Tag Archives: room

Says 97 – The walking dead

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2012 Sept 25, I drove into Woodstock to look at a room that I saw listed on Kijiji. It turns out that the man is dying of cancer and has only a few months left to live. It started out in his colon, then moved to his liver and is now in his lymph glands, that can’t be operated on. He said that he maybe has four months, and that he hopes to see this Christmas, but that he doubts he will see another one. He said that besides having his colon removed, he had 5/8 of his liver removed, as well as a node that they later found on it. He now has a hernia protruding out of his abdomen where his liver used to be. He looks fine and healthy while he is sitting down. He seems quite calm, cool and collected in talking about his illness and imminent death, but that is NOT what is really going on. He’s a walking dead man. How does one deal with that? Again, I’m witnessing what is going on behind the scenes.

While we were talking, his wife took a phone call and went outside on the patio to talk. I asked him why he wants to rent out a room, something that they have never done before, if he has all this going on as it will just add stress to your relationship with your wife that is working and also looking after you. He didn’t reply to my questions, but said that another person, a nurse, was coming over later this afternoon to have a look at the room and that if she didn’t want it, that I could have it. I said that a nurse staying here would be of help to him and his wife as she could provide some assistance if needed. With that, I said my goodbyes and left.

2012 Sept 26, I received an email stating that the room had been taken.

Says 94 – Having a second look at potential new room

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I got an reply email form the woman who had the room for rent stating that she had more questions for me before she decided to rent me the room. I replied that I too had some questions. She wanted me to come over in the morning as she had another person coming to have a look at it in the afternoon. I emailed her saying that the afternoon was more convenient for me but if the other person was ok with her, that she should rent them the room, as each of us still had unanswered questions that didn’t make the deal a certainty. I set up an appointment to see her at 4:00 pm and stated that she was to email me if she rented the room . I never received an email, so I went to see her and asked her what happened with the person that wanted to rent it and she said that she told them it was rented. I asked her why she would say that if we still have questions and we might change our minds about sharing this space. She never replied, but changed the subject.

We chatted for a good half hour and as we went along, I decided that it was not the right place for me for a number of reasons that were not evident on my original visit. She was renting a three bedroom, two-story home with a basement and was asking $500.00/month to help pay the rent, which was 25% higher than most places. She also mentioned that she was going in for a hip replacement in January and was not going to be too mobile for a while, and I felt her hinting things she would like me to do to help her. I asked her why she just didn’t move and get a smaller place, one that she could afford, and a one level apartment that would be easier for her to move around in. She became adamant that she had put too much money into this place to leave it. She was a penny pincher when it came to using hydro, yet didn’t see how she was wasting electrical energy. She had a small kitchen and what she offered me for my food was one shelf in a small cupboard. She was also paranoid about germs and near the end of our conversation she went to the kitchen and used some hand sanitizer which sent me into a coughing fit where I could hardly breathe and I had to go outside for some fresh air. She said that she would buy a different one if that one bothered me, but that really didn’t interest me. In many ways, she reminded me of my ex-wife. Needless to say she was angry when I said I would not take the room, and later she even emailed me telling me how bad I was for leading her on.

Says 81 – Moved to new room and city

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2012 Aug 31 Friday I had called my new room rental in Brantford a couple of days ago and this afternoon at 3:00 pm I got the phone call saying that I can move in today. I had already packed up most of my stuff by early morning as it was going to be a hot day, +32C and I’m glad I did. I planned that if I didn’t get the call that I could move in today, that I was prepared to stay the night and then move out early in the morning as I had only a few things to pack.

After I got the call, I went downstairs and told the landlord that I was leaving, I waited around until his wife went to the bank to get some money to give me back my $100.00 deposit. After I got it, I stopped in at the fish and chip shop where I used to work and got an order of fish and chips for supper, before heading out to my new digs.

