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I live in a county that allows back yard burning (yard debris only and with daily permit from county) seven months a year, and is banned May 1st thru Sept.30th.

Each home in my subdivision has about 1.5 acres each, so we're relatively close to each other.  I have a neighbor that frequently cleans/grooms her yard, and part of that involves burning yard debris, and I have a problem with that.  She ignores the permit requirement the five month burning ban, and her burning is not limited to just yard debris.  There's often been very dark/black smoke pouring into my yard which indicates its not just yard debris.  The problem is that I've become very sensitive to all the smoke.  It burns my eyes and nose and gives me a head ache.  It forces me back into my house.  She knows of my sensitivity but continues to burn anyway.  I've talked to officials about this several times and was told that to call them when it bothers me and they'll come ask her to put it out for 'that day'.  That's not much help considering they aren't in the office on the weekends,  I can't plan outdoor activities because I never know when she's going to start burning.  We are not on friendly terms because of this and other issues, so communication is out of the question.

Questions; Any suggestions?  Could I pursue a case in court?  I'm even open tactics that would annoy her!  

Thanks!

I am a female professional in my late 50's. I use to keep my hair about shoulder length but decided to let it grow a bit longer about 6 years ago. Now, I'm aware that older women don't usually wear longer hair but I began to enjoy all the fun ways to wear longer hair, so I let it grow. It ended up near my waist! So, I decided to go to my old stylist to get 5-6 inches removed off the bottom, the bottom corners rounded so it wasn't squared off, a few layers around my face and side swept bangs. I sat down in the chair and discussed the length that needed to come off, and she began to cut it. We never really discussed too much beyond that as far as an actual style, we just threw some things around while she was cutting - but no decisions were finalized. I was thinking that after she got the length off that we'd discuss it further.

Um, no. Before I knew what all she was cutting... she'd cut and layered the entire sides OFF my hair and down into a POINT in the back! She removed every bit of volume from the back of my hair! It's layered so much that it's now too thin to wear it long! It hangs in strings! The worst part is that at my age, it's not likely that I will ever grow it out long like that again. I mean, I'd be nearly 70 years old before it got back to where it was. It would be bad for even a much younger woman that could regrow the length several times before she reacted my age... but I feel it basically ruined my last opportunity. What should I say or do?

I'm refinishing various parts/sections of a baby crib, and I need to stain and varnish those sections. Is there a specific type or kind of each that is recommended for baby cribs?

Thank you!

I had a fleeing thought that Mr. Obama was about to do something that would actually HELP the children by assisting the single parent... you know, the one that did not commit a crime and is now struggling to support and raise the children ALONE, and the one that acquired debt to compensate for the loss of child support. But no, apparently Mr.Obama only has compassion for the criminal.

A better solution would be to change laws that prevent prisoners from working for minimum wage to support their children while incarcerated! But you see, prisoners lose ALL rights and privileges when incarcerated and our prison system views the ability to support their children as a "privilege"! So, the system is set up against taking care of child support at the time it's needed. Consequently, the children not only suffer the loss of a parent but also the loss of financial support, and the single parent struggles financially and often acquires debt to take care of necessities, and then the prisoner is eventually released with huge debt! Simply relieving him of that burden doesn't fix the whole problem, in fact: it creates more victims and they committed NO CRIME.

But here's another solution. The government should HONOR the first and original court order of child support FIRST before they're allowed to keep even 1 cent of seized property. But again, instead they take everything and leave nothing that could be applied towards child support, and everyone suffers because of it.

Many people take their time to provide a very thorough, well thought out and often professional answer, and yet the person who asked the question doesn't respond in kind by rewarding a "Best answer" or even saying thank you. I consider it to be culturally 'tacky'.

Hillary and Bernie speak of making their 'pitch' to "Hispanic" voters, but don't they know that they're trying to become a presidential candidate for the United States - not Mexico or South America?

Can someone be very thankful for all they have in life such as good health, talents, attractiveness, nice job and home, opportunities, respect for oneself etc. and not actually be happy or joyous?

Without going into details, I lost the one thing I wanted most in my life and have never been able to compensate for it. I've experienced far more fortunate things than not, however, the loss left me very, very sad, and I can't seem to find lasting happiness or move past it even more than 20 years later. I've had counseling, and I took antidepressants for awhile but no amount of counseling or medication can give me what I wanted most in life. To make bad matters worse, I feel ashamed to have been so fortunate otherwise and still feel sad... yet, I'm so very thankful for all I do have.

Has anyone else ever felt this way about anything?

If you had spent time and/or money to acquire an education that made you employable in a respectable field, and was in fact employed full time earning a nice salary, would you vote for Sanders?

Can anyone tell me how "partial" vs "full" SS or Disability benefits is determined? And how can someone increase their benefits to being "full" benefits, and can they do it while drawing partial benefits already? Thank you kindly.

Is it OK to yell at my neighbors LOUD barking dog telling it to "Shut up!" OR "Hush!"?

You'd THINK they would do it since they're right there with it, sometimes standing just feet away but they don't. It bothers me even when I'm IN my house, and it just about drives me to tears when I'm outside.

