"You gonna get another job?"...

[Volpone]

Fucking renters. Their brains are just wired up odd.

When I first got back in the vacant property among the things I noticed:
-Huge amounts of dust and crud on the ceiling fan blades.
-Huge trails of dust clinging to all the vents and ducting.
-An unopened furnace filter leaning against the wall in one of the bedrooms
-The smoke detector on the bathroom sink.

So of course when I finally got in there to get to work on getting the place ready to list, sure enough they hadn't changed the furnace filter in God knows how long. There's also a secondary little intake vent on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms. I had showed up one day with one to install and the husband said he'd take care of it, since the dogs were in that room. Of course he never did and that vent had no filter at all on it. So who knows how much they've shortened the life of my brand new $4,000 HVAC.

At least 2 doorknobs were about ready to fall off. All they required was taking a screwdriver and tightening the screws that hold them together. Why doesn't it occur to renters to do simple things like this.

I think I've already talked about the fireplace. Had to have the chimney rebuilt. Even so, the fireplace wasn't really usable. Told them that. The glass screen is painted black and doesn't have any handles (that way when I got it). And there's no grate for logs in the hearth. Nonetheless they somehow had decided to use the fireplace. Luckily I (hopefully) put a stop to that before they did any permanent damage to all my new expensive brickwork.

The first 6 months they were there, they didn't realize their toilet was running--couldn't figure out the huge water bills. There were other little things. And I'm sure I'll find others as I work on the place.

Gutters were all clogged with leaves, causing standing water next to the foundation in a few places.

I mean, they aren't bad people. And they always paid rent on time. But they just didn't know the first thing about maintaining a house. Even though I explicitly told them things they needed to do and much of it was also in the lease.

Well, I should get going. Much to do.

Oh, but one last general peeve: Americans and bigger-is-better. A house built in the 1950s is horrible for the average American. These days even a king-sized bed isn't big enough, we needed to come up with a California King. 65" TVs. Massive sectionals. Makes a place very cluttered and claustrophobic.

If you ever are in Long Beach and get to do a tour of the Queen Mary ocean liner, the staterooms are all smaller than a usual hotel room. So the designers put in 3/4 sized furniture to make the rooms appear normal. It's all big enough to be functional but it creates an illusion of a more spacious room. You wouldn't think it would work but it does. On a related note my first house had 7' ceilings. Worked for me because I'm under 5'10". When I was furnishing the guest room I couldn't find a floor lamp like I wanted so I bought a cheap Wal*Mart lamp and modified it to what I wanted. It was fairly imposing in that room but when I moved to a house with 8' ceilings, it looked dinky.

Now I really should go.

 

[Volpone]

The other renter, about once a month he manages to lock himself out of his house.

I've been having troubles with my phone. Finally got it working right, but I'm trying to follow best practices for LiIon batteries. Yesterday my friend called just as I was getting ready to head to the other place, draining the battery too low so I threw it on the charger while I was getting the van loaded and then forgot it. I think the laptop went to sleep so it didn't overcharge, but while I was fixing up the other place, the other renter had locked himself out of the house.

You really do need to train renters. And if you don't take active steps to train them right, you're still training them. Since the house is close to mine and my schedule is pretty flexible, I've just popped over to let him in and not charged him for the service. I should charge him, but I don't want to so I haven't. I guess I need to. Because right now I've trained him that there is no consequence to locking yourself out.

 

[Volpone]

In case you can't guess, clearly my subconscious does not want to go get a house ready to rent.

 

[Oerdin]

With most renters it is not their house so they do not give a fuck. Also why were you paying their water bill? I shut the water off and tell them they need to set up an account with the water utility to establish service. Water is expensive and I don't want to pay for someone else's two hour showers or if they are to lazy to not let the toilet run on for six months. Yes, renters do stuff like that.

When I was you get and was renting out my two spare rooms as rooms for rent I had one guy who would routinely get drunk then pass out in the shower for hours on end. Yeah, fuck that, the next time I out in the lease excessive use of utilities will mean additional charges. As it is unfair to everyone else if their share of utilities goes way up because one asshole wants to run his AC 24/7 even when he was not in his room or if he wants to pass out drunk in the shower for hours a day.

 

[Oerdin]

In case you can't guess, clearly my subconscious does not want to go get a house ready to rent.

Honestly, you should just do it or hire someone else to do it because not doing it is money down the drain.

