Wednesday, May 07, 2008
may days
Having trouble sleeping. Watching late-night PBS Special "American Experience" on the Presidents, this one featuring Bush Senior. Paints a picture of someone who was a cleanup man, ideologically committed to a moderate standpoint, that moderate standpoint being central to his vision of Republican conservatism. But opening up the doors for a diversity of voices previously ignored by that party it also allowed the party to be taken over by more strident extremist voices. And then a refusal to stoop or go negative or appear disloyal, with a fair amount of "pragmatic compromise" = the wimp image. They played more complete clips of famous sound-bites: Voodoo Economics, Kinder Gentler America, Read My Lips No New Taxes. How refreshing to hear a President speak in complete sentences!
My boyfriend and I were talking about life. He said: We need to make more money. And I laughed and thought: As soon as this debt is paid off things could be nice. But here I go in the last week or so, showing my tenant the door and racking up over $5K to install a new driveway, insulating, tub. Not yet tallied, new carpeting.
Being a landlord is political. While there've been times, I don't really mind being a landlord. The number of stories I hear about people who tried renting property! Always the same, about tenants trashing the place.
The workmen said that to me too, the workmen coming today for the insulation, walking into the empty rental, with bags of garbage or who-knows-what still strewn about the rooms. "It may look like garbage but Tenant says he's coming back to get it." Maybe he will come back, maybe he won't. I move ahead with removing the miniblinds, changing out the furnace filter, inspecting the refrigerator and setting the stove to "Clean".
The mistake, if I made one, was to allow Tenant to get a dog. He came out on the porch when I was sitting there one evening last summer, "I did something today," he said, "I hope you think it's okay." And when he returned, he cradled a puppy, an orange piece of wool with button eyes. How could I say 'no'? And as the dog grew (and grew and grew!), you could not meet a more friendly, good-natured animal.
But my Tenant works two jobs, and his daughter, for whom the dog was given as a gift, never stopped by to help. In the space of a few weeks, holes appeared everywhere in the yard, and all the groundcover planted over the previous three years dug or chewed to bits.
My boyfriend and I were talking about life. He said: We need to make more money. And I laughed and thought: As soon as this debt is paid off things could be nice. But here I go in the last week or so, showing my tenant the door and racking up over $5K to install a new driveway, insulating, tub. Not yet tallied, new carpeting.
Being a landlord is political. While there've been times, I don't really mind being a landlord. The number of stories I hear about people who tried renting property! Always the same, about tenants trashing the place.
The workmen said that to me too, the workmen coming today for the insulation, walking into the empty rental, with bags of garbage or who-knows-what still strewn about the rooms. "It may look like garbage but Tenant says he's coming back to get it." Maybe he will come back, maybe he won't. I move ahead with removing the miniblinds, changing out the furnace filter, inspecting the refrigerator and setting the stove to "Clean".
The mistake, if I made one, was to allow Tenant to get a dog. He came out on the porch when I was sitting there one evening last summer, "I did something today," he said, "I hope you think it's okay." And when he returned, he cradled a puppy, an orange piece of wool with button eyes. How could I say 'no'? And as the dog grew (and grew and grew!), you could not meet a more friendly, good-natured animal.
But my Tenant works two jobs, and his daughter, for whom the dog was given as a gift, never stopped by to help. In the space of a few weeks, holes appeared everywhere in the yard, and all the groundcover planted over the previous three years dug or chewed to bits.