| Dear Tenants |
[May 05, 2008 @ 7:26pm] |
My best effort at a polite but pointed response to their whining is ( behind the cut. )
Edited to accommodate very helpful suggestions. Thank you to all who responded.
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| Argh |
[May 05, 2008 @ 9:58am] |
Wow. Just wow. The tenants now list half a page of "improvements" and "necessary" repairs they've made to our property, informing us that they expect to be reimbursed for same. They didn't ask about any of these, many were things we very definitely did not want done, and one (count 'em, 1) may have been a good idea, if they are right in their assertion that it brought some wiring up to code.
They want us to pay for their having poisoned the entire place to get rid of some harmless bugs (box elders) that are attracted by the trees in the yard and will be back just as thick as ever as soon as the poison wears off. (I told them I disapproved of the use of poisons!) They want us to pay for the partial roof-mending they had agreed to do. They want us to pay for replacing a brand new air compressor, and elements in a water heater we had intended to instead replace with a larger, more energy-efficient model. They want us to pay for fixing outside lights we were going to ask the power company to stop powering. They want us to pay for replacing incandescent bulbs with fluorescent (a hundred so far, they claim), which would be a good idea...IF the incandescent were used in any area where they were, well, used. But we'd already replaced all the ones in the areas we used.
The list is longer. I'm having great difficulty not thinking ill of these people. They made these changes "at great personal sacrifice" because they expected to own the place. Like it's our fault they lied about their ability to pay? Damn.
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| We'll See |
[May 02, 2008 @ 11:21pm] |
What happened: last summer, we listed our school building on eBay. We were asking for cash as we didn't want to finance. Several people came to see the school and made various offers, none of which was quite right. The present tenants became very excited, came to see the school, said they reallyreally wanted it please please please and they could pay today ... well, tomorrow ... well, no, but next week....
They sounded like they would be a good fit for the town, and although several people came along subsequently with offers of cash right now, we felt it would be unkind to accept any of them after having let these people become so excited and do so much work trying to get the money together. However, winter was coming on, and we needed to protect ourselves against leaving the school untenanted through sub-zero temps, so we made up a lease-to-purchase agreement to cover us through the winter. They were delighted, signed it, and moved right in.
Discussion of how the money would be arriving any day now stopped immediately. On inquiry, it turned out they thought the lease agreement meant they had until spring to come up with the money. Which of course it did, but that hadn't been our verbal agreement. Still, there it was, so we waited to see what they would do in the spring. And we considered what we would do if they did or didn't pay.
It came to us that we'd rather they didn't. And now they say they can't. They want us to finance, which we said right along we wouldn't do. So we've told them no, but they still have till the end of the month to come up with the rest of the purchase price; or they're welcome to remain at the same rent for another year, since it'll be that long till we can move back.
They were all intent on having an answer from us by 2 May, but they don't seem to be in such a hurry to let us know what they'll be doing. I find I don't really care so much anymore. We'll just deal with whatever happens in whatever way seems appropriate at the time. There would be advantages to any decision they could make (well, unless they decide to burn the place down). We'll just see.
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| Or At Least Amazement |
[April 29, 2008 @ 9:03am] |
I guess I'm not so much irked as stunned. And really only by their needing an answer within three days, after having kept us utterly uninformed for nine months. It seems...unkind. OTOH I'm sure from their point of view it seems only reasonable; they need to know by 2 May, and we didn't need to know till 31 May. So really they've told us more than a month before they needed to.
And we're in a quandary, whether to let them continue paying for the school piecemeal or whether to kick them out so we can move back in. Or, of course, relist it on eBay and insist on a cash sale this time. (We actually turned down a couple of cash buyers because we thought the present tenants would be a better fit for the town. Our mistake. Most of the townsfolk have never even met them. This in a town of 150 people max -- It's hard not to meet anyone for nine whole months in a town that size!)
And we didn't realize, when we left, how much we would miss living in the school and in that town. Not that it's a constant fuss or anything, but to our very surprise we have not liked it here and would really like to be back there.
OTOH we really can't leave this job till December and might ought to stay another year after that, and if the tenants haven't fixed the roof (which we have no reason to believe they have done, though they were supposed to), there'd be that to worry about again.