 

[Volpone]

...or it could just be that I'm tired of dealing with humans and failure.

Needed a furnace filter. So I needed to hit the store. At the store I could also look at options for the pond. Found one I liked that would actually fit in the car so I decided to just grab that too.

Then I discovered they didn't have any furnace filters in the size I needed.

Was going to just grab the pond liner before heading across the street to the other hardware store but all the checkouts were backed up and about half of them were waiting for managers to do something so I walked out empty handed. Got my filter across the street but wasted time looking if they had pond liners. They did not.

By this point it was 1pm and the supermarket was on the way to the house so I decided to just bang out my grocery shopping and head home for lunch.

So now it's 3pm on Sunday afternoon and I still haven't made it over to the rental today. :/

 

[Volpone]

OK. First off, I parked this in my WF thread while this place was down:
In a bit of a funk. There's an old Marine truism: "Don't fall in love with your plan." But sometimes you have an important plan, you bet big on it, and you're on the verge of success, only to be hit with setback after setback. You adjust the plan, but it still keeps getting further and further away.

By 2020 I was starting to see behavioral things with my 11 year old dog. Changes. Different behavior. And of course the lumps and bumps old dogs get. I kind of knew time was getting short. So I leaned hard into my plan to be able to make a living off rental income so I could stop working and spend her remaining time with her. By February of this year, I figured I was 1 house away from that. The Plan was to get my new place fixed up enough that it was comfortable and then use the VA to get a mortgage on it and use the money to buy the next rental. Once I had someone in it, I figured I could quit my part-time job and my time would be my own.

Then The Dog died in March. The Cat had had kidney issues for awhile and the vet had prescribed a special cat food. Last summer she wasn't keeping it down. So I just switched back to her old food and things were fine. She was eating less and less, but she was still a little heavy by cat standards. Not a chonk, but around 12-13#, so I wasn't too worried. This summer it got so she'd only eat canned catfood. And eventually not much of that. Stopped demanding to be brushed in the morning and evening and started laying behind the couch instead of up on the back. Took her in to the vet. She was down to 9#. When the blood work came back it turned out her whole body was shutting down and she died in June.

A bit before that my friend from college--the one I did some consulting for a year ago--was badgering me to come back for another project. 1-3 months--tops. Started in June. Now we're almost through September with no end in sight. So instead of being able to quit my part-time job in August I now have TWO part-time jobs that add up to more than a full time job. I don't want to quit my first job because that's steady and permanent, which will be useful for a home loan, but this much work really cuts into any time for looking for the house that lets me stop working. And my friend's intern left on short notice so he's even shorter-staffed than he was. Yeah, he kind of shanghaied me, but we've been friends for a long time. I'll tolerate it.

Meanwhile, my first renters announced at they needed to break their lease. They had some setbacks with their bakery venture--an investor backed out--so they were going to have to move in with family to cut costs. This was a risk I factored in when I rented to them. But mid September is just about the worst possible time to have a vacant house. It maybe isn't as bad in this day and age but still, people don't want to move over the holidays.

Oh, a few other things that I missed: losing The Dog, I decided to use my extra free time to look for a girlfriend, but of course the 'Rona still puts a crimp on that. And working as much as I am right now. And the fact that at this point I'm probably set in my ways enough that I maybe can't meet someone. I've got everything the way I want it. I've got a routine. It's probably simpler to just get another dog and cat.

Speaking of which, I did find the perfect dog. I can tell he needs me as much as I need him. But he's close to 2 hours away and these days I don't have time to wash my car or buy new sneakers, let alone drive 4 hours for a dog--or go back to spending 20 hours a week on a dog. So I look at his picture on the Website and think about him sitting at a shelter, waiting for me--or someone, at least--and rational me tells me I absolutely DO NOT have the time for a 1 year old lab/border collie right now, but I remember a mentor once telling me "...you're *never* going to have the time, so you might as well do it now."

And that's the place I'm at right now. My life isn't bad. Not bad at all. I'm making some good money. But I'm not where I want to be. And I feel like I'm moving away from where I want to be, not towards it. And like time is running out.

On an unrelated note, I've been a bit concerned with how many cocktails I'll have on a typical evening and about a month ago 2 suddenly became plenty most nights. And for the past 2 nights I haven't even wanted 1. I did have a beer with lunch, but that's just being civilized.

