It's Friday, I arrived home last night. The young slumlord served me with a notice to pay what he claims I owe him or move out. I asked for a complete accounting, he didn't provide it. He provided an accounting of the gas bill only, and that was in type 1/4 the size or normal type. He did that just to be an asshole, the reducing it to the smallest possible size. Today is the day that I either have to pay or else. Well, he's not a judge, nor is he a cop, so I will do neither and see him in court. In this state you need that paper of his to file for a court date, which he'll do, file for an eviction hearing. Now of course he didn't date it properly, and he didn't have what it took to hand it to me. It was sitting on the floor outside the door to my room. He did have what it took to get up at 5:00am to look outside to see if one of my vehicles was here, which it was.
Now we get in front of a judge! I can just picture a judge saying, "Let me get this straight. The defendant is supposed to pay for gas, and there has been no hot water for 4 or 5 or how ever many weeks now?" And, I have a witness who clearly heard him say that I have to give him money so he has incentive to fix the hot water at the 13 day point. The judge will say what I said, and what my friend said, which is, "You have to fix it sooner or later, you might as well fix it sooner."
This last trip is the first time ever that I didn't want to come back here. I actually sat on the curb where the bus into town let me off and felt noticeably crappy waiting for my friend to pick me up. Then I got over to said friends house and my pickup wouldn't start, what fun. So finally around 10:30 I made it into this place, and sure enough, kid is here. Sunday night, he told me he was moving out first day or 2 of the week. Ah, yet another lie. I wonder what he was hoping for with that one? What fun, eh?
Friday, July 16, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Home
It's Tuesday, I arrived here Sunday afternoon, I'm home. The trust got me a rental car and motel room, and told me to go play. That alone is around $150/day. Cheap by vacation standards, I guess, but if I come back to do this again, I'm going to have a tent and buy a car to come in.
Car insurance salesman says I have to have a Michigan license before I can have Michigan insurance on a Michigan licensed car. Guess I'm going to look into having Wisconsin insurance on a Michigan licensed car, wonder if I can do that.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Ongoing slumlords
I had to leave town for a few days, and had no idea what to expect. I'm sure the kid or the oriental disabled the hot water, and I've been heating water in pots on the stove for 2 weeks to bathe. It's looking like I'll need to leave my vehicle parked there, unattended while I'm gone.
When I return, will I find my vehicle vandalized? Will I be locked out of the house? If I'm locked out of the house, will I lose anything I haven't moved to storage? This is a hell of a way to live, all my stuff in storage. It's bullshit in fact.
The trip out of town is to take a look at a housing option. I'll take it, looking at it at this point is a formality. So I write this on a train heading into Battle Creek about 3 hours from home. Real home, where I'm from. I stayed at a friends house last night and he took me to catch the bus this morning. He's taking care of the dog, and it turned out he could let me keep my vehicle at his house after all. I got just about everything out of the house, just a few odds and ends, some food, and some furniture remain.
My lawyer said, he can't lock you out. "Ah, yeah, but what do I do if he does?" He can't. Well JJ was around last night and said he was sure he could fix the hot water heater with a small part he got at the hard ware store. The hard ware store couldn't recommend such a thing to me, and JJ is a mechanical moron. But he's sure it'll work. He Jimmied the hot water heater, and he's going to unJimmy it. It didn't work. And he's giving me 5 days to pay up what HE figures I owe him on utilities or he's shutting off the gas. Fine, on gas, no heat or hot water. I'm used to that by now. Question is, will he shut off the electricity? If he does that, there is no water, no light, no stove to heat water for a bath, and the place should be easily condemnable.
Next move of course is JJ will try to rent the dump to the next victim(s). As an absentee landlord. Ain't happening. Even if there is no electric, I'll be around, and any body that rents will have been lied to, and I'll tell them because I'll be there to do it. What a mess.
When I return, will I find my vehicle vandalized? Will I be locked out of the house? If I'm locked out of the house, will I lose anything I haven't moved to storage? This is a hell of a way to live, all my stuff in storage. It's bullshit in fact.
The trip out of town is to take a look at a housing option. I'll take it, looking at it at this point is a formality. So I write this on a train heading into Battle Creek about 3 hours from home. Real home, where I'm from. I stayed at a friends house last night and he took me to catch the bus this morning. He's taking care of the dog, and it turned out he could let me keep my vehicle at his house after all. I got just about everything out of the house, just a few odds and ends, some food, and some furniture remain.
