And the Jeopardy category Potpourri
Never knew what potpourri was when I was first watching Jeopardy with my mother. She was so good at that show, she kept score. We often played along with her.
I digress.
I’ll take potpourri for $500, Alex.
Got out of the old apartment finally. Finished up cleaning today, and handed over the keys. In the process, learned something they don’t tell you when you’re coming in.
They’re going to take some of your deposit anyway. The greedy bastards. Apparently, they charge carpet cleaning to you whether or not your carpet is in need of it. I can see that. But they’re an apartment complex. They charged us tons of money every month to live there. They can’t just eat the whole $55 or so for carpet cleaning? Geeze! They also do a mandatory wipe down which costs another $25. Even though that place is officially in better shape than when I got it.
And the apartment manager opens the stove and changes his mind from wipe to light clean, which will cost me more money. Apparently I just didn’t scrub the inside of the oven door hard enough. Even though it is clean to the touch.
I hate apartment complexes. Heather tells me her old apartment not only didn’t charge her to clean her carpets, but that they paint after every move. And that they occasionally replace carpets.
I guess over here, in the golden state, complexes like to steal every penny you’ve got. Especially in a complex where the majority of the people are poor and can’t afford to lose any of that deposit money.
Thanks for the nice experience, living next to the shopping cart guy. You can be sure I won’t rent from Manco Abbott again.
Potpourri for $100. Had to buy a new vacuum cleaner after Heather’s went kaput. It was on sale for $50. But we spent another $50 on other household stuff. That vacuum went kaput right as we were trying to vacuum the old apartment. Apparently uselessly, since they’re going to clean it anyway. Bastards!
Potpourri for $200. Daily double.
Or multiply by 8. Took a drive up in the foothills before Heather had to go to work. Heather’s finally got her new car, so any time we didn’t spend cleaning, we’ve been driving in her car. We went to a little town we hadn’t been to before.
And there was one carved wooden bear at the entrance to town, welcoming us to Auberry. There was a shop with at least three more bears. More bears at another place.
In what we saw at Auberry, there must’ve been at least eight wooden bears, including one flanked by a Native American mascot in front of a school.
How many bears do you need in such a town? Who knows. It’s possible there’s more bears in that town than people, but I’m probably wrong.
Potpourri for $300 and ow, I lost an eye!
On the way back down, notice a sign for something like mounted shooting. With a silhouette of a guy on a horse, with a gun. Now that’s a great idea! Riding while shooting.
I love this state. It’s schizophrenic. One one side, you have people going, oh, we love the land. We love animals. We love natural foods. We hate pollution. We love peace. We want warning labels on everything, including car dealerships, where you must be informed of the dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer.(All said in an earthy, hippie voice)
And then on the other end, you have the rugged cowboys. (Intoned with a gruff, man’s voice.) Kill it! Dump more chemicals in it! I need more water, more pesticide for my land! I need lots more unplanned growth. I need to sell my land to developers and lose some great agricultural land in the process. Let’s shoot the chemicals so they won’t cause cancer.
Yeah. Just thought I’d share.
I like Manco Abbot’s slogan, “Managing one apartment at a time.” The subtext is, “We’ll shake you down in good course, just wait your turn.”
What a horrible experience! Our landlord paints after someone moves out. They certainly don’t keep part of a deposit for cleaning when the tenant has already left the apartment clean. Ridiculous.
Mel, the complex just does not have a standard cleaning deposit? I have not heard of such a thing! I hope this next apartment will be a better experience.
Melissa, you might enjoy reading TC Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain. Its a well-told story of yuppie types who get more upset over pollution than the immigrants who are being raped and violated at every turn. I believe it is set in CA, too.
I love your subheadings! Very original…
I guess they just do things differently here. My general understanding of deposits is that you leave something the way you got it, you get your money back. Simple enough. But this is California, where we are also taxed to the gills for various things. The city, for instance, is looking at financing a nice hotel downtown. Guess who’ll pay for that? Me. You want hotels to come, you entice them. City-financed projects never work. South Bend has found that out.