 

[Volpone]

Yesterday was my birthday. I almost did nothing to observe it but at the last minute I decided to suit up and go to Outback Steakhouse. Going out the door I almost decided not to because it was pointless when I had so much stuff to do but I decided I am human and that humans need to celebrate occasions and take breaks so I forced myself to go and it was a good choice. Came home, watched some TV, and had some cocktails. Made some interesting (at least to me) observations that I posted to FB. Will reconstruct them as relevant rather than copy-paste them:

First was how a year ago I had a plan and the goal was within site. By now I was going to be living in this house with my dog and cat and I'd have lined up financing to buy my last rental. I'd have someone in it so I wouldn't need a job and I could spend my time volunteering, maybe looking for a girl, and hanging out with my cat and dog. Over the year my cat and dog died and I'm actually working more than I have in years. This makes it harder to find a girl or buy another rental. For that matter I've found a dog at a shelter relatively close that I really want to adopt--I have that feeling that we're meant for each other--but I don't have the time to go get him and I certainly don't have the time he requires if I get him right now. But also I can't stand the thought of him living at a shelter.

Next I got to thinking about aging for middle-aged men. How leading men like Redford or Michael Douglas just seem to stay in this mature 30-50 range forever and then one day BANG! They look like they're 75. Having a bit of that. I've been in Kentucky for around 4 years but somehow it doesn't seem that long. That said, my screenlock photo on my laptop is from when I first moved here and I look significantly older than I did then.

Then it was about having the flexibility to change your plan when it no longer works for reality. And how you need to be willing to make hard choices. MacArthur got out of the Philippines with basically the clothes on his back so he could fight on and defeat Japan. Sherman cut his army loose from traditional supply lines so he could destroy the South's will to fight on. John Paul Jones abandoned the foundering Bonhomme Richard and transferred his flag to the Serapis.

I've got nothing to lose by meeting with a realtor about selling my rental. It's a coin toss whether it makes more sense to keep it and rent it again or sell it and buy a more desirable place--or just decide not to be a landlord. But it doesn't cost me anything to explore options.

 

[Oerdin]

Happy late birthday.

 

[Volpone]

Had a TPS reports moment at the factory job tonight. But I'm getting ahead of myself. DISCLAIMER. This is going to ramble all over fuck.

I hate humans. So very much. If not for my parents, Jesus, and Mister Rogers, I'd be a super-villain.

At the factory job tonight. At this point I don't remember the last time I was in my usual building. Parts shortages have kept our line shut down. So we're all farmed out to other lines. Supposed to be an easy night. They've stuck us in the job where they put people when they don't have any work that needs doing. And all the work for that job is already done. But they came and rounded us up and sent us to other lines.

I often wear a Hawaiian shirt at work. It's cool and comfortable and it makes me memorable. I only work Mondays and Fridays, so it's good to be recognizable: "The guy in the Hawaiian shirt does a good job. Let's grab him." Keeps me from sitting around with nothing to do. Well I got farmed out to some guy wearing a navy blue polo with green vaguely floral accents. He's like "I like your shirt." Ensuing conversation reveals that he wanted me to comment on his shirt. Dude. A polo shirt is not a Hawaiian shirt, floral pattern or not. You're not cool like me. Let it go.

Well eventually they found something for me to do. But I did it so well that they found something harder for me to do. And I did that so well that they found something very hard for me to do. But they made sure I was well supported with parts and help if I got behind while learning a new job. Until halfway through the night. Then they just left me to fend for myself. Late in the night Not Hawaiian Shirt Guy sought me out. Apparently they thought I was screwing up on the job I'd never done before that they just abandoned me on. So he was explaining to me how to do the things I knew how to do. "Yeah...It's just that we're using a new cover sheet with the TPS reports. I'll e-mail you the memo." And I KNOW at least once they thought they caught me screwing up and the guy I was working for showed them that they were wrong and I was right. And I caught the guy I was working for, when he was helping me, screw up a few times. Anyway, they came and talked to me and I absolutely did not care. So then they needed to take a photo of my ID badge and write down what building I usually worked in. I did not explain to the guy that I was smarter than him. And that I was probably making more than him on my other job and really wanted nothing more than to quit this job.

