Annoyances
So the landlords caught me grilling, which it turns out is illegal for apartments in this state, so that's the end of that. And they decided to be argumentative over it, despite that I didn't argue and complied instantaneously. Later we were told to cleanse the balcony of ash, which was an interesting task as I had to use my imagination to picture what they must have been thinking they saw.
Technically (by which I mean explicitly), animals of any kind are banned by the selectively enforced lease, so I must take care that no one discovers I have a lizard, or even a tank of snails. I feed the lizard on the clovers across the street, but today a large, old Hispanic woman came out and saw it. "Ay dios mio!" she exclaimed, which I thought was funny, and smiled, until I noticed she seemed genuinely upset. So I left, but then I noticed her watching me go up the stairs and over the walkway to my apartment, and I self-consciously walked past it toward a different apartment so she wouldn't know where I live. Our neighbors are notorious busybodies, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of somehow getting reported over it.
Meanwhile, our cable company is installing thick new wires all over the outside of the building, making us look like part of some industrialized dystopian future. As part of this free "service," two odiferous gentlemen drilled holes in our walls to install new outlets… which don't work. That is, until we buy an extra account, which provides the convenience of having a somewhat closer cable outlet at only 200% of the original cost. "So, they're basically useless?" we asked. "Basically," they said. How generous of them. As a bonus, the internet has been regularly going down all month.
I have this constant, vague sense of dread that sooner or later some random violation will occur and we'll be evicted. It's bad enough that some human being owns every single scrap of land on the planet, but that they only hoard it so they can offer it back to you at a devastating price without even the right to govern your own space… whatever. Civilization will expire from climate change or 3rd world nukes or population crash anyway.
Technically (by which I mean explicitly), animals of any kind are banned by the selectively enforced lease, so I must take care that no one discovers I have a lizard, or even a tank of snails. I feed the lizard on the clovers across the street, but today a large, old Hispanic woman came out and saw it. "Ay dios mio!" she exclaimed, which I thought was funny, and smiled, until I noticed she seemed genuinely upset. So I left, but then I noticed her watching me go up the stairs and over the walkway to my apartment, and I self-consciously walked past it toward a different apartment so she wouldn't know where I live. Our neighbors are notorious busybodies, and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of somehow getting reported over it.
Meanwhile, our cable company is installing thick new wires all over the outside of the building, making us look like part of some industrialized dystopian future. As part of this free "service," two odiferous gentlemen drilled holes in our walls to install new outlets… which don't work. That is, until we buy an extra account, which provides the convenience of having a somewhat closer cable outlet at only 200% of the original cost. "So, they're basically useless?" we asked. "Basically," they said. How generous of them. As a bonus, the internet has been regularly going down all month.
I have this constant, vague sense of dread that sooner or later some random violation will occur and we'll be evicted. It's bad enough that some human being owns every single scrap of land on the planet, but that they only hoard it so they can offer it back to you at a devastating price without even the right to govern your own space… whatever. Civilization will expire from climate change or 3rd world nukes or population crash anyway.