As punctual as an alarm clock going off at 7:00 a.m. every morning, Lynda pops out her door in robe and slippers and shuffles quickly over to the outbuilding to turn on the yard radio. Loud, but not too loud. On her way back, a glance over her right shoulder to ensure the speaker is pointed my direction. When it's not, she's barely tall enough to reach up high with both hands and reposition it according to her purpose. Then she retreats back indoors, leaving the Mega 100.1 FM (KQOD, Stockton) morning show blaring for my enjoyment.
When I leave for work, she turns it down. When I come home for lunch, she turns it up. When I return to work, she turns it down. When I come home, she turns it up. When I leave for City Council meeting, she turns it down. When they go to bed (about 9:00 p.m. now), she turns it off. Just another 14-hour day of Mega 100...
But today was different. In the glimmering dawn before 6:30, Lynda and Theresa (the current two defendants) took off in their big-ass black pickup truck and the yard radio did not come on at 7:00 a.m.!
Blessed, peaceful, quiet, pink dawn. Birds chirping. The distant freeway humming. The occasional clang or odd bang, blocks away, as people and their machinery start to move in normal life cycles. Cars drive by delivering students to the high school.
A restless malcontent until she imposes her selfish self on someone - anyone - I envision Lynda calling Corky on her cell phone and asking, "Did you remember to turn on the radio this morning?" (Lynda still thinks 7:00 a.m. is somehow legal, although that time is nowhere to be found in Manteca's ordinances.) Her question is actually an order because she is the Alpha fowl next door.
Poor Corky - the other potential defendant - the hen left to defend the henhouse against foxes. Damn! She hadn't set her alarm clock for 7:00. Hurriedly she skitters outside to crank up the boom box at 7:24. She doesn't have quite the finesse with the volume knob as the Alpha female. And she dares not turn the speaker away. Her sad regret is that it's not her car that goes off to work any more at 6:30. No, she's still parked (stuck) here at 8:00 most days.
Life has gotten really unpredictable since the economy took a dump, especially on TLC Catering's customers, and since their dirty little secret was discovered and exposed to the public both at the City of Manteca and now in the San Joaquin County Superior Court. Their friends told them to cry, "Foul! Times are tough." But that doesn't save them from their own risky decisions decades ago - the hard facts of their illegal use. They cry, "Times are tough. We can't afford the expense of moving our business elsewhere." With no work, they run around like chickens with their heads cut off. {shrug} Bright business people at least try to follow the law... and they get business insurance, not merely homeowners insurance.
Lynda's and Theresa's lack of business acumen pared their options to one:
(BTW: This prints up great as an 8x10 suitable for framing. It looks beautiful in my office.)
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