Warning: TMI of personal glamorous roofing life below

It's one of those weeks when I run around making confrontations and everyone around me isn't doing anything. It's a frustrating feeling because I hate to tell people what I REALLY think about them and then have make me feel that I'm a truly bad person for telling them that!

First, the incident of the tenant. I rent out my first house. I have been trying to get rid of my tenants since August because I want to sell the house. They are always late with rent, and because of certain weird behavioral problems of which I won't go into here, I drive out there every two weeks to collect half a month's rent each time. They are, overall, "nice" people, with two jobs and two kids. But. The problem is, they can't seem to live within their means, save money, or think ahead.

Now, this isn't my business or my problem, but it becomes one when they are behind in rent and they start using the deposit money for some of these payments (I know, my heart is too soft). Anyway, confrontation #1 consisted of a week of me driving out to my tenants every evening after a full day on the roof to get my money and the wife (who's in charge of rent) not being there (with several excuses).

The last evening, I sort of blew up, because obviously, she was hiding from me. The thing that galled me was that the husband and his mother sat in the garage and explained, "Oh, I don't know, I'm in charge of utilities and she's in charge of the rent." Like it wasn't his problem. I was, like, "WTF does that mean?"

So started confrontation #1 ;-). Sorry, much too ugly to put into words in the blog, but let's just say that this guy, who was six feet three, didn't like what I had to say. His response??? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said that he heard I own the house already, that it was paid for. He looked at me expectantly, as if he was giving me an excellent explanation. Again, WTF did that mean? Even if the house was paid free and clear, it didn't mean he could stay for free! Then he said at least he wasn't skipping out on me like my old tenants. I stared at him and finally said, "If you're doing me a favor by staying, please don't." He went ballistic ;-), but here was the best one: "I tell you what. I wish with all my heart....Wait till you get married and have kids! Some day you will suffer!" (Btw, liberally sprinkle this curse with cuss words)

Oh indeed, it's all about him, isn't it? ;-)

Confrontation #2. This is the saga of a steel rod sticking up through the roof. It shouldn't be. I have been patiently pointing this out to the superintendant of the project every day for a week. He kept getting on the phone, or pretending to be, I don't know. Finally one day, he turned and glared at me as if this was MY fault, and asked very loudly and nastily what he could do about that rod. So I lost it and told him I needed him to bend over so I could...well, I'm sure you can use your imagination ;-). Needless to say, said rod is still sticking up in the air.

Confrontation #3. The bank called and told me they didn't receive my cheque for this month's mortgage. Okay, actually, an Indian lady did. She demanded that I paid electronically. At least, that was how she sounded to me. I told her, no, I wouldn't tell her my bank acct number, especially to someone working in India. :-) You could tell I was in a bad mood from the start, couldn't you?

So it's Thursday and I still haven't seen the rent, the steel bar is still in the way, and checks aren't getting where they are supposed to. I shall put on my roofing hat and see what other people I could annoy for the rest of the week.

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