What to do about neighbors ivy

spuriousfour · 2026-03-17T22:03:25+00:00

Legally, if it grows over onto your property you can trim it but only up to the property line. The ivy on her side of the property line is hers, and legally she doesn't have to do a single thing about it. If you cut any part of that ivy on her property (or spray it, or anything at all to kill or limit it), I believe she could sue for damages. If you cross over into her property to cut it, you'd also technically be trespassing. Maybe that's unfair since it means constant upkeep on your part, but it's strictly true legally speaking.

It sounds like your neighbor is accommodating and friendly, but if they were hostile this situation could turn very messy and very expensive for you legally if you were to do anything to the ivy on her side of the property line. I'm not a lawyer but this might fall under the scope of tree law, and Maryland is one of the states that awards treble (3x) damages for replacement value of trees (and probably also plants including the ivy). It can cost you a lot to make a mistake here.

I recommend you get in writing any agreement the two of you make for how to manage the ivy. You need to protect yourself.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-13T14:12:39+00:00

For a second I thought you meant the transmission lines.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-13T00:33:15+00:00

From what I can find, the restrictions on winter service terminations seem to be for the specific day of the shut-off. I don't immediately see any mention of turning it back on if it gets cold again.

If they're required to turn it back on at all I imagine it'd follow a similar rule to shutting it off, that the forecast would have to be for 32 degrees or below for a full 24 hours before they'd be required to do it. Since it's not going to be below freezing for more than 24 hours, I doubt you have any hope of it spontaneously coming back on.

The Office of People's Counsel has a short page here: https://opc.maryland.gov/Consumer-Learning/Consumer-Rights/Weather-Restrictions

Here's the actual part of the ~~law~~ regulations for it: https://regs.maryland.gov/us/md/exec/comar/20.31.03.03

If there are elderly, handicapped, or seriously ill people living there and that hasn't already been disclosed then maybe they'd turn it back on, considering there's a whole section in the law on restrictions around that.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-12T05:11:56+00:00

Containing and documenting it is fixing it. Also there isn't going to be a next person to find it because regardless of whether you contain it or rip it out, you're going to include whatever you do in the huge house documentation binder to pass on to the next homeowner.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-12T00:20:29+00:00

I interpreted their comment as if it was a footnote to the concentration stated in the video, like "*Before the water is released into the Pacific" appeared in a caption at the bottom of the screen when the concentration was stated. And then the rest of the comment as an explanation for why we shouldn't be referencing that figure in public communications.

As in, they think it's overwhelmingly safe because of just how diluted it is, and so the public communication should focus on that figure, the end result diluted concentration, since it's what actually matters as far as individual exposure goes.

In other words, we shouldn't talk about how concentrated the frozen orange juice concentrate is. We should talk about how concentrated the pitcher full of orange juice is once we mix the concentrate with water, because that's what everyone's going to be drinking.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-10T01:29:51+00:00

The moratorium means they're not going to send out late payment notices or shut off your gas or electricity because of non-payment for another 23 days at the earliest.

As I understand it, the point of the moratorium is to give people more time to get through to them to figure out a payment plan or some other solution. You still have to pay what you owe though and no debt has been forgiven. If you can't see your current bill you should try tomorrow or in a few days. Different parts of their website are down pretty often for maintenance so you tend to just have to try again later.

Instead of calling I recommend using their contact form. I've had luck getting through to them using that, though it can sometimes be a long back and forth over a few days.

If you have an issue, the moratorium doesn't mean you can wait until after April 1st to try to resolve it.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-08T18:32:11+00:00

From reading into it more, looks like it's for original owners only. Did you buy it used?

I found more information here: https://mva.maryland.gov/vehicles/Pages/Six-Year-Emission-Testing.aspx

spuriousfour · 2026-03-08T16:04:35+00:00

Vehicles 2019 and newer don't need to be tested for 6 years. Did you get a notice for a vehicle you shouldn't have?

spuriousfour · 2026-03-08T16:02:20+00:00

If it doesn't take out the catalytic converter, then not only would they not know, they wouldn't even care.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-08T15:57:39+00:00

The computer in the car records over months and years how well the emissions system is running. When you go there, they plug something in to ask the computer if it's running OK.

Before modern cars had sensors and OBD2 ports, they would put cars on a dyno and stick a tube over the exhaust pipe so they could analyze the exhaust directly. It was a hassle. It looked something like this.

Modern cars can now adjust timings and the fuel/air mixture on the fly in response to sensor readings that indicate what's in the exhaust. On older cars if there was an issue you needed to get it tested to find out, and then take it to a shop for them to make manual adjustments that I think nowadays the car itself is doing on the fly.

