01:26 - 28.06.07
dogged
Well today was productive in an offbeat way. I normally power up my computer as I am waking my youngest up for work in the morning. He gets dressed while I get my tea and start skimming my email. Bonus this morning was that the first one I opened was from one of the job boards daily offerings. It had three postings that were of interest to me. That's the first time that's happened since last year. Lately, even with a selection of 25 to 50 postings in some of the e-mails, most of them have been for other parts of Alberta or are ones that don't pay enough to cover my bills. An article in our local news today acknowledged that the minimum living wage one could get by on in this city was $32,000 per year or an hourly wage that had to be over $15 an hour. Not a lot of work being posted, other than construction or specific scientific/technical postitions, are offering that sort of wage. As a result of the base wage news story information being published, the appearance of three jobs that I could manage on financially was a good psychological boost. I have to admit I had several hours of feeling in despair when the news story about the minimum living wage was broadcast. I sent off two resumes before my youngest was out the door.
As I looked out the front window at one point, I noticed that the neighbour that shares the other half of my duplex had cut down the hedge that is between us sometime since I last looked outside the evening before. The hedge that is on my property and that I planted years ago. I pulled on a sweatshirt on over my sundress and went next door to talk to them about getting permission to be on my property or to alter it in any way before they acted. It wasn't that there was excessive damage to those hedges, but these are the neighbours who participated in vandalizing my backyard before my new fence was built. If the behaviour wasn't challenged when it was a minor issue to resolve, then I was afraid it would escalate as it did with the old neighbours on the west side who took down the shared fence that had been paid for and built by my family some years ago. When I had asked them what they had done with it they stated they had taken it to their new place, because it needed a fence. They did eventually return the boards and rebuild it, but I wasn't willing to risk that happening with the new fence. No way. When the one woman answered the door, she said it was the landlord who had done it. He didn't ask permission either. I asked her for his phone number so I could discuss it with him and made reference to the actions being close to vandalism. She said she didn't have it. Uh huh. Went back home to continue sending out job applications with a migraine starting behind my eyes. Oi.
I went back to work on my computer after that, but soon was interrupted by Ms Kitty. She likes to sit on top of the filing cabinet by the window in the computer room when I am working away. She is very quiet and polite company. Not this morning. She started pawing at the window, trying to get it open wide enough so she could get out. She seemed quite angry as well, with a low growl emanating from her throat. Went to see what it was that had her so hexed. In the side yard was a male in a uniform. I could see he was looking into the neighbour's yard through my fence using binoculars. I asked him if he wanted me to unlock the gate for him, assuming that he wanted into my yard. He said he was a meter reader. He seemed to be trying to shush me up. The level of Ms Kitty's growl went up considerably. I asked him to wait by the gate, so I could talk to him without trying to hear over her increasing protests. Threw the sweat shirt back on and grabbed the keys to the house and the gate on my way out the front door. When we were face to face, I asked the fellow again if he wanted me to unlock the gate. No - he wanted to use my yard to try and see into the neighbour on the west sides' yard. Huh? Their gate is never locked, so why? Well there was a note on their file that indicated they had a vicious dog and so there was a safety issue. Now the one thing that hasn't been an issue with the west neighbour is dogs. They are the ones who have the wandering cats. The ones that I am very fond of, by the way. He still seemed to not want to draw attention to his presence at the side of the house, but his big white van was parked right in front of their house. I handed him the keys to the gate anyway and waited for him to finish whatever it was he was really trying to do.
As I was waiting, I noticed the landlord for the other side of my duplex and another man getting out of a vehicle. Let the meter reader know I was just going to step over and try to have a talk with that landlord and that I would be right back. The landlord had already gone into the other side of the building and the man with him said he was intending to come talk with me after he had seen his tenant. Fine. Went back and collected my keys from the meter man. He wished me a good day and then hurried off to his van. I went inside and changed into more street appropriate clothes - a skort and a sweat shirt so I could be a bit more business like when talking with the landlord. Odd thing was that van didn't move until after the landlord left, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I watched the unusually busy goings on on the front street from my living room window until I saw the landlord return to the vehicle he had arrived in. Met him at the hedges. I was trying to get him to look me in the eyes, because I know that with other males in my life it is the only way to be certain that they actually hear and absorb what one is trying to get across to them. It was nearly impossible because he kept staring at a level somewhat below my eyes. Frustrating because I really wanted him to get the points I was trying to convey. Anyway he first tried to deny that they had done any work, but the fresh even cuts on the plants were very evident. Maybe that was the other reason for avoiding eye contact - guilt. Then he tried to deny that much was cut away, but I pointed to the parts that hadn't been cut on both sides of the yard that were significantly higher and untouched. Oh yeah. Busted. He apologized for not talking to me at that point and promised to do so in the future before taking any action.
