fall...and fighting the landlord monster

Winter is fast approaching in this town of Cows. Each morning as i bundle myself up to trudge out to the bus stop, you can smell that it wants to snow, it just hasn't made that leap.

And, of course, this is also the weather that is freezing in the morning, but the busride home is sweltering. And there's nothing like being crammed into a moving sausage of sweaty, tired, and grumpy downtowners.

But i thought i would take advantage of the nice weather and walk on down to the river to capture some of Calgary's fall scenery. It was a really nice and relaxing walk. When all surrounded by the trees, with the sounds of the river next to you, you can almost imagine that you're not in the city at all, but trekking through the forest in the mountains. That is, until you stumble into a homeless person's camp.

At this point, there's nothing you can really do except say "oops! Sorry!" and back away slowly. and "no, i don't have any cigarettes" is another thing you'd probably have to say. ...i did.

this is, probably, one of the most awkward situations i've ever experienced. In a way, i felt like i'd just walked on in to somebody's living room and started taking pictures of their couches turning colour.

in other news, our landlord has turned out to be a "major fucking demon".

In January, our rent is going up - again. our new monthly rent will be $1,300 up from $1,050. (which, incidently just went up on July from $950) Not only that but she gave us a nice long list of things she wants done to the house, including weeding and watering the flowers in the flowerbed...uh...it's October. The flowers are long gone... and not only are we to weed the flowerbeds (and the driveway?) but we have to make sure that allllll the weeds are "Dug Out"...so gooooooodbye perrenials. We tried to save you, but seeing as we can't tell what's a flower and what's a weed (because it's October and the flowers are dead) we have to dig you all up.

In addition to all that, according to her letter, we have a new roomie.

"...you stated that when your brother Pat moved out that only you and Laura would be living in the house. It has come to my attention that you have a third person living in the house and you are in breach of faith of our lease"... uhm.... excuse me? third person??

As far as i know, there is only 2 people in the house. If not, that means i've been parading my naked body around the house in the presence our our mystery roommate. If i do have a mystery roommate, my sincerest apologies that you had to witness my white arse running through the hallway.

On one of her annual house inspections (which she forgot to come to until we called her asking whether or not she was still planning to attend) Brad's parents were visiting for the September long weekend and were staying in the guestroom. Apparently the suitcase indicates "roommate". Which is utter bullhonkey. I shouldn't have to call my landlord everytime we have family visit!

I talked to my Uncle, who's a lawyer in town, and he said that we can't do anything about the whole roommie thing pro-actively. All we can do at this point is tell her that there ISN'T anyone but us living there. He also said that the burden of proof is on her. she has to proove that we have a 3rd person living there. We don't have to proove anything. He also said that she sounds like a bitch, and i agreed. And, if she gives us a hard time to give him a call and he'd help us out. It's really nice to have a lawyer in the family.

Even if just to have a letter sent to her on his legal letterhead would be effective.

We have to be strong and fight this stupid paranoid lady as much as we can. She's the crazy scheister type who will try anything she can think of to keep our damage deposit. And when the time comes, i'm going to try to get my uncle to be present at the time of the walk through so he can tell what is and what isn't a result of "regular wear and tear". Because if it IS regular wear and tear, she can't take it out of our damage deposit.

Grr.