PEOPLE TREAT YOU THE WAY YOU LET THEM

I have a vacation home at the New Jersey shore. It is in a community that is run by a community association. Its actually called a club. The club is run by a group of five trustees that we homeowners elect.

I've been having trouble with the road maintenance on the road in front of our house. To make a long story short, its a dirt road and in order to fix the huge pothole in front of my house they've continuously added dirt to fill it in. This along with natural erosion from up the street, has increased the level of the road in front of my house to the point that now my house is below the level of the road. As you can imagine, when it rains, the water rushes down the street looking for the lowest spot. My property along with other properties on the street are now the lowest point. Many of us are getting flooding into our homes. We've complained to the Board of Trustees only to be met with denial. We've been told that they've never added dirt to the street (should have taken a video). We've also been told really ridiculous things such as our houses are actually sinking.

Recently there was a club meeting at which we voted to elect a new board. Since so many people are having various problems with the current board, all but one of them were voted out. A portion of the meeting was open to comments from the community members. I stood in front of the two hundred plus people and made a statement regarding the road issues. I made it clear that I was speaking to the new board members since the old ones would never listen. After I made my statement a man came up to me and asked if I would step aside so he could speak to me. He seemed polite enough so I agreed. He then proceeded to try and convince me that my house was sinking. My first tactic was to tell him I knew that was not true. He continued. I then told him that I was an engineer and that I KNEW my house was not sinking. I told him that my husband is also an engineer and we BOTH KNOW our house is not sinking. Amazingly, he continued. My next tactic was to stop responding. I was thinking, when will this man give up? He continued, blah, blah, blah...

My old self would have just let him go on and on. My old self would have felt it was rude to cut him off. My old self would have gotten more and more irritated and would have felt bad later that I hadn't stopped him. My old self has given way to my new self. My new self then said to him "I can't talk to you anymore, its too annoying." He was pulled up short and finally he stopped. I had suddenly realized that I did not have to listen to him. I could tell him to go away. I was not rude, he was. He left and I patted myself on the back. I really like this new self!