***

It's an interesting place to be. It is like Peter in "Office Space", where he's hypnotized to not give a fuck and it short circuits everything about how American business hierarchy is run. I don't want or need my manufacturing job, but I also don't want to quit before I've lined up a loan on my house so I can buy another rental (although there are zero properties in the area right now that interest me sooo....) Then there's the consulting gig, where I beg my friend to fire me at least once a day. I shouldn't brag too loud. God will look down and decide to have some fun and before you know it, I'll be standing by the freeway exit with a cardboard sign, wearing a barrel.

Meanwnhile, I guess they gave us a big raise. They kind of had to the way the job market is. Of course I'm unhappy about getting a big raise. Like the time I cried to anyone that would listen about how I was going to have to go live in Hawaii for 2 years. But see here's the thing: There's a rule of thumb in real estate investing that you don't quit your day job until you're making more from real estate than your weekly paycheck. So being a doctor or lawyer gives you more money for real estate investing, but it also sets a higher bar for when you can live off your rentals. If I didn't want a job on my loan paperwork and we hadn't gotten a raise awhile back, I would've quit this job by now. But at this point in my life, I've learned not to burn bridges until you're well on the other side of them.

There's more stuff on managing rentals, but I'll leave that for another time.

 

[Volpone]

I should probably relearn how to trust and delegate. Because there are only so many hours in the day. And I have too much to do. But I hate humans so much. So instead I prioritize.

At present I have 2 yards to mow. And one is over an acre. I also have 2 jobs. I wanted 0 jobs. Or barring that, 1 part-time job. But instead I've got 2 jobs. And the lawn mowing pretty much takes up all the other time. (Giving up plenty of sleep and lunchtime naps is non-negotiable.) But I need to take out trash and do laundry and get groceries and clean my house. It would be nice to clean my car and other things, but let's put a pin in that. Meanwhile I've got a vacant rental. And if all it needed was to be cleaned and re-listed, that would be super. Still non-trivial but much better than fixing the neglected things from having tenants there that I'm just finding out about (and sure, some things I knew about) and trying to decide if I should just sell the place and go back to a more traditional plan.

The place used to have a pool. Nominally "above ground," but it was really sunk in to the tune of a foot or so--creating an intermittent duck pond that took up the lion's share of the yard. I mostly filled it in but I'm cheap--and the landscaping created a nice border for a pool that was no longer there. You always wind up getting less dirt than you think you need (especially when there's a fence in the way so you're going to have to move it from the driveway with a shovel and a wheelbarrow, but I digress. When it rains a lot there's a pool shaped puddle in the yard. And there are weird irregularities where the fill has settled. But my point is, I also wanted a fish pond. So I left the area with the border to be a fish pond.

But I couldn't get it to work. It overflows when it rains and it dries up when it doesn't. Call it a "rain garden" I guess. The aquatic vegetation has taken hold nicely, so I'm tempted to try putting down a liner again. First time, when I learned I needed a liner, I went cheap and just got a big sheet of 6mil plastic. Apparently it wasn't fully...it didn't hold water. The other problem was, when it rained, the soil saturated so water would come up from beneath the liner and bubble it up. I'm still leaning towards a pond. (Again, border. Cost of fill. Unpleasantness of a shovel and wheelbarrow for an afternoon.) But I can't decide between a rigid pond which would wind up smaller, and a liner actually designed for a pool (which risks the problems that doomed the first liner. At any rate, it's more work. And it would be nice to have an empty hole to work in.

Which gets to my dilemma. Rain this weekend. If it rains before I get the liner in, it's a missed opportunity and I have to wait for things to dry out again. But I also can't just let the lawn go to long or it will be nigh impossible to get back under control--definitely more work than just maintaining it. In the end I ran out of hours. So unless God holds off on predicted rain, I'm hosed on pond work. Then there's still light cleaning inside, deciding what to do about the leaking tub faucet, figuring out what to do about the dented freezer door on the nice year old stainless refrigerator, and the fireplace that apparently renters will build a fire in even if the glass on the screen is painted black there are no handles to open it and there isn't a grate to put logs on. Or just list the bastard and get out.