My lawyer said, he can't lock you out. "Ah, yeah, but what do I do if he does?" He can't. Well JJ was around last night and said he was sure he could fix the hot water heater with a small part he got at the hard ware store. The hard ware store couldn't recommend such a thing to me, and JJ is a mechanical moron. But he's sure it'll work. He Jimmied the hot water heater, and he's going to unJimmy it. It didn't work. And he's giving me 5 days to pay up what HE figures I owe him on utilities or he's shutting off the gas. Fine, on gas, no heat or hot water. I'm used to that by now. Question is, will he shut off the electricity? If he does that, there is no water, no light, no stove to heat water for a bath, and the place should be easily condemnable.
Next move of course is JJ will try to rent the dump to the next victim(s). As an absentee landlord. Ain't happening. Even if there is no electric, I'll be around, and any body that rents will have been lied to, and I'll tell them because I'll be there to do it. What a mess.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Slumlords
My landlord is this 23 year old kid who just (he claims anyhow) graduated from the Univ with a degree in Business. His landlord is an oriental who will remain nameless, and they claim to be buddies. The kid started asking for something in writing that said I'd be gone by July 1, back in May. Excuse me? Turns out the lease had a clause that said that if I left before the end, I owed 2 extra months rent, so that would have been 10 months housing for 14 months rent. No wonder he wanted it, only an extra $1400.00 for nothing.
So, June 15th rolls around, and now the oriental and the kid are showing up on the weekends and leaning on me to leave. The oriental is getting rather ugly about the whole thing. I'm telling them I'm going to get this place condemned, and I do believe I have the way to do it all worked out. The kid laughs and says I can't get it condemned. It's amazing, I'd forgotten how childish children are. The kid goes through this big taunting routine, like he's going to piss me off bad enough that I'd take a swing at him. Yeah, right, no way. I've seen this played before, and I guess there are people in prison who are dumb and impulsive enough to do it.
June 26, and the hot water magically stops working. Kid had made a glib comment about hot water heater thermocouples in the past. So I'm thinking, kid disabled the hot water heater, and I tell him my thoughts. He laughs, he's so arrogant. It's just a little too close to July first for me to believe otherwise. China man is back, screaming for me to get off his property in 24 hours. Excuse me? I have a lease, Asshole. Now you get off my property, no he doesn't have to, he's the kids room mate all of a sudden. Ah................... But I found out why he's so buddy buddy with the kid all of a sudden and why the pressure. The weed police!
Kid has idiot China man convinced he'll make the property a garden. Not!! Kid is going around trying to convince everyone he's ever met that gardening is such fun, come and do his gardening for him, he'll supervise. Cute twist to free labor, I've never seen that one before, are there really chumps out there who would go for that? China man knows that he can be cited for having noxious weeds on this property any day after June 15 that they're not cut, and if he is, they'll contract with a 3rd party to cut the weeds and send him the bill. Kid doesn't know this I don't think, and thinks his daddy's job in the state Assembly will protect him. NOT!!
So, I don't nibble on any of the bait. What bait? Well, last time China man is here I tell him I want hot water fixed. He wants to know why he should fix it, I'm not his friend, and he'd only fix it for a friend. Ok pal, I'm your friend, now how about fixing it? Oh, I've hurt poor Chen Su, I insulted him, he'll be scarred for life. I called him a slum lord. Well, gentle reader, what would you call this ass hole? He won't fix the hot water heater unless I'm his friend, GET OUT he says, I think he qualifies as a slum lord. So, following day, Sunday, he shows up again, and I say, I'll try being nice, I'm your friend, I tell kid I'll be nice to him.
So............ the bait: He says, ok, we should be friends, he wants to take me into town to buy me a drink. A soda. I say no thank you. And truthfully, I don't drink soda, haven't for many years. He goes into a minor rage, that I'm not his friend because he can't buy me a soda. Both he and kid are NOT smiling. I'll bet he had 3 or 4 friends staged at someplace like Culver's, and had it all staged for a public confrontation that could get me tossed into jail because his witness's all knew what to say. Geeee, too bad, I wasn't enough of a chump to take the bait.
Now, the political issue.......... Well audience, should I go to my democrat Assemblyman with all this? Kid's mother was pretty arrogant when I asked her what he and did for a living and she said I should ask him. So I did. He says he's the first assistant to a republican state Assemblyman, the one from their district, which is where the kid really lives, at mommy and daddy's house. They have hot water. Man is a terribly nice fellow, I like the guy. He's telling me that because it's an election year, he has to get his guy re-elected to keep his job intact.
