You Snooze, You Loose

 

 

    In 2009 I started working on a second major body of work. That piece was a factional account of global sporting event.  The work was started in what was known as National Novel Writting Month. Participants would write their story, upload the title and synopsis, and as they proceed, enter a word count for their body of work.

    My progress in that after completing the event, resulted in about 120,000 words written - but it was missing something. So, I set it aside.

    Last week I returned to the body of work having sourced some information that would add the details I needed to complete the work. While researching that, by chance, I just happened to enter the parameters of my work into Amazon.

    Son of a bitch. The exact same piece of work using the same title and a slight varient of my work was published in April this year, by someone I do not know.

    Coincidence? Probably. Liable? Probably not.

    You snooze, you loose.

I Am Done

I am Done.

A letter today from the California Department of Child Support Services reads "According to our records, your support obligations are paid in full ....Do not send further payment."

It is almost 23 years to the day since I was divorced. Along the way I have battled the Commonwealth of Australia, set precedent in the San Diego Appeals Court against the Dept. of Child Support, had my fight against the oppressive Child Support machinery published locally and in Australia, and been on radio talk shows.

I was fortunate that I knew how to read law, prepare briefs of evidence, compile witness statements, and handle a court room. I became schooled in the Hague Convention Child Support rules, and put a stop after their financial gang rape. But at what cost?

The swiftness of the system to take is not replicated on correcting their errors. I've not owned a house, but their mother bought a beach house with my child support. My credit report is obliterated, had my drivers license in peril, my passport attempted to be revoked by a foreign country not authorized to, and worst, emotionally hurt another women as I failed miserably in a relationship.

I was lucky - not everyone gets to win almost all their fights. Others may not have had the knowledge, or the staying power, or maybe they were beat down more than I was and could not go on. The one I truly needed to win though - is a loss. My daughters are now 31 and 25; alienated from me by their mother. I last saw my eldest when she was 18, her sister - when she was 12.

It's too late for my girls. I am done.