Then he went in to a curiously defensive spiel telling me that he was trying to be a good landlord and would not rent to bad tenants - you know the type that deal drugs or harrass their neighbours - anymore. I affirmed that I knew the current tenants were using drugs. He said I should be calling the police though if their behaviour got out of hand in the future. I commented about the extensive vandalism I had had to cope with because of his tenants to date as well as having to deal with the drug use. He then tried to redirect the conversation immediately. He said right after that that the bad upstairs tenants - an unwitting admission that he has converted the other half of my duplex into an illegal quarterplex - were moving out at the end of the month and that he was now screening prospective new tenants to try and find someone who was more appropriate for living among me and my neighbours. In the same breath he also complained about having to take tenants from another of his properties to court to have them evicted, because he had agreed to rent to two people in that case and then found six people living there instead. So how does that differ from the six or so people living in the duplex next to me? Oh yes, he gets two rents from the other half of my duplex, while the other tenants in that other property were only paying one rent. In the next breath he was asking if I would sell him my home. "Not until I could fix it up and so get a fair price for it, as well as find a single family home that I could afford to buy and that suited my needs" I responded. Silence greeted that comment.
Then he switched back to the plants in my yard. He wants my sundance tree cut down because of the leaves that fall in autumn. They make a mess. I pointed out that it appeared that someone had already tried to kill it off, pointing at the dying branches and truncated limbs on the side closest to his side of the duplex. Uh huh. He got really jumpy at that point and tried to revert to his spiel about bad tenants. Trees are the lungs of the earth. Besides that it is obvious that psychologically those hedges and trees are one of the few things that stop his tenants from attempting to take over my yard as part of their space. Remember the incident with the one neighbour immediately after my new fence was built. A 3 in the am temper tantrum outside of my front door with the cab driver standing by watching as the neighbour tried to insist the fence be removed. Those plants, and now the fence, also have stopped some of the verbal harrassment that both male neighbours used to engage in whenever I stepped outside. If they can't see me, then they can't be abusive or threatening in that manner, now can they?
It seemed to me that someone - maybe the good neighbours across the street - had talked with the police after the threats and harrassment that they had been subjected to from that same upstairs tenant. My neighbour had said she was going to talk with the judge about that when they had their time in court with them last year. Maybe as a result of the court issue the problem had been discussed further with the landlord already. He made it clear that he did not want me to call the police, something I had told him I would do if my property was altered again without my knowledge and permission. Hmmm. I appreciate my neighbour's intervention - if that surmise is correct - but it would have been better if I had been included in that discussion with the landlord beforehand. Can't change the damage already done to that sundance tree, but maybe there wouldn't have been the attempts to damage it during the wee hours of the night if he knew I knew the police were paying attention to his and his tenants actions. Guess I just watch what unfolds next. Maybe I'll call that good neighbour too.
And so it was noon before I got back to trying to go through all the e-mail and job postings. The phone rang at that point. Another call for that wrong number from yesterday, but this time the caller was located in a small city about an hour and a half north of this town. The caller was a business owner in the farming industry as well. I was beginning to wonder who would be travelling and shopping in such a wide geographic area over the period of a day. This time I asked for more specific details about the caller's client with the wrong phone number, then called my telephone company to try and resolve the issue. This time the agent I spoke with wondered out loud if the owner of the number not even close to mine had call-forwarded his phone to a number similar in make-up. Don't know. Shortly after that call a service tech called back. Was I aware another phone number had been assigned to my main line. No I had not. It was intended for use for fax machines and secondary phones usually assigned to resident teenagers, you see. Uh huh, why hadn't I been told about it and was I being charged for the service. All the tech would say was that I should call their sales department. Great.
Next up opened the next email in the queue - the one that wasn't getting any smaller because of all the interruptions. I had sent on a really neat geography test to some of my e-friends the evening before. One of those friends had sent back a screen shot of what appeared on their computer when they tried to open up my attachment. It said that PowerPoint couldn't support the utility that was necessary to open the test, yet I had used my own version of PowerPoint and had opened that same attachment up with no problems. Did a bit of research on it on the internet and found that one had to download the utility separately from the installation of the main program, before it was available for use. My youngest had installed our suite, so I am guessing that he may have done the download - the accessories options - at that point in time. Several warnings on some of the websites I visited about security risks attached to that choice. Sent all the links that appeared credible back to that e-friend for his decision on how he wanted to proceed. He responded by sending me a gift of photos of his grandbabies. Have I ever mentioned how much I love babies. These three were especially beautiful/handsome. He also included news of his adult chidren and that was interesting too. Social interaction hasn't died, has it dear diary. It has just evolved so that now we can have friends of like interests all over the world. I would never have had the priviliege of knowing this person and their family otherwise and that would have been a great loss to the quality of my life.
When my youngest arrived home we went to do our banking then headed off to the grocery store. My youngest was giving me a hard time because of all the forbidden treats I kept trying to put in the cart. Part of that was because I hadn't yet eaten during the day being somewhat distracted and discombobulated by the earlier events. The other part was that the stress of the early part of the day left me craving sweets. Something that hasn't happened for a long time. I wasn't even really aware that I was buying that much more than usual. I had been loading up on extra amounts of healthy food too, but it was the junk food that my youngest noticed. Hmmm. Lessons come in a variety of strange ways don't they? We chatted with a couple of people we knew from the community as we wandered the aisles - just a pleasant interlude altogether. Tonight, thankfully, has been quiet. I have been clearing out another closet over the past few days as diminishing the mess in the laundry room after fixing the washer freed up space for me to sort items. More work was done with that tonight. I still am having allergic reactions to the dust that is stirred up when I dig around in those corners, but it isn't anywhere near as debilitating as the earlier forays in some of the other closets. This time the hidden treasure found in the clearing out was a box of Christmas crackers. I love Christmas - something to look forward to anyway. Only six months to go, eh? Good night dear diary.
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