Fast forward to Thursday, July 8th. A friend is helping me move some stuff, futon, futon frame, and so on, big stuff. Why? Well, if I get this place condemned, they will give me until midnight to be out, and anything left is lost. Kid shows up and says he has this lease termination agreement he wants me to sign, and if I sign it he'll fix the hot water. He says this in front of a witness, my helper. According to my attorney, this is extortion. Normally we think of extortion as a thug saying he'll let you go for a price, well the law doesn't read that way, this is extortion too.
I will be mostly out of here by Sunday night (7/11/10). The only valuable things that won't be out will be the washer/dryer, and freezer. They go next weekend I think.
After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that no matter how nice a guy the fellow is, I have no choice but to go to my Assemblyman, and the media. The media guy I went to is Bill Lueders of Isthmus magazine, in Madison, Wisconsin. Hope to hear from you sir. Any of you readers want to ask him to stick his nose in it, leuders@isthmus.com and thanks everyone for caring about me, and caring about right and wrong.
So, June 15th rolls around, and now the oriental and the kid are showing up on the weekends and leaning on me to leave. The oriental is getting rather ugly about the whole thing. I'm telling them I'm going to get this place condemned, and I do believe I have the way to do it all worked out. The kid laughs and says I can't get it condemned. It's amazing, I'd forgotten how childish children are. The kid goes through this big taunting routine, like he's going to piss me off bad enough that I'd take a swing at him. Yeah, right, no way. I've seen this played before, and I guess there are people in prison who are dumb and impulsive enough to do it.
June 26, and the hot water magically stops working. Kid had made a glib comment about hot water heater thermocouples in the past. So I'm thinking, kid disabled the hot water heater, and I tell him my thoughts. He laughs, he's so arrogant. It's just a little too close to July first for me to believe otherwise. China man is back, screaming for me to get off his property in 24 hours. Excuse me? I have a lease, Asshole. Now you get off my property, no he doesn't have to, he's the kids room mate all of a sudden. Ah................... But I found out why he's so buddy buddy with the kid all of a sudden and why the pressure. The weed police!
Kid has idiot China man convinced he'll make the property a garden. Not!! Kid is going around trying to convince everyone he's ever met that gardening is such fun, come and do his gardening for him, he'll supervise. Cute twist to free labor, I've never seen that one before, are there really chumps out there who would go for that? China man knows that he can be cited for having noxious weeds on this property any day after June 15 that they're not cut, and if he is, they'll contract with a 3rd party to cut the weeds and send him the bill. Kid doesn't know this I don't think, and thinks his daddy's job in the state Assembly will protect him. NOT!!
So, I don't nibble on any of the bait. What bait? Well, last time China man is here I tell him I want hot water fixed. He wants to know why he should fix it, I'm not his friend, and he'd only fix it for a friend. Ok pal, I'm your friend, now how about fixing it? Oh, I've hurt poor Chen Su, I insulted him, he'll be scarred for life. I called him a slum lord. Well, gentle reader, what would you call this ass hole? He won't fix the hot water heater unless I'm his friend, GET OUT he says, I think he qualifies as a slum lord. So, following day, Sunday, he shows up again, and I say, I'll try being nice, I'm your friend, I tell kid I'll be nice to him.
So............ the bait: He says, ok, we should be friends, he wants to take me into town to buy me a drink. A soda. I say no thank you. And truthfully, I don't drink soda, haven't for many years. He goes into a minor rage, that I'm not his friend because he can't buy me a soda. Both he and kid are NOT smiling. I'll bet he had 3 or 4 friends staged at someplace like Culver's, and had it all staged for a public confrontation that could get me tossed into jail because his witness's all knew what to say. Geeee, too bad, I wasn't enough of a chump to take the bait.
Now, the political issue.......... Well audience, should I go to my democrat Assemblyman with all this? Kid's mother was pretty arrogant when I asked her what he and did for a living and she said I should ask him. So I did. He says he's the first assistant to a republican state Assemblyman, the one from their district, which is where the kid really lives, at mommy and daddy's house. They have hot water. Man is a terribly nice fellow, I like the guy. He's telling me that because it's an election year, he has to get his guy re-elected to keep his job intact.