I arrived around 5:30pm and the place was busy. Nancy and Frank’s son and daughter-in-law were visiting them for the weekend, along with their two yappy min-pins (dogs). There was also a young man and woman that I found out were also tenants. I had met the woman before, but I didn’t know about the guy, so that makes three of us renting rooms, still better than five. My new room is about 12’x 18’ and roughly the same area as the last one that was about 15’x15’. It’s also nice that I don’t have to deal with the 19 stairs

By 6:30 I was pretty much settled in and had some bags unpacked. I was later invited to join Frank and Nancy and the others on the patio where we chatted for a while.

2012 Sept 01 When I knew I was going to be moving, I had let my food run out, especially any perishable and frozen food. So on Saturday morning, I got dressed and went out to Tim Horton’s for breakfast. Later I had a short drive around this end of Brantford just looking at what stores and services are available.

Says 76 – I now have a room for Sept 01

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2012 Aug 02 I’ve been watching Kijiji for a few weeks looking for a new place to live. Today I saw a room listed in the city of Brantford, Ont, that’s about 30 minutes from Woodstock. A little further than I wanted to be from Woodstock, but what the heck. I called the number and made an appointment to see the room at 2:00 pm. Just before that, I got an email regarding a furnished Bachelor apartment in Woodstock and I had arranged to see it at 4:00pm.

I drove to Brantford and with the help of my Garmin, http://www.garmin.com/us/ I found the place okay. I met the woman who showed me the room, which was actually the master bedroom that is at the back of the house. It’s quite large (12 x 15) not counting a huge double closet. The bathroom is next door that I’ll be sharing with the other tenant. She showed me the rest of the house and it was quite comfortable. She was very personable and easy to talk with. I told her about the bachelor apartment that I would be seeing at 4:00 pm and told her I’d let her know after I saw it.

At 3:50 pm, I went to see the third floor bachelor apartment but the woman never showed up so I left at 4:15 pm. She didn’t have to show me the apartment as I recognized the place from a few years earlier when I worked at Mel’s Fish and Chips, a nearby business. The place on the corner, next door to the apartment was a tattoo parlor that also sold drug paraphernalia and Goth merchandise. I remember druggies hanging around at all hours, and today was no different. I parked in the back and walked around to the front entrance. It was filthy, with dirt filled carpet, old peeling paint and graffiti on the walls. While I didn’t see a roach in the entrance, when I walked back to the parking lot at the rear of the building, I could smell one coming from the Tattoo Parlor next door on the corner. This is definitely not the place for me.

I went back to my room and called the woman in Brantford telling her that I’d take the room and asked if she wanted the rent tonight, or tomorrow. She said that tonight was fine and that she would like me to meet her husband before I/she decided, just in case there was any problems. I arrived at 7:15pm and left at 9:15 pm. The three of us had a good chat, (seemed like old times) as we talked about and shared similar views on numerous topics. So now, I have a room for Sept 1. I may be able to move in sooner, depending on when the present tenant moves out to live in Toronto, where he going to be working.

It’s a nice trip from Woodstock to Brantford as Hwy 403 is a double lane divided highway. It’s only 43 km (27 miles) and it took only 35 minutes to drive from downtown Woodstock and pull up in front of my future home. So the time and distance isn’t going to be a big issue when I drive into Woodstock to see my daughter /son-in-law and my grandkids.

I haven’t told my present landlords, as I found out that they had been in my room again when I was out this afternoon. I have now put notes in my drawers, closet and fridge that say… ”Fuck off you snoops!” They will only see them when they come into my room and snoop where they have no business being, and if they get pissed off, I’ll know why. As long as they are assholes and snooping, I’ll keep them in the dark about my finding a new place until I’m good and ready.

Says 71 – Went to look at a room

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July 27 9:00 pm. With the month quickly ending and rent due, and not having an alternative place to live, I went to look at a room where the owner only had one tenant. It was a small two-bedroom home in a nice neighborhood, opposite a small park. When I went in, I could tell that the guy either was never married, or was divorced and never did much around the house. While it was basically clean, but it was also messy and dark, like in dark kitchen and furniture. He also had a one-year-old German shepherd dog that had a bed by the front door that was full of hair. The guy seemed nice enough and worked days at a local factory.