On a completely different topic, food is somehow making me freakishly happy. My friend left me a fancy foodie bottle of BBQ sauce when he was passing through. It was too hot for its intended use so it occurred to me it would be about right for homemade Buffalo wings. And boy howdy, did it every work for that. Now a lot of people will tell you to bake the wings. It's neater and healthier. But I did it right and fried the buggers. Found a recipe that was pretty simple (although with a few curveballs) and it turned out very well. Make yourself a mixture of flour, paprika, and garlic salt and lightly coat the wings in it and let them rest. Melt about 1/2 stick of butter in with your BBQ sauce. Throw the wings into a skillet and cover with oil. Cook for 15 minutes until just starting to turn brown. Dump wings onto a napkin and blot to soak up some of the grease. Put in Tupperware. Pour sauce over. Put lid on and shake. Decide it still needs something so grind some black pepper on there, add some: chili powder, ginger, more paprika, curry, brown sugar. Squire some honey over it all and shake some more until the wings are evenly coated. Enjoy with a nice beer. Very messy. Lots of cleanup. Not sure if I can make something with the excess sauce, flour, and chicken bits or not, but DAMN! it was tasty. I'm tingling with happiness. I think you need the grease to really make Buffalo wings great. Grease is wonderful.

 

[Volpone]

In a kind of a poopy mood today. Considering just selling my rentals and getting back to what I know.

We've already covered the first renters breaking their lease and moving out. Other guy has his own headaches. He manages to lock himself out about once a month. I should be charging him $35 every time I let him in, but I haven't been. This month I worked on the 1st. I work 2nd shift, so on the way in, I texted the guy that I wouldn't be able to pick up the rent check until around 1am but I'd be quiet so as not to disturb him. He texted back that he'd let me know when he put it out. Work sucked. Got home. Started settling in. Remembered I had to pick up the rent. Tempted to blow it off until the 2nd but never let something like that slide. Shouldn't have let the door unlock fee slide. No text from him so I'm not optimistic, but I jumped in my car and headed over. Sure enough, the check wasn't in its spot.

I could see he was playing video games so I decided to be diplomatic. Drove down to the strip mall around the corner and texted him that I was on my way home from work. He got back to me that he'd be putting the check out. Gave him a few minutes, drove back and the check was there. EXCEPT! When I went to deposit it today I realized he'd written it out wrong. The number amount was correct: "$XX." But the text part was "one hundred ..." I know banks will go with the text over the numbers so now I've got to get this resolved and I'm starting to feel like this is all just too much of a headache.

I know, rationally, it is not. It's not a headache to make a big fat deposit once a month for almost no work. But when there are bumps in the road, it is tempting to just go back to stocks and mutual funds and get a normal job again.

Of course I hate most jobs. Friday night was annoying enough that I was thinking it is time to move on. So maybe I just need to suck it up and deal with it. Well, should get going. Plenty to do today and little of the day left. I hate when you're stuck choosing the least shitty option. Especially when there are variables to consider and you don't have all the facts.

 

[Volpone]

Annd my friend, who shanghaied me into this contracting gig, calls up to talk when he's driving somewhere and wants to fill the time. Checked it because I hoped it was my renter and decided to take it. But it freaking blew my already limited amount of time to Make Shit Happen. Now the weekend's basically over and I haven't accomplished shit. And I won't have any time to accomplish shit until next weekend. Something's gotta give.

 

[Volpone]

Funny, though. In the course of the conversation I reiterated my point that I felt like they were overpaying me, given my experience and what I'm able to do and he pointed out that they'd paid a consultant from one of the big consulting firms $300 an hour to take notes and the notes turned out to be incomprehensible. Or they paid another one $500 an hour for database consulting who was recommending doing something that could've basically wrecked the database for an international corporation. So maybe I just need some perspective on how useless a lot of help is out there.

 

[Volpone]

Just about dinnertime. Then time for my stories. Can't drink too much because later tonight I may have to still get some stuff done. :/

(Don't wanna do it right now because my friend ran down my phone battery and I don't want to just leave my phone at home in case my renter calls or texts.)

 

[Volpone]

It's like my friend is trying to use up my goodwill.

OK. First of all he called Sunday evening. Didn't need anything. He was just driving somewhere and wanted someone to talk to. I'm already stressed for time because I'm 4 months into the 1-3 month contracting gig he roped me into. Then he eats up my precious free time because he's bored?

Then, last night he texted me: "Hey, can you jump on a call at 7am to help me go over resumes?" Well, on the one hand, since I work nights on Mondays and ordinarily wouldn't get on until around 10 (their time--an hour later for me), I would say "no"--especially since it was with zero advance notice--but since it is month end so we've got a 7:30 (again, 8:30 for me) meeting in order to accommodate the time zone of the new hire in Ireland, and since the sooner they hire someone the sooner I can get out of this thing, I figured "what the heck, I'll plan on getting on."