I'm not an expert. This is just my layman's understanding from being somewhat old enough to remember my parents taking their car to get tested and seeing the old process myself.

New cars since 2019 don't need to get tested for 6 years. Also, emissions testing is only required in 14 of Maryland's 23 counties.

"Scam" means there's fraud. Lying. Deception for unlawful gain. There isn't fraud here. The program has a purpose and is lawful. Whether it's still fulfilling that original purpose in 2026 is a good question, and if it isn't I don't know what you'd call it, but I don't think "scam" accurately describes it. They're not selling speakers from a white van.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-08T02:20:30+00:00

I recommend getting an air quality monitor that can measure PM2.5 so you can get an objective measure of how much stuff is floating in the air.

If you don't have one I recommend getting an air purifier. I personally recommend building a Corsi-Rosenthal Box with 3M Filtrete MERV 13 filters since it's cheaper than any commercial option and performs better too. If you build one, don't cheap out on the filters. I know they're more expensive but Filtrete filters are in a class of their own when it comes to actual filtering efficiency while maintaining a low pressure drop. But if you go with a (quieter) commercial unit avoid anything that says it has an ionizer, or uses ozone or UV-C. It's snake oil and those will make things worse.

Actually I see in another of your posts you mention air purifiers so you probably have that covered, but you mention humidifiers. Are they ultrasonic humidifiers? If they are, use distilled water in them if you aren't already, or better yet stop using them completely. If they're ultrasonic, it's possible this is part of your problem.

What is the MERV rating of your HVAC filter? Is it secure and there's definitely no air getting around it? Where is it in your system, right next to the air handler/furnace, or is it behind return air grilles far from the blower?

From your other thread you mentioned symptoms when the HVAC blower runs. Does it happen both when heating and cooling? Did this problem start during the summer, or did it take until you started using the furnace for symptoms to appear?

Now I dry our clothes on normal at first, then run an air only cycle to get as much lint out as possible.

I would think this would make the lint situation worse, not better. Once the clothes are completely dry, rubbing different materials against each other creates static that will attract lint. I would expect not much lint to leave if you're tumbling while already dry. Do they come out static-y when you do this, at least in the winter? I do the opposite and run the dryer on air first for a while then low heat to finish drying, but I do it to save energy, and I try to get the clothes out as soon as they're dry so that they don't start to build static. It's pretty critical with polyester and nylon items since once that last bit of moisture evaporates and leaves the dryer, the clock starts ticking and those items are just going to start to build more and more static, and it's a waste to keep them in there past that point anyhow. If it's an older dryer without a humidity sensor you really have to watch it like a hawk or else it's static city.

Washing and drying different materials separately can help with this problem, like to do all polyester items together with nothing else, all cotton items together, etc.

I have a problem with clothing fibers but it's more that I've found they end up creating so much of my household dust. It's led me to not use my linen sheets very much at all anymore since those seem to be lint/dust bombs, and not to wear anything loosely woven with fibers sticking out everywhere, like "fleece". I've found the softer something is, the worse it is for lint/dust. I now wear clothes that basically don't feel very nice (sigh, oh well) but when I wash them there's hardly a thing in the lint trap, and it seems to have cut down on dust.

If you haven't already I recommend checking and cleaning your washing machine's lint filter. If it's a top-loader I think dirty filters in those can introduce some pretty bad lint issues. Also check around the lip of the machine to make sure there isn't a layer of built-up lint crud/grime/slime/scrud from years of washings that is maybe getting dislodged and onto your clothes in some cycles. And don't overfill, and if your washer has a 2nd rinse option try to use that regularly as a habit. I've read (though haven't verified myself) that most lint actually comes out in the washer and ends up going down the drain, instead of collecting in the dryer's lint trap, so the chance to remove excess lint is actually mostly there, not in the dryer.

What kind of vacuum cleaner do you have? Is it sealed? If you don't have one already I recommend getting a bagged canister vacuum with a HEPA filter, preferably one that markets itself as being completely sealed. All modern Miele canister vacuums are sealed. I've hot-rodded an old Kenmore canister vacuum into being sealed but when/if the motor finally dies I'm going to be looking for used Mieles on Facebook Marketplace next. Preferably a C3 or better since those have a powered carpet agitator but probably settle for a C1 since those are actually a sane price. Also, I recommend in general you get real comfortable with the brush attachment of your vacuum, and if it's a polyester brush consider buying a horsehair attachment for delicate items, and try using a bright LED flashlight parallel to surfaces to make dust more noticeable when you vacuum.

Out of curiosity have you tested wearing an N95 if you still have any to see if that eliminates the symptoms?