The bedroom was small, I’d say it was only 10’ x 10.’ It was had to really tell with all the BIG stuff in the room. As you walked in, you were greeted on the right side by a giant five foot TV, that jutted out a good 2 feet from the wall. Then beside the TV was a small computer desk, that you had to move if you wanted to open the door to get into the closet. The room had a regular bed that was situated more or less in the middle of the room with the headboard against the wall under the window.

To the top right side of the bed in the corner was a nightstand and on top of it was a small bar fridge. To the left of the bed, in the middle of the wall was a gigantic tallboy dresser that had to be almost seven feet tall with three draws on the bottom section and two doors on the upper section. You could only open the bottom three drawers maybe six inches, before you would hit the side of the bed. He said the person that was presently renting the room was using it for clothes and also for his food and pots and pans. To say it was cramped would be an understatement. I said I would be interested, but the TV would definitely have to go and the room would have to be re-arranged so that I could use the entire tallboy comfortably. He said he had two other people coming to have a look at it on Saturday, and that if I was interested, he’d give me a call.

Later when I thought more about it, I really didn’t want it. It was also not going to be available until Aug 06, so that would mean if I moved out of where I am presently living at the end of the month, that I would have to find a room for a few days. Things seemed to be all up in the air and I didn’t know what I was going to do,yet at the same time, I wasn’t really worried or anxious.

PS: Update. He never called me and I never called him..

Says 69 – Things that go thump in the night

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July 25 Wednesday, Last night I was fast asleep, when at 11:55 pm, I was startled from my sleep by a series of loud bangs that sounded like they were coming from the kitchen. My bed is next the kitchen wall, so the direction of the clamor was easy to identify. Previously, if someone was getting up for a midnight snack, I might hear them move around, but not like this.

I quickly got dressed and made my way out to the hallway and down toward the kitchen only to see the landlady hurriedly walking toward the exit door. I called out, “What the hell is going on?” She didn’t even turn around but as she opened the door, she told me to, “Go back to bed John.” While those are the words she used, her tone and manner were much more abrasive and I know she left out two nasty words at the beginning of her comment.

I didn’t peruse her, but I could hear her talking to her husband but I couldn’t make it out. I returned to my bedroom and tried to go back to sleep, which took several hours. This wasn’t the first time that she has been up here in the middle of the night. Early in my stay here, I heard her vacuuming the floor after midnight, and a tenant I was speaking to the other day said he has heard vacuuming her as late at 3:00 am. A few weeks ago, I heard her preparing the room across the hallway from me at 3:00 am. When I went out to investigate the commotion that had woke me up, and she told me that this young guy needed a place to crash for the night and she was letting him have that room. Strange that a guy needs a room in a private house at 3:00 am and even stranger that she takes the call and lets him stay, like this is some kind of a motel.

Says 63 – Another new tenant moves in and out next door

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2012 July 08 A man about my age moved in to the room across the hall five days ago and moved out today. He was also fed up with the BS he is getting from owners living below. Like the woman before him, he complained about the heat and that he wasn’t allowed to keep his door open. He was also chastised for drinking a beer outside on the balcony.

Actually I had bought a 6-pack of Corona the day before as it was hot and humid and it reminded me of Mexico and I remembered how good a corona tasted . When he came home from work, I asked him if he would like a cool one. He said he’d love one and invited me to join him on his balcony for some “fresh” air. We were sitting on the small deck off his room, quietly chatting and sipping our beer, when both owners came up and knocked on his door. He closed the balcony door and went to see them. I could hear them talking, but I couldn’t really make out what was being said.

