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being ghosted is the norm
Tuesday, October 10 2023
Today when I went out on my rounds to the various rentals, I took Neville along. (There is still something so wrong with Ramona that she mostly stays in bed all day.) I first went out to Brewster Street (where I had to park on a side street because big machines were digging up the street in front of the house) and checked the traps for dead rats. None had been triggered and there were, of course, no dead rats. Then I drove out to Home Depot to get an extension cord so Liz over at the Downs Street house can use the electric lawn mower to mow the grass (she gets a discount on her rent in exchange for keeping the grounds tidy). I also got four steel outlet plates for the cabin basement, a bottle of white spray paint, and Monster energy drink. The paint was specifically to render the extension cord ugly so it is less likely to be stolen by a tenant. But when I got to Downs Street, I immediately ran across Liz, so I didn't have time to spray blobby patterns on the extension cord. She out in the back and I had Neville with me, so I suggested she get her dog Malachai (some sort of smallish collie who is still an energetic puppy) because Neville loves to meet new dogs. But Neville seemed a little perplexed by just how crazy Malachai went when he saw Neville.
Up on the third floor, the joint compound I'd applied yesterday was dry, so I quickly slathered on another layer. And with that, my landlording tasks for the day were. On the way home, I stopped at Hannaford to return bottles and cans for deposit as well as to buy beer, pasta, tofu, tempeh, and corn chips. I was behind a couple Hispanics in line and marveled at what looked like a collection of vegetarian groceries. They had tostadas, dried beans, and Goya-brand pasta shells, among many other things. The thing making it all non-vegan was sour cream. But then I saw that hidden from view the whole time had been an enormous hunk of meat. Most people who buy meat buy it in many forms, but they just had the one. Their tally came to over $200, which they paid for in cash. Our cashier was African American, and I was envious that she conducted her business with the Hispanic couple in flawless Spanish with no noticeable American accent.
Back in Hurley, temperatures were in the upper 50s, but I nevertheless started a fire in the woodstove because I wanted to create conditions suitable for indoor drying. We've had a problem with black mold forming spots all over the ceiling from the front door all the way into the dining room, and it's gotten so bad that our whole house smells like mold. I wanted to bleach away all that fungus and then repaint the ceiling with anti-mold paint. I'd been skeptical that such paint works, but it's proven effective in the basement hallway and on the ceiling of the garage. Scrubbing away all that mold took a little over a half hour.
Meanwhile some guy was supposed to call me about a promising job opportunity, but the time he said he would call came and went without him ever calling. I've found that, as a job applicant, being ghosted in nearly every manner is the norm. It's even possible to get ghosted, unghosted, and then hired. That's actually how I came to get the job in Red Hook, a job that provided nearly five years of uninterrupted employment.
It being a Tuesday, Gretchen would be gone until nearly 9:00pm. So I enjoyed my alone time as I often do, taking my second bath in two days.
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