are everywhere and they cover the spectrum from the small, everyday woman who likes to block aisles in grocery stores, to fellow workers who like to manipulate other 'comrades' into fights, to bosses who push their employees to the limit. Just yesterday I witnessed a woman who used her children to dump on other people. While she was watching, her 10-year old pushed a cart into a woman at the checkout counter. The kid rammed her several times while the woman turned around and looked perplexed at the mother, who stared back. The younger kid in the cart started high-pitched bawling and yelling right next to the woman. The woman finally left, shaking her head and the mother and kids advanced to the counter.

The mother is a major 'B' and she has created a nightmare for some poor overworked teacher who is charged with educating this kid who has been taught bullying - and probably manipulation - on a major scale.

What is her PROBLEM? Maybe she was raised in a bad situation or perhaps she was just born that way and no matter what the parents did, she was a Bad Seed. Who knows. But society pays, because the woman she picked on, and who could have been in a good mood when she entered the store, certainly did not leave that way. How did she drive her car after that? How did it effect the rest of her day? Was it the 'final straw' in the life of a woman already bearing more trouble than a normal person should?

Bullies are costly even on a small scale.

The Bully at Work

2010-01-16T12:19:00.001-08:00

2010-01-15T14:07:00.001-08:00

Of all the books I have read on the topic of bullying, this one is best to help you understand what kind of person you are up against. It can get a little scary, which is also why I recommend this book - you need to know what is stalking you.

A Reader's Post

2010-01-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

This is a very informative piece by a contributing reader: "I am currently experiencing a bully next door.
I took him to court for his constant loud music and parties. We agreed to drop the charges if he would agree to be a good neighbor. Hah! Were we dumb! He was at it three days later, and ran when we called the cops. It looked like we were liars except we video taped the cars sitting next to the fence playing the music, so it was admissable.

We are going back to court for an injunction against loud music, since he just turns it up without parties now. Often it just starts up and he hides in the house. He bought a huge DJ system so he cn play it even louder.

Buy something called a sound snooper and hook it to your computer. It records the length and day of the disturbance and cant be altered. You dont have to get up, grab the video camera and try to prove the music is playing or call the cops who have more to do than run out there every few hours. It is admissable in court.

Now we are installing camera to show his kid standing in front of our house flipping us off while the other kid stands near by with a camera.

Hope this helps someone."

Heavy Cost of Psycho Neighbors

2009-11-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

It's been five years since our psychopathic neighbor moved away and we are still struggling with getting back to where we were before he moved next door in 1999 - financially, physically, mentally. A psychiatrist told me it would take at least five years, if not longer, to recover from the PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome).

These people are very expensive to our society since they are motivated by the enjoyment of other people's pain. Strange, but true.

Collecting Stories

2009-05-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

If you have your own neighbor from hell and want to share your experience, feel free to gripe away. I'm collecting stories for a book I am writing about my own experience, but I also want to show readers the variety of bad neighbors that are out there and how others dealt with them.

Still Driving By, Part II

2009-01-27T11:09:00.001-08:00

During the past week, our ex-neighbor has gone out of his way to drive by us when I am taking my husband to work. He sits along the street waiting to see us leave the driveway and then meets us at the intersection where I have to turn left. It has suddenly become a game with him. He obviously only upsets himself. We just shake our heads and go about our business.

5 years and he still misses us. Poor psychopathic loser.

Still Driving By

2009-01-23T08:12:00.001-08:00

Almost five years have passed since The Neighbor From Hell moved one mile away, and yet he still drives by. Our street is really inconvenient for him, but he just can't give up driving by, hoping that we see him and get angry. When I do see him, I just look and pass it off. No need getting angry again and again. It wastes my time. He's a loser and he will never be anything else.

Never Tell Them You're Recording

2008-11-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

I made two big goofs during our entire ordeal. The first one was when I was so desperate to get him to leave us alone. It made no sense that we had done nothing wrong to him, we had in fact, tried to be cordial neighbors and he was doing all these ugly things to us. Thinking that he would quit if he knew we had been secretly filming and audio recording, I blurted it out. Dumb. That only made him sneakier and harder to document. If I had to do it over again, I would keep the recording secret until I absolutely had to divulge it - in court. By then we would have had even better evidence than we did.