Fast forward to Thursday, July 8th. A friend is helping me move some stuff, futon, futon frame, and so on, big stuff. Why? Well, if I get this place condemned, they will give me until midnight to be out, and anything left is lost. Kid shows up and says he has this lease termination agreement he wants me to sign, and if I sign it he'll fix the hot water. He says this in front of a witness, my helper. According to my attorney, this is extortion. Normally we think of extortion as a thug saying he'll let you go for a price, well the law doesn't read that way, this is extortion too.
I will be mostly out of here by Sunday night (7/11/10). The only valuable things that won't be out will be the washer/dryer, and freezer. They go next weekend I think.
After thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that no matter how nice a guy the fellow is, I have no choice but to go to my Assemblyman, and the media. The media guy I went to is Bill Lueders of Isthmus magazine, in Madison, Wisconsin. Hope to hear from you sir. Any of you readers want to ask him to stick his nose in it, leuders@isthmus.com and thanks everyone for caring about me, and caring about right and wrong.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
A train ticket home
I bought one today. I'll get reimbursed for it. Is this how my sister lived all her life?
Roy Boy replied to an email, said he'd speak well of me. Cool.
Back in the day, Spooner used to sit on the Diag (Univ of Mich people will know what that is) and crochet halter tops. They were a fad. He had a sign next to him that said, "I can alter a halter, to fit your tit." I want to twist chain mail head covers in that spot. It'll never happen, but it's a nice fantasy.
Roy Boy replied to an email, said he'd speak well of me. Cool.
Back in the day, Spooner used to sit on the Diag (Univ of Mich people will know what that is) and crochet halter tops. They were a fad. He had a sign next to him that said, "I can alter a halter, to fit your tit." I want to twist chain mail head covers in that spot. It'll never happen, but it's a nice fantasy.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Truely Amazing!!
My step mother just told me that if I move back home, the family trust will give me free rent in a house the trust owns, and provide me with a free pickup truck to drive, they pay the insurance.
Wow! My first reaction was to say yeah, sure, then my lawyer said, wait a minute how much cash can you get instead. She said she wanted me to make up my mind, and I'd already told her what I wanted to do, so I made the rounds of my friends and said, what should I do? Fast Eddie said go and look at it, Lynetto said jump on it, Heidi said Jump on it, Dickie said Jump on it, Jay said be true to yourself, and Jeff said he'd probably take it. That's 1/2 in favor of jump on it. They have cab companies in Ann Arbor.
But I can't drive cab there with a Wisconsin license. I'm not giving up my Wi. license right away, so I don't have an occupation, do I? Well, I have to go there and visit. Next week for 2 or 3 days. I finally got a friend to agree to watch the dog for me. Same friend might let me stay in his basement on and off if life got grim, but why would it? Sigh...... This has just been the year from hell. Dave has the option of renting the house for $800/month, maybe he'll do that and save me making the choice of moving there. Then I'd get the $800 for rent here.
Wow! My first reaction was to say yeah, sure, then my lawyer said, wait a minute how much cash can you get instead. She said she wanted me to make up my mind, and I'd already told her what I wanted to do, so I made the rounds of my friends and said, what should I do? Fast Eddie said go and look at it, Lynetto said jump on it, Heidi said Jump on it, Dickie said Jump on it, Jay said be true to yourself, and Jeff said he'd probably take it. That's 1/2 in favor of jump on it. They have cab companies in Ann Arbor.
But I can't drive cab there with a Wisconsin license. I'm not giving up my Wi. license right away, so I don't have an occupation, do I? Well, I have to go there and visit. Next week for 2 or 3 days. I finally got a friend to agree to watch the dog for me. Same friend might let me stay in his basement on and off if life got grim, but why would it? Sigh...... This has just been the year from hell. Dave has the option of renting the house for $800/month, maybe he'll do that and save me making the choice of moving there. Then I'd get the $800 for rent here.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Back in the saddle, I think.
I think I will have a silver cab to drive soon. Not a moment too soon, I'm going crazy with boredom. Joe invited me into his office and asked what happened, so I told him and he asked if the management of the red and whites are crazy, letting someone go after all those years for such petty BS. Well they did. Red and white used to be THE color cab to drive, but I don't think that's been true since they stopped being Dodge Diplomats.
Anyhow, I've always liked Joe, and all the people I've ever talked to who drive those silver cabs tell me they like it just fine, make decent money, and are treated well.
