The Landlord Saga
I don't even know where to begin. Or if I should begin. Or if this is the right time or post for it. But I have a computer in my hands at the moment and I wanted to write something so here I am.
I think I may have briefly mentioned to some of you the landlord saga. Essentially I got illegally evicted for being a week's late on rent and they threatened my dog and myself with a pistol so I steered clear of trying to resolve any problems I was having with them and decided to just accept the eviction. However, this was clearly not the outcome they wanted, so in an equally illegal and just fucking stupid move they decided to steal all of my shit a few days later and claim I abandoned the place.
They then held my belongings in an undisclosed location and presented me with a ludicrous list of charges that I would have to pay in order to get my stuff back. The charges included a $500 10x10 storage unit fee and a $300 "removal" fee, among many other stupid, stupid charges. They kept my $900 security deposit and said that if I wanted to get my stuff back I owed them an additional $2000 or so. Keep in mind, every single one of these charges had to do with the eviction - no damage to the property or anything - so they were pretty much charging me $3000 to kick me out and steal my stuff.
So then doggo and I were homeless with one pair of pants and two t shirts. I happened to have been wearing my running shoes during the eviction so they were the only shoes I had for over a month and, well, they did not hold up long. About a week after wearing cheap running shoes full time is when you start being able to count your toes.
So legal action ensued. It's still going on. I won't get too much into that but maybe I'll make a post about the court process once all is said and done. But, this only occurred after weeks of me attempting to reach out to them without receiving any response whatsoever. I made it evident, among other things, that they were holding almost all of my money/ access to money, so I wouldn't have been able to pay them unless they had let me retrieve certain things. But, of course, they refused to respond, and it was until an affidavit was delivered to their doorstep by a state trooper before they budged.
And then they caved. Kind of. They arranged a 4 hour window on a Monday for me to get my stuff back. When I asked where the storage unit was they told me I could retrieve everything from the yard. This seemed odd to me, as beforehand they had been adamant about everything being stored in a safe, dry unit that they had subsequently charged me $500 for(I would still love to see a 10x10 storage unit go for that much). I was previously instructed that once I had "paid up" I would be allowed to receive the items directly from the unit. The fact that they had gone through all the unnecessary effort to put it out on the lawn clearly showed that they did not want me to know the conditions under which everything had been previously stored.
So Monday came. And the four hour window. Which happened to be during an intense thunderstorm. The only one of the week. And my stuff. It was just.. there. On the side of the road. Under tents and tarps. Could have been there for a week for all I know. It was like a giant "free" pile, especially in that part of backwoods Vermont.
Now.. things were dry, for the most part. They aren't quite stupid enough to just leave everything in the rain without covering it. But the evidence was there that none of it really had remained dry during the entirety of the period. Things were moldy. The mattress and box spring were soaked. My desk/bookshelf looked as if it had been thrown off a cliff. And the fucking smell.
There was a strange, thick and putrid smelling brown liquid that had been either poured or smeared on all of my furniture. It smelled like a combination of sewage, dumpster and rotting meat. My brother in law, who was helping me, was convinced they had gathered a bunch of dog shit and made some sort of marinade for my stuff with it. It fucking sucked.
But we got all the shit out of there. It was all packed terribly and a lot of stuff was broken or damaged. But then, as I really started to go through it, I've noticed quite a few things missing. One of which is my computer. And I'm fucking pissed.
So the lawsuit goes on. But we found a home, temporarily. And we got most of our stuff back. I've been working for a friend for the past week or so out in the middle of the woods and once I am back home I am planning on either getting my lawyer to force them to give me back the rest of my stuff or caving and buying another computer. I could use one anyways, I guess. But now, for the first time in a long time, I have consistent access to a computer and am so happy to finally get back on here.
Forward
I guess as my life is shifting, I will probably use the "Word Vomit" shit to talk more about my personal life. I still don't really know what direction my page is taking, although I would really like to focus of the Blog that Dreaded Sundown series and possibly do some audio shit too. I don't know. If anyone has any opinions on the stuff I churn out over the next few weeks I would love to hear it.
Raiden and I are in Vermont until the end of August. We might stick around for a little bit after, but not too long I don't think. In the meantime, we have to get rid of everything we own that's not going to fit into a Saab hatchback. This might be the most difficult challenge I'm going to face in this move. We'll continue to have a place here in Vermont(I'll get into that in a second) but it's simply just not big enough to really keep anything in. I've considered other options but my final conclusion was that I need to get rid of anything not sentimental to me and start fresh.
Then we drive across the country, and find a home in Bend, Oregon. I've been looking at places to live there pretty extensively, but seeing as I've never been to Bend, I don't even really know what parts of town I'm looking in. So, my alternative solution is that I am going to go rent an Air BNB for a month, maybe two, and do some "scissor work", while I figure it out. And then, once I'm finally settled there, I will most likely drive right back here, right to this house I'm at right this very second.
The Cabin Project
My friends have been living in a really cool house/property for the past few years in the middle of the woods right next to the ski mountain. Despite the proximity to the mountain/golf course, they live at the end of a dead end road off a virtually untraveled dirt road. So, needless to say, the property is pretty incredible.
I had spent a few nights here during the winter from time to time but had never really spent much time here during the summer. (I say "here" because this is the house I've found myself unable to leave for the past 8 days). My first time here without the snow, a few months ago, I discovered they had a little cabin down the hill by the creek. No one has lived there for quite some time but it really wouldn't take that much work to make the thing livable again. It's a small, one-room cabin with a tiny kitchenette and deck right by the river. There's a storage shed on the outside and a funny little pulley-rigged hanging rack on the ceiling. There's a sky light and at one point it looked like they had electricity, water and propane all hooked up in there.
The thing definitely needs work. But my friend and I were talking and it kind of came down to this; they want to buy the house ASAP, and as soon as they do, or even in the meantime, the cabin is mine to work on; to fix up and to be able to come back to whenever I want in the winter/ whenever the fuck.
This is HUGE for me. I've wanted to move for a long time but the most difficult part for me was to relinquish the ability to come back here whenever I want. There are a lot of things about this place I couldn't be more sick of, but there are a lot of people and places here that I can't really leave; not fully. There's a very small, yet very unique community here that I forget about sometimes and couldn't be happier to be back in touch with them.
I was thinking about making posts about the cabin renovation project as it progresses but I'm not sure yet. I probably will.
I've got a lot more to say but I think I should break it up and tie certain things into other things. It's gonna be a little weird getting back into the swing of things here as my brain has been thrown up and down a wall lately and it's gonna be a little disorganized trying to focus all that splatter back into words. One thing I will say though is that I am so, so happy to be back here. For real this time.
And happy, happy HAPPY FRIDAY THE 13TH :)
this post was probably very poorly and sloppily written and that being said, I don't care. I'm tired and completely out of my element. I just wanted to get on the site to motivate myself to put down the scissors and do some of this. I assure you my future posts won't be as shitty and boring. Or maybe they will. You tell me. I don't know. Hail yourselves.