Before you record your bully neighbor, consult a civil rights attorney. That money will be well worth it. We consulted an attorney and got all the pertinent details on when we can record and when we cannot record. You don't want to go to court and then find out that you violated your bully neighbor's rights. Bad move. Make sure you are within the law.

Slander is Their Favorite Game

2008-11-08T11:31:00.001-08:00

A bully who hates you, turns to his neighbor and says, "That guy over there is a pedophile." If this is said about you, that's all it takes to become labeled by people who do not know you. And it's especially easy in a neighborhood where one neighbor barely knows the other. It didn't used to be that way - until HE moved in.

We know that our accuser - our former bully neighbor of four years - still spreads the slander - comes back to the neighborhood and gets neighbors stirred up because he is utterly obsessed with destroying us. We did not give him our property, we took him to court for shooting at us, etcetera, and he moved out one day before a trial that could have put him away for several months. The other thing about him - his children exhibit all the signs of having been molested. The vast majority of molestations occur within families.

People we once knew as friends are no longer friendly. They distance themselves and believe the rumor.

Bullies, with their twisted gray matter, need to be distrusted, not believed, distanced, alienated, stood up to, and driven out. But few people have the guts to do that.

2008-11-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

I've know this for 8 years, but it was announced today that science now suspects that the brains of bullies are physically different from the brains of 'normal' people. Their brains' pleasure centers are stimulated by witnessing the pain of other people. They enjoy causing people pain, distress, anger - all the emotions we consider negative.

So far there is nothing that can be done medically to correct their twisted gray matter. And nine times out of ten, their families back them up 100%. I saw it with my neighbor and his family. Any relative would defend him to the death. He was a good boy, he never lied.

In the meantime, the rest of us have to endure, run away from, agree with - do whatever we can to tolerate them in free society. And that costs money - lots of money. While we bear the cost of court fees, moving, repairing, mourning the loss of pets that they kill, treatment for post traumatic stress disorder, whatever - they sit there and take pleasure in it.

There is something very wrong about this picture and the sooner the judicial system - especially Fresno's - takes this into their own gray matter, the better.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/27592980/

Hearing From Others

2008-09-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

Frequently I hear from others about their own neighbors-from-hell. All of them are amazed at how horrible people can be for no good reason. Hair-trigger tempers are frequently possessed by the bullies and they are set off by the smallest things that most people ignore. Bullies are the center of their universe and believe they should be the center of everyone's universe. Incredible. If you have a neighbor-from-hell, let me know.

The Bumper Sticker Blog

2008-08-20T08:57:00.001-07:00

A bumper sticker now resides on my truck's bumper, telling all about this blog. People are always curious about bumper stickers - they can tell a lot about the driver and they can promote whatever you have a passion for. My passion is letting people know what dangerous people psychopathic predators can be as neighbors. It's like a very tiny ad-campaign that catches the eye of one person at a time. Hopefully a few will write it down (do not text while driving - please!) and check it out at home.

Slander, Extortion, Felony

2008-05-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Slander - the action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's reputation.

Extortion - the act of obtaining something through illegal means - threats, harassment.

Felony - Extortion is a felony, a serious felony punishable by 2 to 4 years in state prison.

All three of these things are done by the ignorant, the mean, the psychopathic.

THE BIG HINT

2008-03-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

This is a sign that neighbor "S" had put up across the street from our house. It does not face the street. It faces our house. People who were once our friends have become convinced by the slander of a psychopath and a few of his Wormtongue supporters. Never underestimate their powers of persuasion.

Still Photo vs. Video

2008-01-27T10:12:00.000-08:00

We have lots of videotape of our bully neighbor doing all sorts of bully things. Many times I wished I'd had the camera when he was stopping me on the road, trying to intimidate me, but I didn't. Those events I can only talk about and so can he and so it's one of those "he said she said" things that judges and D.A.s just love. "He said she said" can so easily be dismissed. But we did get lots of video anyway, plus audiotape in which he tells us he will have us killed.

