Today is 9/09/09 which is somehow special.  I don't get it.  So it's a bunch of nines.  Actually, the Chinese believe that today is very lucky.  The Japanese believe that today is very unlucky.  It's quite historical that they wouldn't agree on something as simple as a number being lucky.  Instead of talking about why they feel that way of the significance of today's date, I'll type about what can happen when moderately wealthy people have too much money and time on their hands.

The Hancocks have had a fire truck and two cars end up in their lawn since they moved into their home in Westport, CT, over the first eight years they lived there.  They say one of them would have ended up in their dining room if it hadn't hit a tree in their yard first.  To keep it from happening again, they decided to build a stone wall, which would be stronger and safer than the previous wall.  Since the wall would be under eight feet high and placed where a wall had previously existed, they were told that they didn't need a permit.  Of course, they didn't bother getting it in writing.  The new wall cost $170,000.

Their neighbors, the Lillians, complained that the wall went into a wetland and was built on town property.  Both of these appear to be true.  The wall extends six inches into the town property.  There does not seem to be any dispute over the wetland either.  However, the Hancocks say they talked to the zoning commission and the wetlands people and everyone else to get approval before starting, and they all said permits were not necessary.  They never bothered to get it in writing.

The Lillians brought a lawsuit against the Hancocks.  It has cost the Hancokcs over $150,000 to date in legal fees.  Tearing down the wall would cost $120,000, which the Hancocks say they would gladly have paid had they known it would cost so much to fight it.  The city is footing the bill for the other side of the lawsuit at a discounted rate of $200 an hour.  The city's counsel's office did not have an estimate of the amount the city has spent on this case, but the attorney imagines it is quite a bit.  Had that money not been used on this case, it could have paid for police expenses, schools or any of a number of other public services.  Instead, the city is paying for one neighbor to fight another over a functional wall.  This is definitely an example of a waste of resources that could have been avoided by getting everything in writing.

According to the Wheel of Morality, the moral of today's story is: Always wear clean underwear.

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