Pardon Me

Please pardon me while I continue to freak out about the condition of my web site. I was planning on talking about Whistler today, since it’s more or less in chronological order. Instead, you get a random picture of a glacier. I’ll do something about Whistler on Thursday.

Last week was quite the trying week for me. It started when the people who have been renting my old house for the last five years called to let me know they were moving. To Texas. And they weren’t planning on paying this months rent.

This is a problem for me. My family and I depend on that rent check to cover our mortgage. Without it, our little financial house of cards falls apart.

This was followed by an obligation to some friends that I didn’t expect to appear for another week or so, and then the fatal mistake with my web site update. Gah!

After I stopped screaming and running around in circles, I ponied up for a classified ad. My, but those things have gotten expensive. The first ad appeared Saturday. The first call came in about mid morning. I dutifully gave my current renters a call to set up a showing the next day (yesterday).

In the meanwhile two more calls came in and I happily added them to the list. While we were walking through, yet another person turned up and asked to be included. At the end of the walk through, one of the potential renters asked about reference forms and what not. I told her the first person to hand over a thousand dollar deposit would get the house. She said, “Me! I want it! I have the cash in my car. Let me run down and get it.”

The other two groups of people walking through both tried to convince me to switch to them instead. One talked about his fame and good works. One offered to run to the bank (closed). No one offered to increase the rent rate, though. Silly people. I went with the cash.

What a relief! So different from five years ago when we first put the house up for rent. It took six months to get someone in and the utility bills just about ate us alive.

We shall see about the new renters, but knowing I can replace them easily if things go badly makes me feel better. One of the people we didn’t go with even left a number and said we should call him if the place became available again.

Now if I could just get my header back. I feel naked without it.