It is to sigh. What to do?
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| Anger Arises |
[April 29, 2008 @ 8:58am] |
Dear Tenants,
We have been on tenterhooks for the last nine months, waiting to see whether you really had the ability to pay as you promised last autumn or whether you imagined you would get the money from a mortgage company, in which case we would get the school back this spring since it's obvious to the meanest intelligence that no mortgage company would provide such a loan. Nine months of "do we plan for having money, or for moving back into the school?"
Now, nine months after you said you could pay "within days," you give us THREE DAYS in which to tell you whether you may prolong your payments or get out? My, aren't we in a hurry all of a sudden, now that it's your life thrown into an unplannable state instead of ours?
We'll think about it.
Love and kisses,
us
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| Territorial Robin |
[April 27, 2008 @ 9:57am] |
Two or three days ago a robin began pecking at one of our windows ... for hours. Then it began throwing itself (gently, but still) against the neighboring window. Then it went back to pecking. Then it combined the two. For hours.
One of the cats became convinced that if she only waited long enough and tried hard enough, she could catch it. Several futile leaps later she gave up and rested on the back of the couch where she could watch its antics in comfort. It continued to peck and fly at the window. I waved at it, repeatedly, which each time chased it away only briefly. Eventually I gave up and closed the blinds, which caused it to go away for the rest of that day.
The next morning it was back again, pecking behind closed blinds, so I opened them. It went on. And on. I feared for its health but could find nothing that would make it stay away. What, I wondered, could be going on in its tiny mind?
I googled and learned that it's probably territorial and defending a near-nest area from the perceived enemy reflected in the window. I'll buy this, though you'd think different times of day might change the reflection adequately that it wouldn't be an all-day thing. Still, it's the best explanation I can think of, and nothing suggested to stop it that we've tried has worked.
They did say it might exhaust itself but is unlikely to kill itself. I hope they're right. It's supposed to stop entirely once its chicks leave the nest. Good heavens, I doubt the chicks are even eggs yet!
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| Signs |
[April 16, 2008 @ 2:00pm] |
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There are drifts of daffodils in the lawn. The air is filled with the heady scent of hyacinths. Violets peek through the greening grass, and the groundhog is munching new shoots near his burrow. Sunlight is warm on the windowsill, where a cat sprawls gracefully in the light. I think it's spring.
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| In Other News |
[April 11, 2008 @ 7:28am] |
SFWA is having its Nebula Awards(R) Banquet at the end of this month. I was invited to attend at SFWA's expense, to receive a Service to SFWA award for having been their first Webmaster. I find that quite classy, and I really would have liked to go, but the timing just wouldn't work: I was supposed to have some dental work done exactly then.
As it turns out, the dental work got moved forward for reasons best known to my dentist. It was a ridiculous mixup that resulted in my presenting myself for a cleaning and finding them waiting to remove two of my teeth. (The top front two. "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.") Tooth-removal had been the plan for later, but not right then. Still, they were ready for it and there was no particular reason to put it off, so I agreed.
Now I'm learning to talk and eat with a mouth full of plastic. I had expected some difficulty eating, but for some reason it had never occurred to me that I'd have to learn to talk again too. (I lisp. I whistle. If I speak very carefully I sound only a little defective.) It's such a chore, I am in awe of people I know who have been living for years with mouths full of plastic.
It is to sigh.
At least the new teeth look okay. A little squirrely, but neither laughable nor scarey. And surely eventually I can get used to them. There really aren't any options, so I'd better.
Just as well I didn't agree to go to the SFWA event, though. I need a little time before I try to eat or talk in public.
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| Mockery and Lies Day |
[April 01, 2008 @ 11:10am] |
If one created in fiction a day each year on which the residents of some alien culture deliberately engendered distrust, discomfort, and disappointment in their friends and fellow residents for their own amusement, it might be difficult to be convincing. Yet here we are. I've hated the first of April since childhood. It is a day on which cynicism is celebrated, trust is redefined as gullibility, and the gentlest and most innocent among us are made objects of mockery and contempt.
