Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Balancing act

You know, I do believe in some kind of karma...that if bad things happen, it will be balanced out by good things in the long run, and vice versa. That if you do bad things, bad things will happen. I don't pretend to be full versed in the eastern mysticism of it all, but it's just the way things seem to work out for me.

To call the past week stressful would be a touch of an understatement. There was packing up everything in the apartment and then moving it to the new place. Some of it I did myself, some of it was done with some movers in town. To say I wasn't 100% happy with the movers would be a touch of an understatement. My favourite part was where they decided the best way to move the deep freeze was to tip it upside down and transport it that way. There was also a last minute intervention with how the very expensive TV was going to be moved. Had it not happened, the TV would now be pulped. More than one glass did not survive the move.

Also, I have the sneaking feeling that $300+ for 90 minutes work might be a touch of a rip off.

The apartment building we left through one last indignity by taking most of our damage deposit because the place wasn't clean enough, despite spending five hours Monday night cleaning the place. If I had known I was going to lose the money I would have left the place filthy rather than trying to clean it.

Then there's all the unpacking and trying to find homes for stuff. I've been so sore the last couple of days that it's felt like someone has taken a baseball bat to my legs while I slept.

But the worst was the several hours I spent today thinking I had lost my wedding ring.

I do have the bad habit of fidgeting with the ring. I don't wear or like much in the way of jewelry. I have no piercings of any kind (I know, more information than some of you need), nor chains or bracelets. Hell, I wore a pocket watch for years. I only started wearing a wrist watch again about a year or so ago.

But there was no getting around the wedding ring. It still feels a bit weird on my finger and I play with the ring all the time, something that drives Cathy mad. She's warned of dire consequences if I lost it.

So I'm at work for about 30 minutes this morning when I notice the ring isn't on my finger.

After quickly determining that it isn't in my office, cold hard panic set in because I have no idea where it could be. I was desperately afraid I lost at the movie theatre last night, although I was fairly sure I hadn't. So I have to wait until after work, check the theatre only to find it's not there. A thorough tossing of the apartment and I find the ring buried under a pillow in the bed. Apparently I've learned a new trick - sleep fidgeting - where I can now play with the ring while I sleep.

This is not a good thing, I should think.

Anyway, I don't care about the pain in the ass move, the moving company, the damage deposit and all the unpacking. Because I found my wedding ring and when I see Cathy on Friday, she won't have to kill me.

Which means all the bad stuff that's happened the past week have been nicely balanced out. Karma.

4 comments:

tanker belle said...

You may want to have a little chat with your previous landlord. A damage deposit is to pay for any damages you did, it is *not* a cleaning deposit. I'm pretty sure that's the sort of thing that can go to small claims court, in fact. The landlord should only be able to keep back the amount that equals the receipts s/he has for repairs to the apartment that had to be done because of something you and Cathy did to the place (not something routine or left over from previous tenant).

Anonymous said...

Impressive research skills cat. It's odd that Nunavut limited its definition of a security deposit to one specific to damage to property and arrears of rent. The more usual general definition of a security deposit is a sum of money paid to secure the performance of obligations and liabilities of a tenant (which is the definition used by Nf and Lab). As one of the obligations of a tenant is to keep the premises clean and in good repair (which is an obligation generally found in the Act itself--don't know about Nunavut's off hand though), the landlord, under that definition, is entitled to keep back enough of the deposit to pay for cleaning of the apartment if it is not left in "move-in" or "showable" condition. So, in Newfoundland, yes, the landlord can keep back part of the deposit for cleaning the apartment, but in Nunavut, apparently not. Huh. Weird.

So, Craig, fascinated yet by another analysis of the minutiae of residential tenancies law? :^) We need OM to chime in on Sask. law.

Jaime said...

Jeff and I just got married on Friday and he fiddles with his ring non-stop. He's taken to wearing it on his right hand because he says it hurts on his left. This post better not inspire him to think that it's okay to fiddle, haha. ;)

towniebastard said...

Tell him he'll get used to it in a couple of weeks. However, then playing with it becomes completely unconcious, which is worse because you don't notice yourself doing it, which can lead to the kind of trouble I discribe.

Btw, I notice you're moving to Rankin. My lovely wife spent 04-05 teaching there. I imagine she wouldn't call herself an expert on the place, I'm sure she'd be happy to answer any questions once she's back in Iqaluit on Aug. 18.