Later, he came back out and told me that they didn’t want any drinking from bottles on the deck, and that if he had a beer, he was to have it in a glass. They never said anything to me cause if they had, I would have asked them if drinking pop from a bottle was ok, and if they said yes, I would have pulled out my Dad’s root beer that looks like a dark beer bottle…

He emailed me later saying that when he went downstairs to get some of his money back, as he had paid for a month, they refused. He said that when he promised to take them to small claims court and to also see various government agencies as to the conditions, they quickly reversed themselves and gave him back 3 weeks rent, saying that they were glad to get rid of a trouble maker and a whiner.

Says 59 – Helping ex-wife move and looking for another place

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My ex-wife moved to her new apartment on the end of June and I helped her move some stuff and then set up the apartment, like move furniture, hang window blinds and coverings, ceiling fan, bed frame and headboard, put together new dining room table and chairs, organize closets, hang pictures, etc.

After several discussions, the property owner finally put a temperature sensor upstairs that is linked to the main control downstairs. While that is fine and dandy, they also can’t keep their hands off it. The A/C kicks in at various times and temperatures. Sometimes it operates between 24 – 26 degrees, and then other times it’s working from between 27 – 29 degrees C. Then on top of that, they turn it on at different times and it’s always turned off by 8:00 pm leaving the upper level to sweat through the night as the sun is still out and the building is hot and the temperature rises to over 32C. Other days when they think it’s going to be cooler, (27 degrees C) they open the door and windows to let the breeze though but it’s now and humid. Other times, the A/C is on and the windows and doors are open. Their A/C unit is on and the downstairs is cool, but the upstairs is like an oven.

I put an ad on Kijiji, stating that I looking for a furnished, all-inclusive one bedroom or bachelor apartment as I could not see myself staying where I am. I’m also looking for another room, but there isn’t anything new, or if there is, they specifically want a working person, student or a female. What is new is also not acceptable to me, as it’s either smoking, in a basement, or in a rundown dirty house.

Says 58 – Things crawling out of the woodwork

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2012 June 21 Well things are interesting. The weather has been hot (high 20’s and low 30’s C) and the rooms are supposed to be air conditioned, but whenever the landlords (that are living downstairs) are asked why it’s not working, they come up with different excuses, and that they are having it checked out. They had put a sign on the outside door to keep the door closed because the A/C was on. After talking with them and knowing they were blowing smoke, I wrote on the bottom of the sign. “What air conditioning” and signed it.

The woman that moved in across the hallway from me on June 16, moved out today. She was totally pissed off with the runaround she was getting in that she had flown in from Vancouver and had been told that she would have a large room, (my room) and that the room was fully furnished with bedding and that the kitchen was also fully functional and that there was only one other woman living there. Well her room is small and sparely furnished. It also has two large windows facing South and West, and with the A/C not working, needless to say, her room was like an oven. Besides that, there are three men living on the same floor and sharing the kitchen and bathroom. She was also getting shit for leaving her window open when she left for work as she didn’t want to come home to a sauna, and didn’t know that the A/C would be turned on later that day.

A couple of days after she left, the property owner came upstairs and asked me where the “Princess” went? I asked what princess, and he motioned with his head to the woman that was in the room across the hall from mine. I told him I didn’t know and asked why he called her a Princess. He said that she was a real whiner and he thought that because I was single and she was married and not bad looking, that I would have had made a move on her and would know where she went. I looked at him in disgust and shaking my head, said, “Well with that same redneck chauvinist mentality, then you have to also think that I may be putting the move on your wife if all I wanted was a fuck. He looked puzzled and as he scratched his baldhead and mumbled, “I never thought of that. I’ll have to think about that,” With that he turned and left.

Says 57 – Arrived in Woodstock

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June 10 Sunday, 5:30 pm I arrived in Woodstock and stayed at my ex-wife’s apartment while I looked for a place to stay. I arrived on Sunday evening and my daughter who was expecting and out visiting friends, went into labour and had boy (Max) 5 lbs 12 oz at around 4:00 am on Monday morning.

