Things Turning Out Better than I Planned
Robbing Borrowing from Peter my new landlord to pay Paul my present landlords.
On Friday, as I was checking the mail on my steps, Rosie, my landlady approached me. She looked all distraught and nervous - very much like she looked on 9-11 when she told me I would have to leave my home forever.
But there was a difference. This time she looked nervous like she was about to ask me for a big favor.
Now I am not really all that good about picking up such subtleties in body language. This time I had a piece of un-opened mail in my hand. It was my FEMA check.
Rosie asked me if there was any way I could pay my rent early this month, They are really strapped for cash this month between vacant apartments and lots of repair bills.
On the one hand, I really dislike taking $$ meant for one purpose and spending it for another purpose. In my youth I sometimes often spent $$ in very unwise ways, so I would not have the cash I needed to pay important bills because $$ went to buy things I should not have bought. However, I am older now, and I feel wiser as well. On the other hand, I knew that I would have rent $$ at the beginning of the month, so borrowing from my FEMA apartment relocation funds would be easy to re-pay long before it would be needed in December to give to my new landlord.
I smiled at Rosie and told her I could have rent for her on Monday or Tuesday. After all, I owe them a lot for all the times she and Tony had gone out of their way to assist me. It felt good to be able to extend a helping hand to them in their time of need.
Later that day, I had to acknowledge to myself that there was also an element of vested self interest in my snap decision. The more I can assist them financially in their time of need, the easier it may become for me to be able to rent space from them for my wagon after I move to my new apartment.
The more I drag my wagon back and forth between Jackson Square and home, the more I realize how fragile and unstable the load on my wagon really is. It takes me a l-o-n-g time to pack up the wagon and it is still quite unstable. The load is also HEAVY. Even if I had a sturdy 3-speed trike (which I have yet to locate, much less pay for), I doubt the transport to and from my new apartment would be easy or fun. So anything which might influence Tony and Rosie into allowing me to rent wagon space from them in years to come, is a very very good thing.
Continuing to rent from them also makes it easy to stay in contact with them. Unlike any previous landlords, I actually care for the Khans and all their adult children. Thay are family to me. And I want to continue our relationship long after I move to my (as of yet undiscovered) much larger first floor apartment.
Also, on Saturday I made more money than I have made in a while. I made $247. Making cash in times of extreme need assists me to relax into the process of impending change. On Friday (when I was much more easily freaked out, I had made $21 for the same 10 hours of work. Lack of income induces fear and paranoia in me.