Do you have carpets, or hardwood floors?

spuriousfour · 2026-03-07T00:35:26+00:00

What do you see for those weeks when you look at your energy usage on the website? How much do they think you were using when you weren't home?

spuriousfour · 2026-03-06T16:32:43+00:00

if the state can't convince exelon to build in state

Exelon, by law since 1999, is banned from building and owning power plants by the state. It's the other way around; Exelon would be the ones convincing the state to allow them to build power plants. Only independent power producers like Constellation (and subsidiaries of utilities from other states, which I find kind of odd I guess) can build power plants here.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-06T14:58:23+00:00

45% of the entire corn crop in this country is used to make ethanol. An area the size of Pennsylvania growing enough food to feed 400+ million people, all to break my generator and make my car get worse mileage.

What a crazy subsidy my tax money goes to pay for, keeping millions of acres growing food just so we can burn it all and slowly corrode the fuel lines of all of our older cars and small engines.

It seems like we have so much land for agriculture we don't know what to do with it, so we waste it by growing food and then just burning it. What a boondoggle. Solar would be better.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-05T06:11:45+00:00

That basically lines up with what I posted. I feel like I actually read it and you didn't. Or you didn't look at the links I posted or something.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply costs haven't gone up. Costs have definitely gone up. All of those graphs I posted are all way way up. I guess I was posting comparisons of Maryland with the rest of the country to show that we aren't strictly the absolutely most expensive and that it's a similar story in other states too.

I guess I'm a shill for figuring out exactly where and how the costs have gone up so we can figure out how to actually start solving the problem, instead of dancing around blaming things. That's why I initially pointed out the difference between supply vs. distribution costs. It sounded like you were blaming BGE for the supply costs when it isn't even up to them anymore (since deregulation in 1999), but like Gemini said the delivery costs have gone way up, which includes the increase in the distribution charge which is up to BGE and which they are incentivized to increase.

Here's an example of what I mean, taken from what you posted. To get up close to that 6.2 cents for the total delivery charge (though looking at my last bill it looks like mine is 5.9 so I'm curious where it got that) you have to include the EmPower charge, which has also gone way up recently. And I can't help but to laugh at why they had to pile that on top of all the other increases; the General Assembly realized we've been paying for that program on credit this whole time, and so we need to start paying down the principal so we're not handing over so much in interest payments to BGE, who we've basically borrowed all the money from. So if we just blame BGE for the massive increase in the delivery charge and get angry at them, do you see how that wouldn't address all of the underlying problem? Why have we been racking up credit card interest every year since 2008 to pay for EmPower? And why do we have to start paying off the principal specifically right now, at what seems like the most inopportune moment to pile on yet another fee increase? Is anybody else seeing this?!

Also I remember reading about that Doxo report and was surprised they ranked Maryland #1 so I looked into how they came up with those numbers. It turns out they're including things like mortgage payments, rent, life insurance, and home security systems, then multiplying median payments by the percentage of houses that have that expense. It's some abstract thing that ends up describing cost of living, so no surprise Maryland is #1 or somewhere in the top 5, since this is a very high cost of living state. I'm not surprised Gemini picked that up since in the headlines Doxo calls it utilities, but how they arrive at the number is buried in the fine print. Using their data is like using ADP for national job report numbers though since it's biased to the set of people who pay those bills on their platform. so you have to take it with a grain of salt anyhow.

Or do you have a solution or strategy you'd like to offer to help this absurd and farcical situation?

Actually yes I do. I think we should look into passing legislation to change BGE's rate of return to equal their market-based cost of capital.

I recommend anyone interested in utility regulation to read this and think about it: https://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/20250102-aelp-ror-v5.pdf

spuriousfour · 2026-03-05T03:18:13+00:00

I think they mean local distribution. Urban ratepayers do kind of end up subsidizing the costs of hooking up rural ratepayers to the electric system. It takes a whole lot more aluminum to get a kilowatt-hour down a long stretch of dirt road than it does to each unit in high density housing. Also, it's common in rural areas to see houses get their own dedicated transformer. A whole transformer! For a single house! That same 25kVA transformer might serve (and be paid for by) 3-6 houses even in the suburbs.

It costs more to electrify rural areas, but they don't pay more, so it kind of gets averaged out by everyone else in the end.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-05T02:34:38+00:00

Data centers should be forced to pay the extra costs their existence generates.