If you are a hard working, tax paying American citizen, and would vote for Bernie Sanders, WHY?

Are you aware that he's a socialist?

Do you think American people would subject themselves to SOCIALISM?

I know this is no "vent column" but I'm very curious if other people have ever noticed this in their neighborhood, and if it irritated them as much as it has begun to irritate me.

Yes, we all have lawn maintenance, however, I've noticed the CONSTANT hum, buzz or roar of lawn equipment, along with small engine gas and oil fumes over the weekends in my growing neighborhood. It starts on a Saturday morning and it lasts all day!. First one house cuts grass, and about the time that one finishes - another one starts theirs, then the next and the next etc. Then the wave of weed eating, and it continues alone the same path. And about the time you can enjoy being outside in the late afternoon; then the "evening" gardeners begin their yard maintenance, and it lasts until it gets dark. Then apparently some people wait until Sunday to begin, and/or the Saturday gardeners decides to spend the day using their leaf blowers and/or chain saws!! Before you know it that beautiful weekend is gone and you haven't be able to enjoy even one hour in your yard or patio because of constant noise. I once noticed one of the neighbors begin to cut their grass right in the middle of a another neighbors child's birthday party! I believe people should be free to cut their grass whenever they feel like it.. but it would be nice if we recognized "select times" to run outdoors equipment, so that we could enjoy being outside to enjoy all of our hard work without that constant noise and smell!

I know this is no "Dear Abby" but I wondered if there are other mothers out there who feel that after devoting most of their best years to their raising their children, sacrificing most all they wanted for themselves, and agonizing to give their children a solid moral foundation and a good education, a proper home, and many (not all) of the things their children asked for.... abandoned and unappreciated by their children once they leave home and marry? I raised my children alone with little to no help. I insisted on higher education so that they could be successful in life. I taught them to be strong, independent, and self-confident. I taught them to love, and to give to others. And by some measurement, I've been a very successful "mother", and I'm very proud of my children... but I feel as if I raised children to fly away and never look back! I feel alone and abandoned. Am I the only one who feels this way?

I have 3 - 5 areas outdoors where I occasionally need electrical power. Two areas are a small shop and a garden shed; it makes sense to run power to each of those. OK, but I also have three separate animal kennels that I often find myself needing electrical power for either a light, a purification water system (cat), and most recently, heaters for their houses. And, I'm not use how to safely set up and use exterior power cords to get power from my house to each of these kennels. Would a power strip help? Please advise.

Today I saw something that made me wonder if there was something I should have been concerned about, or reported. I just don't know, so I'm asking you.

I was out to lunch with a co worker today, and when we returned to my car, I noticed a big pickup truck that had backed into the space beside me. I noticed there was a heavy duty steel cage in the back of the truck. The cage was extremely heavy duty. Always being suspicious of animal cruelty, I decided to look to see what was in the cage (and it's condition etc.). Well, much to my surprise, there were two (2) Pitt-bulls in the cage! The cage was actually divided lengthwise into what looked like two stalls, so each dog had it's own "stall". One of the two dogs had to weight 110-120 pounds, it was massive and the other wasn't far behind it. Being aware of dog fighting, I immediately looked for facial, head, throat etc. injuries or scarring but saw nothing. The two dogs appeared to be in immaculate physical condition, and it made me believe that the dogs were well loved pets. However, there was one thing that has haunted me all day about them... and that is that they just "looked" at me. They didn't growl or bark, or show excitement... they just looked at me. And it has disturbed me that they had NO reaction at all to me, or the man I was with. Is this strange? There are a lot of very intelligent people on this site, and know that someone can shed some insight into this for me. Thank you very much

I work with a woman that appears to be a hoarder of material things and ANIMALS! Her office is littered with stacks of To-Go boxes and plastic trays from lunch, and have molded food in them. Plus left over To-Go drinks with fermented tea on her desk. I've seen tiny flies climbing in and out of the containers. Management asked her several times to clean her office, and it resulted in her getting very angry.

Worse, she has 15 to 20 cats inside her 1000 sq.ft. house! She has actually found dead cats inside her house! She admitted to trapping almost 20 RATS inside the house. The rats damaged flooring and wiring. The MOST disgusting thing is her SMELL! She smells like a dirty cat litter box! It takes your breath away! You can tell where she's been because her odor lingers. The odor seeps out into the hall from her office door, and has begun to come through the vents/ducts and into other offices!!! I sat her down and told her about the odor, and what people were saying. I explained that we all knew that she showered and put on clean clothes each day but that the stench from the liter boxes was getting into her clothes. Her odor improved but it recently returned as bad as ever,

Advise? Should I contact someone that can help her? WHO?

I don't think the situation is healthy for her or the cats! Sadly, the cats would probably be euthanized if they're taken from her, and simply taking the cats would destroy her emotionally! We don't know what to do to help her!!!

"To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

George Mason Co-author of the Second Amendment

Can you imagine living in a country where ONLY the government had weapons?

Keep an eye on "Homeland Security"... something's not right. It is very, very different than when it first started.