And Todd, you loaned me Tortilla Curtain. It was sometimes amusing, but often disturbing and sad.
Oh, not at all amusing as I recall. Depressing as hell. And I had a vague feeling that I loaned you that book. I kinda lost track after a while
I don’t know. Maybe I don’t recall it correctly, either. Mostly depressing, yes.
I should reread it, because a lot of it still vaguely resonates with stuff that actually goes on here.
And, btw, I did read the books you sent me, The Female Man, Nova and Neveryona. Will have to e-mail with what I thought of them.
And I will have to dig out those emails of yours on THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH–behind in my email, naturally.
I’m not sure I’m ready to say anything about those books though. TFM is famous as a canonical feminist novel….Delany is just so obsessed with the nature of knowledge and power and how civilization takes root, you almost have to write essays to get anywhere with such books.
Oh, I have an extra copy of Chip Delany’s DHALGREN available. Let me know if you want It (or anyone else out there). But beware. It is experimental, fragmented, very sex-driven and about 800 pages long.
I did like Nova and Neveryona… But with that sort of warning, I dunno about DHALGREN. I could give it a try, but I’d hate for it to be another Gravity’s Rainbow. Meaning I try to read it for a year with growing frustration. And eventually wishing I could use it as a paperweight or kindling.
Yeah, I learned some things about renting abroad; should post on that. #1: Don’t sign a lease when you feel desperate for a place. That may sound backwards, but I overlooked many a detail out of the urge ‘to fine something!’ Partly had to do with not being able to make appointments for legal registration and a bank account without a contract.
That’s quite interesting. And they use your urgency, along with your status as a foreigner, to their advantage, I’m sure.
I think in general it’s hard to not be taken in by urgent games. Take the place we ended up renting… Oh, well, we can put a hold on it for you for 24 hours.
They had at least three of the floorplan we wanted still available. We were trying to work it so we wouldn’nt have to pay double rent for a whole month, but just a half month.
Well, you have to take possession of the apartment within 15 days of it becoming available.
The one we decided to get would be available March 15, so we could wait until April 1.
They also made sure to throw in a warning, well, we have a special going right now on deposit and rent. We probably won’t have it later.
It’s kind of like car dealers. They want to rent that space out. They don’t care how they do it. They used a sense of urgency, in tandem with knowing that we liked the space.
I think we could’ve been more patient, and found other places. There’s also a place right next to the one we rented that’s still empty. So much for their urgency.
But it worked out well on our end; we like the place. Other than a few minor flaws that we overlooked or weren’t bothered by.
And it all started with driving by a really swanky new place (not the one we rented) on a whim. Even though it was precisely what we weren’t looking for. But sometimes you don’t know what you’re looking for.
They screw you in the apartment complexes.
I MUST BUY A HOUSE THIS YEAR!!!!
When you buy a house, you want to make sure you’re going to stay somewhere for a while. That’s a big committment.
But yes, I’ve been wanting to buy a house for a while. If I hadn’t left South Bend, I would’ve done that.
As it turns out, I probably won’t buy a house now for several years.
Yeah, (sigh) I know. That’s always the issue right? Of course, who knew I’d stay in South Bend as long as I did? Six years I was there. Wow. And now, I’m here. And who knows how long I’ll be here? How do people just KNOW that they are going to stay somewhere for 5+ years? How do they make that commitment and buy a home?
I don’t know how some people just know they’re going to stay. And some don’t. But maybe there are plenty of people who are in a stable profession where they don’t feel the need to move around for their careers. They just go to work, come home.
I guess. I don’t really understand either.
And for the record, I didn’t know I was going to stay at my house in Niles for as long as I did. But I could’ve definitely bought a house in that time, and not felt bad about selling it once I moved out here.
Now my only consolation about not buying a house here is that there are gloomy predictions behind the sunshiny ones saying that this market can’t sustain much growth longer. I think the insane inflation of housing is going to stop, and may even deflate. The only way I can afford a house. And I probably still wouldn’t buy one.