On some other fronts, my life is really turning for the better. My housing troubles are going to clear up in a few days. I won't have to abandon the dream of being in the portable welding business after all. And I actually feel like restarting work on that book I was trying to write. AND... After stepping back from it, I'll bet starting over will work out real well. Anybody out there got suggestions as to were to keep it on the web, let me know in a comment. I wouldn't keep it on a machine after going through all the hair pulling when this very machine had to be reformatted low level and I lost EVERYTHING. Life is improving, I want to write again!
My right hand has improved enough that I can touch type with both hands again. Again? Yeah. Funny story coming up here. I was trying to catch this cow, and I had her cornered, and I was trying to grab her halter. Say what? Really was, but don't laugh yet, it gets better. Little brown cow, not one of the huge black and white ones, jersey I think. She didn't want to get caught so she kicked me in the knee. I impulsively slammed my fist down on her rump and shattered the bone between the little finger and wrist of my right hand near the base at the wrist. Damn, did that hurt, and I mean immediately!! Fortunately for me, my health insurance was current, so following day I went and got it treated. They put on this removable 1/2 cast made out of plastic that attaches with velcro. And that was 25 days ago. It took about 10 days to basically knit back together, and I've been able to use that finger to type with for around 24 hours now. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to wipe yourself in the john with the wrong hand? Nightmare!!) I see a doctor or somebody for final time in 3 weeks, then I'm ok to return to work, if I had a job. I will though. I'll load trucks.
Load trucks? Yeah. I used to load moving trucks for a living. I'm not in that great a shape, so it will be like going to the gym and getting paid for it. I was stacking stuff in my storage unit this afternoon, and it wasn't that easy with that cast on, but it was do-able. I can still do it just fine. Loading trucks is kind of like a 3 dimensional tetris game, there's a learning curve to it. And there's a busy season to it too. God, was today (Wed 6/30) a good day.
While I'm rambling about random stuff, I've been looking at chain mail again and thinking to myself, everyone needs a hobby. My dad didn't like me sitting and knitting with my mother when I was 7. Well making one of those chain mail head covers that drapes over over somebody's shoulders looks like a cool similar thing. Only instead of yarn and knitting needles it's wire and pliers, why not, great way to kill time at the airport waiting for a plane to come down, right?
Anyhow, I've always liked Joe, and all the people I've ever talked to who drive those silver cabs tell me they like it just fine, make decent money, and are treated well.
On some other fronts, my life is really turning for the better. My housing troubles are going to clear up in a few days. I won't have to abandon the dream of being in the portable welding business after all. And I actually feel like restarting work on that book I was trying to write. AND... After stepping back from it, I'll bet starting over will work out real well. Anybody out there got suggestions as to were to keep it on the web, let me know in a comment. I wouldn't keep it on a machine after going through all the hair pulling when this very machine had to be reformatted low level and I lost EVERYTHING. Life is improving, I want to write again!
My right hand has improved enough that I can touch type with both hands again. Again? Yeah. Funny story coming up here. I was trying to catch this cow, and I had her cornered, and I was trying to grab her halter. Say what? Really was, but don't laugh yet, it gets better. Little brown cow, not one of the huge black and white ones, jersey I think. She didn't want to get caught so she kicked me in the knee. I impulsively slammed my fist down on her rump and shattered the bone between the little finger and wrist of my right hand near the base at the wrist. Damn, did that hurt, and I mean immediately!! Fortunately for me, my health insurance was current, so following day I went and got it treated. They put on this removable 1/2 cast made out of plastic that attaches with velcro. And that was 25 days ago. It took about 10 days to basically knit back together, and I've been able to use that finger to type with for around 24 hours now. (Do you have any idea how hard it is to wipe yourself in the john with the wrong hand? Nightmare!!) I see a doctor or somebody for final time in 3 weeks, then I'm ok to return to work, if I had a job. I will though. I'll load trucks.
Load trucks? Yeah. I used to load moving trucks for a living. I'm not in that great a shape, so it will be like going to the gym and getting paid for it. I was stacking stuff in my storage unit this afternoon, and it wasn't that easy with that cast on, but it was do-able. I can still do it just fine. Loading trucks is kind of like a 3 dimensional tetris game, there's a learning curve to it. And there's a busy season to it too. God, was today (Wed 6/30) a good day.
While I'm rambling about random stuff, I've been looking at chain mail again and thinking to myself, everyone needs a hobby. My dad didn't like me sitting and knitting with my mother when I was 7. Well making one of those chain mail head covers that drapes over over somebody's shoulders looks like a cool similar thing. Only instead of yarn and knitting needles it's wire and pliers, why not, great way to kill time at the airport waiting for a plane to come down, right?
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