Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Had a couple of interesting events yesterday. One was kind of disturbing and the other just kind of interesting.

It was mid-afternoon. I was soon to head over to the school to bring Son back to the apartment. About a half hour before I was to leave I lay down on the bed. The cat jumped up on my chest to take a nap. That was interrupted be the telephone. Another computer calling me up and telling me to "Please hold". How rude! Call someone up and immediately put them on hold? What kind if crap is that? If you're going to put me on hold - even for five seconds - don't bother calling me because I'm going to hang up. I don't care who you are.

Another set of computer calls goes this way, "This is something insurance companies don't want you to know!" I always respond the same: "Well, I guess I'd better not listen then." And I hang up. What a pity it's wasted humor. Computers don't give a damn if you hang up on them.

I hate those commercials. You know them. "Doctors don't want you to know this." Of course not. They want you to stay sick. According to advertising, nobody wants you to know anything. Bullsh*t. Nobody gives a damn what you know. Why? Because Americans are too lazy to use the information anyway. They'll continue to go to the doctor (when they can afford it) and buy the pre-packaged stuff and whatever. That's what we do. It's easy. Someone went to a lot of work to make life easier for us. Why not take advantage of it?

Anyway, I lay back on the bed and start to doze. I'm waking myself up every minute or so because it's less than twenty minutes before I have to leave. Then I hear the noise. Sounds like the door. I open my eyes. The cat has his head up and is staring toward the door. His eyes are wide. I'm assuming Spouse has come back early. Then I hear someone say "whoah", or something to that effect. Didn't sound like Spouse.

Now I'm uneasy. I get up and walk to the bedroom door and look down the hall toward the ktichen. I don't get a good view because of the clever wall which serves no real purpose. I wait. Spouse should be heading to the bedroom to make sure I haven't fallen asleep. No Spouse. So I walk down the hall to the main living area. Still no Spouse. I look at the door. It's locked. I check the entire apartment. Nobody but Cat and me. I leave the light on and start up some music when I leave.

On the way back with Son I asked if he wanted to check on the house we just lost. It's been raining steady for about four days now and I wanted to see if the dining room ceiling had completely fallen down and if the basement had flooded. The last time I was there plaster from the ceiling was all over the dining room floor from a leak in the roof.

We get there and the keypad doesn't open the garage. Maybe they've shut off the electricity. If so, it's a safe bet the basement is flooded. The sump pump ran almost constantly in that house all twelve months of the year. We got to the front door and I see remnants of the door handle laying on the step. The door has a new handle with a security lock. BUT - the door is open. We push it wide and go in. There is a sign posed in the foyer stating the house has been winterized and no water should be run. That would be a good trick anyway as we had it shut off back in August.

But now I'm thinking I may have just broken the law. If my key no longer fits the locks in this place then I probably don't have any business there any longer. So I tell Son that it seems someone else is looking after the place - and doing a right lousy job of it, too - and so we are leaving.

Didn't see if the ceiling had collapsed or if the basement was flooded.

I guess it doesn't matter.

Oh. I called the apartment office and they're having our locks changed today some time.

5 comments:

fairyhedgehog said...

That first incident sounds scary. I'm glad you're getting the locks changed.

Bevie said...

Yeah. It was odd. If the cat hadn't been there to react I would have just marked it up to my imagination.

Spouse put all kinds of noisy things in front of the door last night.

writtenwyrdd said...

Maybe it was a ghost in your old house, Bevie! Mom and I used to hear footsteps going up and down the hallway upstairs, and occasionally there was still a cold spot in the middle of the hallway, too. Usually what would happen is I'd be in my room, hear the footsteps (which were quite loud and didn't sound like Mom or the cats) and they would tromp up to my doorway. I'd look at the empty door, saying "Good morning," or "Hello," and then go back to what I was doing. The footsteps would tromp back where they came from, dopplering into silence. (I haven't told the tenants, because Ihave a theory that if you have a ghost in a house, only certain people trigger or sense them. Besides, I wanted the rent money and Millie the Ghost is harmless.)

Also, when the house was empty, I had local teens breakign in via the rear door, which can't be seen from the road. I couldn't add deadbolts because they were half-lite doors and there was no place for a deadbolt unless you wanted it at knee level. So I had to add some protective plates that kept them from using the credit card trick. (At least they weren't destructive; they just wanted a quiet place to fool around, get high and have sex, according to teh cops...as we have a lot of empty houses in town, many having this same problem.)

Ms Sparrow said...

It sounds like you have settled into a new daily routine (except for the accidental intruder). It's so sad that the house you were forced to give up is now so neglected. What in the world did the mortgage company gain by evicting you as caretakers? Houses all over are being trashed because banks and mortgage companies are greedy b#&*%'s and have no compassion (or sense).

Bevie said...

Yes, all prisoners eventually fall into a routine of some sort.

You know, I actually thought about The Old House Ghost too.

Sounds like your Millie is just being sociable.

At the house (not the old house) sometimes the bedroom door would close when there was no noticeable wind. Generally, my response was, "Don't do that. What if the cat wants in?" When it was the bathroom it was interesting. It would slowly close, and then reopen after a minute or two. No flushing and no mess.