Our neighbor had only his word and apparently lots of still photos which he never put into evidence, but he used to influence people like the D.A. So we kept taking him back into court and he kept harassing and threatening. Since there is no audio recording when you take a still photo, you can provide any story you want. And so our neighbor has shown an endless number of locals the still photos of us. Some of these same people have seen and heard our videotapes. Over time, they have chosen to believe him. He has a forceful personality and 40+ years' experience with acting in order to get his way. We tell the truth, but not as well as he tells a lie. And so it is with many bullies.

The Lights Never Went Out

2008-01-18T15:25:00.000-08:00

My neighbor must not have liked the dark and he didn't want anyone else to like it either. Or so one would think, judging by all the lights he used to illuminate our house. Sometimes he would use as many as five lights. With all the lights off in our house and blinds and curtains closed tight, I could still read a newspaper from the illumination of his lights alone. It took several calls to the Sheriff's Office before one officer went to my neighbor's house, went into the backyard and saw all the lights (turned off just before they arrived) that Predator had pointing our direction. Since he lied to them saying he didn't have any lights, then - he didn't have any pointing at our house, then - he was so weak he could not lift them - all of which the officers disproved, they charged him with several violations - including violation of the restraining order.

2008-01-17T10:56:00.001-08:00

Among the many different methods of harassing us was the use of his radio. He would place the speaker in the window of his garage which was only 6 feet from our fence and then he would turn it up full force. Then maybe 20 minutes later, he would turn it way down. He gave it 20 minutes because that is the best response time we have had from the Sheriff's in the past. We could never get them there fast enough. By the time the cops were there, the music was low. Cops - "That music isn't bad." Me - "It was a lot louder a few minutes ago. Come over here and see where he had his speaker in the garage window." Cops - "No we have to go to a domestic violence call right now." They never saw the speaker. They didn't care about these accumulating intrusions into our lives. The music was so loud we could not drown it out with all our fans on plus the air conditioner. We could feel the rhythm in our floors.

The Ladder on The Fence

2008-01-14T16:20:00.000-08:00

Bully's never run out of ways to harass, even their small harassments are amazing. Suddenly one day, this very tall ladder showed up leaning against our fence. This is not a shared fence, it is the fence we put in when we realized our neighbor was a thief. Anyway here was this ladder. It is the kind workers use to pick fruit off of trees. He didn't need such a ladder, but it certainly came in handy for him as an irritant to us. It slowly bent our fence, because it was damned heavy. We tolerated it for several weeks, asked him to take it off - he refused. So after about two months, we'd had it and got a very long pole and pushed it over. Now who was mad? However, we had the legal right and he did not.

The Three Steps of a Bully

2008-01-11T08:55:00.000-08:00

The predator who lived next door to us had three levels of asking for something. First he would admire it - "You sure have a nice place" (with special emphasis on the word "sure"). If that did not get him what he wanted, he would go to the second step. "Who owns this place?" he would ask. "We do," I answered. He asked me that six times. I patiently answered it, thinking he could have a memory problem. The sixth time he asked and I answered, "We do," he got mad - "Well I'll be sure not to STEP ON IT!" I finally realized that he was hinting that he wanted access to our land - the combination to our lock on the gate, the ability to drive across our lot to the back of his mother's place... We were suspicious of his motivations. There seemed to us something beyond just the access that he wanted and so, trusting our gut, we just ignored the questions hidden in his whining hints. So he went to his third level - threats. He said to Karl - "You're gonna be driving on some lonely road one of these days and then my boys will take care of you. But don't worry. I'll take care of your wife and THEN I'll have your place."

So watch out for anyone who slowly increases their requests or uses hints to ask for something. You just may have a predator who is shopping around for someone to prey upon.

Predators Shrink Your World

2008-01-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

When targeted by a predator, your world shrinks over time. It is very hard to fight it, especially if co-workers or friends begin to question your claims of being bullied. This should be considered a 'law of nature' because it is so predictable, so common in a predator-prey relationship.

