Traffic Lights and Devious People

Yeah... I know... strange title for a blog post. But those are the subjects of the day.

First, the traffic lights. This was just odd. So, I've been off work or working from home every day so far this week, so this was my first morning heading to the GO station to catch my usual train. To get there, I hang a left at a stop sign, hang a right at some traffic lights, hang a left at some traffic lights, and then a right into the parking lot (with straight lines of varying lengths between them all, obviously). The problem? The traffic lights at which I turn left were red. And not changing. At all. After 4 minutes trapped in line, I finally got a break in traffic turning right and ducked into a plaza that also feeds out onto the cross-street. Made my left and sailed on through the green light. Which stayed green. In my rearview mirror, I saw several other cars pulling out of the plaza or turning right and pulling a u-turn. Very odd. I feel kind of bad for the people who were on the bus I was behind and trying to catch the train, because when the train pulled in 12 minutes later, that bus still hadn't managed to turn.

Now on to the devious people.

The house beside us was sold at the end of May. In mid-September it was busted as a grow-op (nice... you'd think they'd do some research, since the house directly across the street from them was busted 2 years ago... so now the neighbours know what to look for ;) ). Over the past couple of days, a For Sale sign has appeared on the boulevard outside the house. Odd. They city hasn't been by to inspect and do necessary post-grow-op renovations (which they're required to do). So I hop on mls.ca and look up the listing. Interesting... the picture is the same one used back in May (different agent, though). I can tell, because it's nice and sunny and green... the front door is red (that was the first change... the door got painted white)... and there's lots of plants out front (that was the second change... all the plants in the flower bed got razed... looked like they just started mowing and kept going). The listing says the house is being sold in "as is" condition. First alarm bell. The house is listed at $349,000. Second alarm bell... and third, actually. Second because that seems pretty high for a house that was sold 7 months ago with no significant upgrades listed in the listing... plus it's a bungalow (we paid less than that for our back-split). Third because that price is completely at odds with the words "as is condition". Deduction: either the seller is trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes... or the listing agent is trying to pull the wool over the eyes of potential buyers. Not cool... and I feel bad for whoever buys the place.