Oddly it never occurs to me, if a lie is told me in all earnestness, to distrust the teller no matter how much I mistrust his data. Consequently I am, as you may imagine, convinced the teller believes the lie, even if I don't. This has, more than once in the course of a long life, made me a laughingstock ... and it's worse because I cannot always see the humor in having believed that someone was not deliberately lying. (The joke seems funnier to most people if the victim of it has actually gone to some trouble or expense because of his confidence in the teller. Fortunately I've always caught on before I could be that amusing.)
There are amusing aspects, and Onion-style articles published that would have no existence without this uncomfortable tradition, but while I have quite enjoyed a few of them, I'm not sure they balance the pain I know the day is causing too many too-trusting innocents.
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| Balance |
[March 11, 2008 @ 7:59am] |
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And then somebody in WoW does something nice. My honey logged in to one of his toons last night and found mail waiting from "unknown" (which is how the server copes with a deleted toon's sent mail). It said, "Don't like the Horde side. Here's some money," and contained 500 gold. He has no idea who sent it.
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| ...and again. |
[March 05, 2008 @ 9:37pm] |
That's it for me. I opened a ticket about that hunter last night, and I got a form response apologizing for not getting back to me while I was still online (they thought I would want to hang around to be ganked repeatedly?) and thanking me for taking the time yatta yatta. Tonight he's back in xroads and used a snake trap to kill me (and other unflagged lowbies) again. They didn't do anything, and they won't. I opened a ticket again, but I really don't know why. Blizzard doesn't care.
As far as I know there are no Horde hunters exploiting the bug on our server, so I spose I could safely run my Alliance lowbies, but this has left a pretty sour taste in my mouth.
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| ganked again |
[March 04, 2008 @ 10:11pm] |
I will be so glad when (if!) they eventually fix the snake trap problem. Hunters who delight in exploiting it are numerous. Why those people aren't playing on a pvp server I don't know, but maybe it's more fun to gank unflagged lowbies.
I do know if Blizz doesn't fix it, and if the Alliance hunters who so enjoy exploiting it continue to proliferate on our server, I'll pretty much quit playing, at least new alts. It's just too frustrating to have my play interrupted by mean-spirited children who delight in causing others distress. (That's why I'm not on a pvp server.) I find I have too much tendency to think ill of them and to feel anger about the whole situation, which is neither comfortable nor in any way useful.
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| Saturday Night WoW |
[March 03, 2008 @ 7:45am] |
My mains are both seventy, have tried the two dailies available w/out complicated group activities or secret knowledge, and will keep doing the daily cooking till they have all the recipes. ("Fires Over Skettis" is a tedious and time-consuming way to earn a few gold, pointless as far as I can see if you don't want rep so you can get the exotic flying mount.)
My beloved Horde hunter will keep farming things for his guildies, but probably won't do much more than that; and my Alliance 'lock may specialize her alchemy (choosing the only specialization that doesn't require group activities), but has no one to play with or support so isn't much interesting anymore. I had imagined I would complete quests after 70, but every time I look at their quest logs I suffer ennui.
However, the Saturday night instancing group is still good fun. ( Read more... ) And I'm glad I don't have to explain that to the earnest, dedicated WoW players* who either can't understand playing for fun, or can't imagine finding fun in casual Saturday night street games when you could be in serious training for the national tournament (so to speak -- and for which I've doubtless used the wrong terms as I'm not a team-sport aficionado).
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*By which I do not mean people who are merely good at it, or experienced, or both; I mean those who mistake it for life.
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| Dishwashing |
[February 19, 2008 @ 5:21pm] |
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I have just come from washing dishes, which although it is certainly far from my fave task can, if one is very present for it, be quite sensuous: warm water, soft suds, smooth china.... But I do understand why someone might find that concept alien. Once I was made to change a scene in a story because the editor did not believe that anyone could under any circumstances enjoy washing dishes. Very likely since the enjoyment of dishwashing was not central to the story, she was right to eliminate it in order to prevent disconcertment on the part of some or many readers. It is over such small things that the unwary writer can most readily trip. (She said ponderously.)
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| WoW Fishing |
[February 10, 2008 @ 5:53pm] |
I've always enjoyed fishing in WoW. Most of my characters have spent much time maxed at fishing till they level up enough to get the book/quest/whatever to allow more skill. Both my mains were maxed when they got to Outlands, and bought the book as soon as they got to Zangarmarsh.