Over a period of 4 years, both my husband and I slowly dropped out of one organization and another. We were not completely conscious of it. We just found ourselves getting more exhausted. We stopped reading as much and the magazines piled up. We did not have the energy to go to a meeting at night, so the memberships dropped.

Our world shrank as we put what energy we had left into just making sure our relationship did not become a shipwreck. The house became cluttered, but we did not let it bother us. The important thing was to survive this and to survive it together. A predator tries to steal everything from you. Ignore the nice face, the friendly smile, the gifts - it is what is inside that matters - the person inside that skull who calculates, manipulates, charms.

They are the REAL Jekyll and Hydes of this world.

Spotting Bullies

2008-01-07T08:44:00.000-08:00

Ever since our intense experience with a major predator, I find it easier to spot one. If I am quite sure that someone is a bully, I keep my distance as much as possible, which is almost impossible if you have to work with them. There are all kinds of books on working with bullies or school bullying, but very little on how to deal with a neighbor who is a bully. Visit attorneys about a bullying neighbor and I can guarantee about 90 percent or more will tell you to move. That is a terrible thing for someone who has invested a lot into their property, so I am slowly working on a book about our long complicated experience with the hope that it might help others in a similar struggle.

2007-12-25T13:44:00.000-08:00

With a Predator next door, I wasn't as careful as I should have been. I had some friends over to have some tea from a set that was over 60 years old. Made in Japan and painted in blue, green, yellow and orange, with a gold background and overall shiny luster. We sat outside, talked and then they left. I went on inside my house and forgot the tea set outside.

Later I came out and found to my shock, the teapot was on the ground broken. "A bird must have landed on the pot and knocked it over," I thought. But as I slowly pieced it together, I saw that there was another reason for its broken state. At the very center of the breaks was a round hole. Inside the pot was a rifle pellet.

It was my neighbor again. He had found the one place in the fence where he could see our place and sitting right there was the teapot. My nine-piece set was ruined because he had found yet another way to harass me.

Personality Disorder Test

2007-12-21T13:27:00.000-08:00

Don't take this too seriously, but when I took this test, the conclusions were pretty close to my personality - with a few mild surprises.

Click on the Surprised Test-Taker on the right...

The Predator's Shooting Blind

2007-12-20T09:26:00.000-08:00

We have lots of trees around our place and Predator enjoyed making it a game. Either Karl or I would go outside to work - I would work in my wholesale plant nursery - and within 15 minutes, Predator would be outside. He might pretend to work for awhile, but eventually he would pick up his pellet rifle and shoot onto our place from behind one of three blinds he had set up right next to the fence. This was his favorite blind. This was not his biggest rifle. He shot that one late at night or early in the morning. A rifle big enough to kill a deer. Another mode of intimidation and backing up his threat of "when I take you out, I'll use a bigger rifle."

Depression

2007-12-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

It can hit slow or fast and comes out of nowhere. I still have bouts of depression, but they are not as deep as they were before I started taking Effexor. When I took Wellbutrin, I was barely okay, but my problem with that was my anger. I was like a walking bomb. Almost anything could set me off and I would go angry-blind. It was truly horrible for my husband. He could do nothing but watch and stand back. Touching me made me worse. So I finally switched to Effexor.

Over the past 4 years, I have found that I feel better than the first year I took it. Several of my major fears are much smaller. I had a horrible fear of heights, bordering on vertigo at times. But now I can climb a ladder up two stories, not without caution, but without that intense fear.

I wish I did not have to take anything at all, but if I have to until my dying day, I will. Without the antidepressant, I am depressed, I look terrible, I don't take care of myself, I dress like a slob. No thanks. Not anymore.

Where would I be now if I had not started taking an antidepressant? Dead. Long ago I would have taken my own life while in a hell-deep depression. I would have missed a lot of good things, plus I would have made the Predator very happy and I do not want to make him happy. I'm stickin' around as long as the body is able.

Courage

2007-12-19T17:48:00.000-08:00

Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.
The soul that knows it not Knows no release from little things:
Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,
Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear
The sound of wings.

How can life grant us boon of living, compensate
For dull gray ugliness and pregnant hate
Unless we dare
The soul's dominion?