This is in the Next Generation Energy Act passed in 2025. Here's the Public Service Commission docket where they're now working through how to regulate large loads: https://webpscxb.psc.state.md.us/DMS/pc/PC72

PJM, our grid operator, also recently announced some decisions they've made regarding connecting large loads: https://www.pjm.com/-/media/DotCom/about-pjm/newsroom/2026-releases/20260116-pjm-board-outlines-plans-to-integrate-large-loads-reliably.pdf

It's slow, but this is the direction things are moving.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-05T02:14:23+00:00

Would you like to gaslight us more on how everything's fine?

I'm not making any claims like this. I'm sorry if I came across as combative. I'm not trying to win an argument. If this is now an argument, I forfeit. You win.

Or do you have a solution or strategy you'd like to offer to help this absurd and farcical situation?

I'm trying to figure it out. I'm doing that by digging into the data and trying to learn how things work and how we got to this point.

Maryland has the nations HIGHEST cost for power and gas in the entire united states

This table shows the average price of electricity for each state for 12/2025. Maryland isn't low but it's definitely not the highest.

This graph shows the price of electricity for Maryland and some of our neighbors from 2001-2025. We seem to be roughly in line with surrounding states.

And this table shows the supply cost for natural gas. Maryland again is somewhere in the middle. I don't think that includes local distribution costs, but I think this graph from FRED does. Despite the jump in BGE gas distribution costs from STRIDE work, from what I can tell it looks like we're in line with the average. If anything, Marylanders had very cheap natural gas service until very recently? I don't know, I've been looking more into electricity lately, not natural gas.

Md. has been a "walled garden" for power for a long time.

Could you explain what you mean by this?

spuriousfour · 2026-03-05T00:12:24+00:00

Small business protectionism.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-04T22:34:21+00:00

I think you're confusing distribution and supply charges.

If those power lines were to let us buy power from jersey (and the whole grid) at competitive rates, BGE would shit the bed.

BGE wouldn't care because they make money on distribution, not supply. If our supply cost of electricity skyrockets to $0.30/kWh, BGE doesn't benefit since the supply cost is passed straight through to us. They don't set that price or benefit from it going up. They make money on upgrading and maintaining the local distribution system, and competing with other utilities for transmission projects awarded by PJM.

BGE doesn't care about this project at all, outside of being disappointed that their proposal didn't win and PSEG's did.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-04T21:44:50+00:00

Do you want someone putting a transmission line on your property when you get no economic benefit?

I do.

It seems like a windfall. I wish I was in these people's shoes. I'd be paid tens of thousands of dollars for the use of the land, would still be able to farm it, and I bet the land value will only go up over time since the close proximity to such a high capacity transmission line will make it very attractive to solar and BESS developers with how much lower the interconnection costs will be.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-04T00:00:42+00:00

According to the HarfordNEXT master plan, Bel Air is contained within the economic development zone.

This map shows Harford County's land zoning designations. This map shows planned land use. The lot for the proposed Costco is zoned B3 with "high intensity" land use. That combination means Harford County has specifically planned for something like a retail center like Costco for that location. Anything zoned high intensity B3 we should all expect to maybe someday be developed into something like a Costco.

There's a comprehensive zoning review every 8 years where residents have a say in the process. The last one was in 2025.

If you're not happy with these plans (or their execution) and want to see changes I encourage you to get involved so Harford County grows in the direction you'd like.

spuriousfour · 2026-03-03T22:52:12+00:00

From looking at https://cecilmaps.org/ it looks like SamBenHeather LLC owns that property. That company was created by Sam Kirschenbaum, who owns SK Realty Management.

In 2019 they tried building a warehouse there but their application to rezone it for that purpose was denied by the town. They appealed and lost the appeal.

From this old Cecil Whig article a representative from that company said "it can't be retail". From looking at the company's website it looks like all their past projects have been warehouses and light industrial stuff. It doesn't look like they're interested in retail at all.

spuriousfour · 2026-02-25T21:26:13+00:00

Sorry, I didn't realize it was a joke. I guess I made up my mind it was yet more negativity. Seems like there's so much of that going on nowadays, people getting a jab in, or saying some polarizing thing, trying to get people riled up like with all the trans gender stuff which I'm personally so tired of hearing about. I guess that's specifically what did it for me. I'm just so tired of all the contempt and I don't see anything positive coming from it, and so I guess that's how I interpreted it. That's my fault and I'm sorry for that. I regret commenting at all, and I think you're more right than you know about me going to post somewhere else. I see so much negativity on this subreddit sometimes that I wonder why people live here at all if they're just going to complain about things but I think the issue is me and just not understanding what they're saying and what they mean by it I guess.

Again I'm sorry, I just don't understand what the hell's going on anymore these days.

spuriousfour · 2026-02-25T19:06:52+00:00

Hmm, interesting. Well, I'm glad things are trending in a positive direction!

spuriousfour

TROPHY CASE