Written Up and Now in Our Permanent Record

On my way out to run some errands, I stopped and picked up our mail.  A bunch of letters from Comcast confirming our changes, a refund check, a couple of welcome to the neighborhood coupons, our mortgage payment coupon and shock of all shock...a letter from our HOA.  We've been written up!  Not only did they list out all our infractions, they had taken pictures for proof.  Some of those pictures were of our back yard, so now I have another intruder to watch out for in early mornings.  This post could certainly go under Nobody Told Us, Part 2.  None of our infractions are anything huge and they referred us to sub section C, Part B, article 12.1-13.2 of the infractionary code with reference to sub set K.  We have all that paperwork with rules because they were given to us in a huge three ring binder at closing and I'm thinking no guidelines but who wants to sit down and read the whole thing?  I have looked at bits and pieces of it and I did notice the list of approved plants and for our information the plants are listed out seasonally.  Good grief.  Our infractions are as follows, we only have 2 shrubs and we are supposed to have 3, we only have 14 bedding plants and we are supposed to have 15, the phone/electrical box is not painted to match our house color and we do not have an ornamental tree at least 2" with multiple trunks.  I would hate to have the job of counting bedding plants.  I drove around our neighborhood and it seems several have not addressed their ornamental tree situation.  I notice that magnolias seem to be the ornamental tree of choice and with this drought none of them look healthy at all.  I noticed Trendmaker across the street put in a Crepe Myrtle and that is probably what I would lean toward.  We have such a small front yard, I have no clue where this puppy is going to go.  Our other admonishment was to get our grass in green order.  I knew that one was coming and the sprinkler system has helped.  Now the inspection was done on August 16th, eight days after we had moved in.  Where is the grace?  Apparently HOA's all over this land hold a pretty high estimation of their responsibilities.  I'm glad we have a strong one but I might add that on our cul d sac area, they have let 2 trees die and almost all the shrubs are hanging on by a thread.  It has just been in the past few weeks that they've addressed the park area near our home...hey, I am giving them some grace, but whatever.  I hope they didn't catch our newest neighbor with their trash out on Monday instead of Tuesday.  Roy is calling the HOA tomorrow and get a better perspective of the timeline etc.  They sent a copy to David Weekley Homes, so maybe they will add the missing botanical elements since landscaping is included in our home package.  I noticed that a copy of the letter complete with pictures has been placed in our permanent record.  I thought we were done with permanent records at the end of our formal 12 years of schooling.  Now, that doesn't upset me too much because my file from my school years is filled to overflowing with infractions, rules broken and smart alecky banter...along with less than stellar grades and I won't even address conduct write ups.  No, this permanent record thing is going to upset Roy.  His school records are pristine.  In fact the first C he ever made was in law school.  I thought he was going to cry when he saw that grade.  Yep, we might be the neighbors that need improvement, doesn't use time and materials wisely and doesn't do neat work, but the nice thing about this, all our infractions are out source able...thank goodness!