June 11, My first order of business was to get my vehicle safety inspected and emissions tested so that I could get it licensed. It passed with flying colours, but I had a haste with a woman at the license place who tried to make me believe that the Saskatchewan dealer never gave me the proper papers.
I called the dealer and while he was on the phone, I tried to get her to talk to him so that he could send down the missing papers, but she refused. She reluctantly said she would call head office while I waited to the side. I thanked the salesman from Regina Honda for his time and ended the call and waited.

It turned out that while she was on the telephone, I overheard the ignorant bitch say that she had never registered a vehicle from Saskatchewan. She then asked me for the same papers I gave her before and not saying a word, she did her job as she was walked through the process. She then tried to charge me GST that I had already paid in Saskatchewan and I called her on that, and she quietly corrected her mistake. There was no need to say anything more as she knew, her co-workers knew and all the 15 people waiting in line knew that she had fucked up as I overheard those that had been in line when I was having the issue, tell the others who were asking what the problem was.

June 13, I found a place and will be moving in on June 14. It’s an old Victorian house with 5 rooms on the second floor that are being rented out. There are presently two young guys and one woman living there and another woman will be moving in on Saturday. I have one of the largest rooms, measuring about 15 x 15 feet with a closet. It also has a queen size bed, night table, dresser, bookshelf, computer table, small drop-leaf table with two chairs, a small bar fridge, LCD TV, cable TV and wireless internet. We all share the kitchen and washroom that are also quite large.

Says 51 – Toyota Tercel fixed, looking at SUV’s

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I got my Toyota Tercel fixed on Friday May 11 and it only cost me $252,00 total… and that included having them service my front brake calipers. While it’s fixed, I’m also pissed off as this is the same oxygen sensor that I had replaced back on October 01 2010.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been looking at getting an older, small SUV like a Toyota Rav4, Honda CR-V, (Red Honda in Pic) Hyundai Tucson, and the Mitsubishi Outlander. I had looked at North American SUV’s and the only one I even considered a possibility was the Saturn Vue, even though it’s been discontinued due to the recession of 2008. When I called the dealer and asked how long parts were going to be available, he hesitantly told me that they were already scarce and that any parts had to be ordered from the USA and that usually took a couple of weeks. With that, I decided to cross the Saturn Vue off my list and just stick with the imports. So much for Made in America pride and know how. In my researching SUV’s I was amazed at how many North American cars use Japanese or other countries engines and drive trains. Detroit may have the engineering knowledge to make a better, more fuel efficient vehicle, but they can’t or don’t want to deliver. They are good at selling the sizzle and not the steak. And then, when they get into financial trouble, (like in 2008) it’s the taxpayers that bail them out, thanks to the corrupt and inept government officials.

I feel I need a bigger vehicle with more cargo area than the 11 cubic feet I presently have. I’m looking for something that can carry all my stuff and where I still have some room to move, beside just being able to drive it. I also want a vehicle that is higher off the ground as I’m getting tired of having to watch small things I’m driving over that hit the bottom of the car. I also want a vehicle with bigger tires as the Tercel’s 13 inch wheels just seems to drop into the smallest pot hole, where my old Nissan pickup truck just rolled over them. I’m looking at getting an older 1999 – 2005 vehicle as that is all that I can afford.

I’d like to buy a vehicle out here in Saskatchewan as they use very little salt on the roads in the winter time and the vehicles are not rusty like in Ontario. But buying a car out here is also more complicated as it’s out of province and I still need to get it safety certified and emissions tested back in Ontario if I am to get plates for it there. If I don’t find a reasonable one out West, I’ll just wait until I get back to Ontario and buy one there.

I’ve also started searching Kijiji for a room or a bachelor apartment to rent in Woodstock and the surrounding area. I’ve found a few, but whether they’ll still be there when I get down to Ontario is another question. My ex-wife said that I could stay at her apartment a couple of days while I looked around for a place