Each time we make a choice, we pay
With courage to behold the resistless day,
And count it fair.

Amelia Earhart

Keep a Journal

2007-12-19T17:37:00.000-08:00

If you should encounter a bully who seems to have zeroed in on you, keep a journal. If you don't like to write, get over it. A journal can help eventually, especially if you have other documents, audio or video recordings to back up your writings. When I asked a supportive Deputy D.A. if there was any more we could do, he said we had done everything perfectly. We kept the daily journal, until I was well beyond being sick of it. We videotaped and audiotaped. AND, if you can keep all of that secret from your bully, you will be much better off. As soon as you reveal that you are keeping record, your bully may back off - for awhile - and then will switch to new tactics that you cannot catch on tape. These predators are very experienced. Rare is the person who can out maneuver a predator.

Moral Courage

2007-12-18T19:19:00.000-08:00

Few people have the integrity and moral courage to stand up against bullying and harassment. A person targetted by a Predator is quickly abandoned by their friends and colleagues. These same people frequently take one step further by alienating the Target even more by backing the Predator. Even though they may know the Predator is wrong, they fear being the one singled out and work to keep the Predator's gaze upon the Target. A scene of great moral courage and self-serving cowardice.

PLAYFUL PREDATOR

2007-12-18T12:33:00.000-08:00

On one of his better days, the Predator - 'under the influence' - plays with sunflower seeds in his pockets. I was sitting on the front porch when he came outside. He kept trying to disgust me so much that maybe I would move away, or better yet, give him our property. Don't laugh. It happens to other targets.

Predators are Cruel

2007-12-18T11:34:00.000-08:00

During this past summer, I learned that the Predator has successfully convinced all the neighbors around us that I am a child molester. How he has done this, I do not know, but I know that he is crafty and took lots of photos of my husband and I. He's had several years to find someone who could alter those photos to any perverted purpose. He's had loads of time to tell anyone who will listen about the child molester at 'this address' with 'this phone number.'

Even the neighbors who stood with us have caved in to his poison. We are about as pure as you can get - no illicit drugs, no perversions other than the glass of wine once each week (my stomach can't take more than that), and certainly no perversions of any kind with anyone and especially children. At any moment of my life, I would risk my own to save a child and so would my husband. We do not look at people as 'black', 'brown,' or any other color. We look at them as people and we have conducted our lives in the best way we could without harming any one else.

Yet here we are, the target of a vicious racist, who will stop at nothing to destroy people who simply resist him. You do not have to do anything wrong at all. A predator, a bully, a stalker - they see other people as THINGS they are entitled to. And if they feel rejected by that person or people (our Predator was pissed if we did not wave at him every single day) - they target you and obsessively harass and threaten with the intent to destroy.

Those in the law, need to look closer at this type of crime. They need to be more open to what appears to be a neighbor on neighbor case and consider the possibility of predator and prey.

8 Years Later

2007-12-17T16:38:00.000-08:00

2007. Almost Christmas. And the Predator still stalks. He made sure a friend moved into his mother's old house to keep an eye on us. 'Friend' harasses a little, but nothing like Predator. Predator does not tell truth. He dumb bastard. He tells people, he was the victim and we were the predators. And his dumb friends believe him. Predator is an actor and his friends watch too many movies. They love it when he hates us, because it keeps him off their backs. So they encourage him and help him to harass us.

8 years later and he still cannot move on with his life. Dumb bastard.

8 Years Target of A Bully :-(

2007-12-16T12:49:00.000-08:00

8 years. 8 trips around the sun. 8 sets of seasons lost in a haze. It's a major trip for him. He told me, "You're the best game in town right now." The first year, we were full of spit and stubborness.

By the fifth year, we were numb from all the calls to the sheriff, appearances in court and finally learning that the Fresno County Superior Court and the Fresno County District Attorney's office thought we were just as guilty as the Predator.

We did not speak to him. We did not communicate with him. We did not even waggle our middle digits at him. But he told stories. He told big whopper stories. I would call him a snake, but I do not want to insult an animal superior to the Predator.

I'll be back.