Alarm goes off at 7:15 (my time). Hit "snooze" a couple times before dragging myself up to make coffee and get the day started. I'm fully planning to go back to sleep between the meetings and the first deliverable I have--and at this point I fully intend to bill for that time. Get the computer fired up a few minutes after 8. Since it was set up by their IT, the clock was set to Central time and I just left it because it makes coordination simpler. Found the meeting invite and jumped on. The call had already ended. But here's where it gets confusing: It shows the call started at 7am and ran for an hour. And the log for my call showed that I connected to the meeting at 7:06am.

I start working my way through Outlook and find the initial invite. It was for 7am *my time*--so 6am his time.

So many things:
1) If every conversation ever made has been using Central Time, don't change it up at the last minute. On a related note,
2) If you want someone on a 7am call, don't spring it on them via text 14 hours before the meeting--while they're at work on their job that they get off 7 hours before the meeting.

There are probably other things, but those are the high points. Meanwhile I've got to figure out how to drop my car off for service tomorrow morning, make it to work, and then make it back to pick it up. I'm too cheap to use Uber, a bus will take too long, bicycling would suck, and the logistics of loading the motorcycle in the van and dropping it off tonight would also suck. So I think I'll see if they have free WiFi.

I've also got to get over to he vacant rental. Gas and electric bill for 2 weeks on a vacant house was 25% higher than the gas and electric for an entire month at my house. The electric could be because they had the fan set to "on" for the furnace and I didn't notice it until recently. But the gas is worrisome.

 

[Lanzman]

I just had to pay the state taxes on the rental in Arizona. Also got a letter that the insurance had expired, but when I called the insurance office the guy said "No, you're good thru February. I don't know what that letter was." I dunno.

 

[Volpone]

So I'm trying to juggle everything. I had a routine worked out with the one job. I figured I could fit things together and burn the candle for 1-3 months, but now it's 4 months with more and more work. Then throw in the apartment going vacant unexpectedly and needing attention. On top of that... It rained over the weekend. Before I could finish mowing. One spot absolutely HAD to be mowed. Had a couple hours this afternoon before I had anything that needed to be done, so I just didn't come back after lunch. Came in to run a report and do a meeting--only to realize he'd bumped the meeting up an hour and I hadn't noticed (I mean it was in the e-mails, but there's so many e-mails).

As it is, I've gotten very little done today, but I'm absolutely exhausted. And it is too late here to do anything else that is really productive--especially since I've got another deliverable in 80 minutes or so. So I'll do what I need to do for my sanity: I'll do some housecleaning. Doing something simple and mindless and menial that needs to be done and has results that make me feel like I've accomplished something is an important way for me to keep momentum. Of course half my house-cleaning supplies are over at the rental, but one thing at a time.

Oh, yeah. And tomorrow morning I've got to take my car into the shop. So here's hoping they have wifi and/or they get it in quick. Because I don't feel like doing Uber or riding the bus but this has to get done.

 

[Volpone]

God has a sick sense of humor. So. Not much sleep--and mostly in short naps--in the past 24 hours.

LaffTV is programmed by retards. Their lineup is basically 3 hours of "That 70's Show", 3 hours of "How I Met Your Mother" and 3 more hours of "That 70's Show." 7 days a week, give or take (sometimes they'll randomly stick in a movie on the weekend). So you go through a 10 season series in like, a month. But they're evil retards. "HIMYM" comes on right after "Jeopardy!" ends on another network. And they run straight from the closing credits into the next episode. So it's easy for me to waste most of an evening. If it's an episode I've seen a lot I might go do some stuff in another room, but I keep it on in case the next episode is a good one or one I haven't seen.

Well today I turned on and got "Home Improvement." Checked the schedule and they've moved it to the middle of the night. Oh well, I was watching far too much of it for as busy as I am. I could get something done tonight. And that's when it started raining like a bastard. Productivity goes right out the window when you're tired, warm and dry, and it's dark out with the rain drumming on the roof. I'd like to finish my checklist, but more likely I'll take a shower, maybe have a cocktail, and go to bed. Ah well, I probably needed it.

 

[Volpone]

So I finally had time to look at replacing the dented door on the refrigerator. It's a discontinued part. Did find one place that stocks it. $483. Not including shipping. Fucking renters. Who knows how much damage they did to the brand new HVAC by not changing the filters. Or the fireplace that wasn't supposed to be used.