That's also the first place I found that one could fish in the Outlands. Erm. The first place where there's water deep enough, and evidence that there may be fish in it. Actually I've now got my skill up enough to catch one occasionally, but at first all I got was "your fish got away," even with an expensive fish-attracting bauble. And that's the lowest-level water in the Outlands. Boring.
So one has to go back to the old world to fish, catching fish too low-level to eat, cook, or sell profitably. Ten fish per point, and each of my mains needs to gain 75 points total before they'll be maxed at fishing.... Which I understand from others may still not be enough (even with +20 fishing poles and +100 baubles) to catch fish with reliable frequency in the Outlands.
Seven hundred fifty worthless fish. Euw. Fishing has become a chore. I didn't mind needing to catch more and more fish to get a point, when there were always places where I could always catch fish I could use. But this! Tedious to the max. What were they thinking?
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| Nonfiction? |
[February 04, 2008 @ 4:53pm] |
I just read a supposedly nonfiction book about a natural disaster that seemed fairly well-written and informative, but I realized about halfway through that I couldn't trust anything the author said. That made it a trifle iffy. It was interesting enough to finish reading, and in an afterward I found that probably one could tell which parts he had embellished and which parts were accurate, but I truly don't think the reader ought to have to guess.
The thing is, he was telling us word-for-word, in dialogue quotes, what people thought as they were dying. And precisely what untraceable actions they took prior to dying. At first I thought cool, that one survived or he couldn't know that; but then I found out no, that one didn't survive. Seems to me, then, that telling what he thought and precisely what he did is, you know, fiction.
In the afterward the author admitted to using "poetic license" in these cases. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that poetic license does not belong in a work ostensibly of nonfiction. Is that sort of thing commonly done these days? I don't like it. [She said querulously.]
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| Zafu |
[January 31, 2008 @ 4:45pm] |
I didn't mention here that I got a new zafu as a solstice gift. I had been using the Salubrion chair, which I thought wonderful when I got it, but which has become more and more difficult to use as we are farther and farther from Hawaii and all the limbering behaviors (swimming, beach combing, swimming, etc.) one does there. I'm getting old.
So now I have a wonderful zafu, and I cannot tell you how much more comfortable it is. It is a splendid thing for an old person. Yay!
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| Weather |
[January 29, 2008 @ 12:45pm] |
We were delighted and amused to discover that in Pennsylvania (at least where we live) "bitter cold" means "just below freezing," or "it won't quite thaw by midday." But PA makes up for the generally mild temps by producing plenty of black ice to make driving excessively adventurous in the early morning hours. Sometimes it seems a little colder weather might be a good thing.
My honey did make it safely to work this morning. Lots of others didn't. In fact the road from here to the freeway was closed behind him due to the many accidents. Half a dozen or so, in a relatively short stretch. And the radio told of a twenty-car pileup on one freeway.
And now it's toasty outside and all melty again.
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| Fear of Falling |
[January 21, 2008 @ 6:42am] |
Those of you who play WoW may all know that the Outlands is a piece of a planet floating in space, with edges a character can easily fall off. Now, death in the game is an inconvenience at worst, and even falling off the Outlands would only entail an in-game repair bill because one would have to spirit rez instead of running back to one's body.
And I'm petrified of falling off. If anything takes me near (and by "near," I basically mean "in sight of") the edge, my skin crawls. It's got to the point where I cringe at every height in the game. Though, come to think of it, my Horde main had a lot of trouble with Freewind Post (and to a lesser extent with Thunder Bluff) long before we ever got to the Outlands. I always tried to avoid the Great Lift where I could.
I don't consciously RP, so this fear of falling seems extremely odd to me. (Though I guess I RP more than some: I have a friend who always walks off edges rather than take the stairs, and whose fighting involves pressing buttons without knowing for sure what will happen....) But I can't seem to get over it. I've been trying to talk myself into going back and doing a quest I skipped that involves walking over a "fallen mushroom" bridge from the main chunk of land to an island floating in space, and so far I can't do it. It's too scary.
IMO that's just weird.
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