Most Celebration Residents are able to express their great affection for Our Town yet still retain an ability to note Things Which Could Be Improved Upon, PERFECTION not being what it used to be and all. Delicately Co-Existing is a second group, populated by those who embrace a more Black and White Love It or Leave It Philosophy, the kind which makes me nostalgic for a good old Nixonian Era March on Washington,their ranks personified by the kind of caregiver who might ignore a FEVER because once you ACKNOWLEDGE A FEVER you really DO HAVE a fever. The kind of caregiver who SMASHES the thermometer as a disloyal anarchist communist sympathizer. Because the THERMOMETER caused the fever. We DO have some THERMOMETER SMASHERS living right here in our otherwise perfect town-but I am betting none of them reside here in Town Center, the Reality-Ridden area of Planet Celebration.
Here is a LEARNING opportunity.
The Celebration Non-Residential Owners Association, affectionately known as “CNOA” has the duty to do to the NON-Residential Owners what the ARC (under CROA) does to the RESIDENTIAL owners on a alarmingly regular basis. We’ve ALL been there, particularly those of us who think of ourselves as “creative”, admire massive examples of South American or Mexican pottery as planters, or identify our homes with flag-holding frogs.
Back when I lived in Aquila Reserve I was threatened with excommunication and significant fines for my failure to remove TINTING from windows. Repeatedly. My lack of compliance created a document exchange which lasted several contentious months as the only defense I had for this crime was that I did NOT HAVE tinting on my windows. I wrote to ARC at the time You have not responded to me regarding the specious window tinting issue at our home at 1255 Aquila Loop, although I faxed you on September 7th, 2006 asking for review and clarification. We have no window tinting. We have never had window tinting. You have never provided a picture, a drawing, or notified me in any fashion approaching constructive notice. Yet your fine for 13 days of non-existent window tinting is on our CROA bill. And you said in your communication of August 24th, 2006 that the tinting has not been removed. So why was I fined for those 13 days and no other? Because it does not exist, it never existed and it remains non-existent. I have left voice messages and faxed notices to you and have received NOTHING in response.
I KNOW, I KNOW, I am not special, these things happen to people all over Celebration on a daily basis.
One of the Thermometer Smashers posted about their love for EVERYTHING about our town-EXCEPT perhaps for the nit-picking of the Architectural Review Committee. This is plenty ironic, as we in Town Center have been TRYING for years to turn ourselves IN to the Architectural Review Committee with absolutely NO SUCCESS. Town Hall! CNOA! CNOA! PLEASE make LEXIN/The Foundation/Town Center clean up its room, we squeal. And every few months someone might wander through town with a clipboard, and make a list, which they hold up at a meeting. And possibly at the NEXT meeting. Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera.
Now my husband LOVED Golf Digest, and after subscribing to it for years I thought the bold titles of the cover articles began to look remarkably similar. “The Grip That Will Shave 5 Strokes Off Your Game”, “Marshmallow Center Golf Balls Shave 5 Strokes Off Your Game“, “Shave 5 Strokes Off Your Game With A Mucho-Dinero Driver”, “Play Your Age if Your Age Happens to Be 101!” (That last title both encouraged and depressed Edward.) Ultimately I came upon the idea of simply recycling the issues, and on the 15th of each month I would slip a still-warm-from-the-iron issue into a brown paper sleeve and toss it into the mailbox, simultaneously saving 30 bucks and half a tree’s worth of gloss paper annually .
The point of this story is two-fold. ONE, it warms me to relate such memories of Edward the Golfer, and TWO, such repetitive content is the HALLMARK of CNOA meeting minutes, particularly on the topic of Lexin and Town Center “Aesthetics”. One might assume that CNOA holds a similarly anvil-like weight over the non-compliers in the Commercial Sector of Celebration as CROA/ARC hold over residential owners.Yet reading over the minutes of YEARS of CNOA meetings yields verbiage consistent with the covers of Golf Digest.
No Subscription is required. Conclusions are not reached-at least concerning the dereliction of Lexin’s Duty, the same conversations reoccur, so patently clear and yet so unreachable.
As usual NO-ONE has to read all of this stuff, there are NO quizzes to be taken. I would like everybody simply to consider the possible consequences of SUCH inattention, and if part of YOUR perfect town includes stopping by Town Center on a snowy evening, or gazing across Lake Reinhard while congratulating yourselves for choosing SUCH a wonderful place to live (which is something I do every day) you might consider what the view will become as more buildings implode. (Tarps will be placed on 660 Celebration Avenue tomorrow, continuing our march) And what might become of Town Center should the biggest foreclosure in Celebration history come to pass.
Rescuing Celebration 
Hi Cookie,
We really appreciate your candor when it comes to Celebration. Regardless, we have fallen in love with the community and are working towards relocating from NH in the coming year. We just cannot stand the thought of another cold winter… We think we want to buy a condo in Artisan Park but have heard there is another pending lawsuit for those condos that is supposed to be settled this month. Any insight you could provide would really be appreciated.
Regards,
-Bill & Christina Walsh