Day 95

Today is the 4th day of the 14th week, the 5th day of the 4th month, the 95th day of 2023, and:

• AANPI Woman's Equal Pay Day - In 2023, women made 77¢ for every dollar earned by white men.  This gap has hardly budged in the past 20 years.
• Accelerate ACL Awareness Among Young Women Day
• Bell Bottoms Day
• First Contact Day - only 40 more years to wait!
• Global Day of the Engineer
• Go for Broke Day
• Gold Star Spouses Day
• Holy Wednesday
• International Day of Conscience
• National Caramel Day
• National Dandelion Day
• National Day of Hope
• National Deep Dish Pizza Day
• National Flash Drive Day
• National Raisin and Spice Bar Day
• National Walk Day
• Passover - which starts after sundown
• Pascha - the Greek Orthodox celebrate Easter a bit early
• Paraprofessional Appreciation Day
• Read a Road Map Day (( I have no idea when the last time I opened a road map, much less read it!  I don't think I even own one anymore ))
• Whole Grain Sampling Day

Quote of the day:
"Always remember that you absolutely unique.  Just like everyone else."

~ Margaret Mead, American cultural anthropologist

The day did not start out well.  

It was a restless night as the temperature in the apartment was uncomfortable, even with lots of fans going

Triscuit is obviously not feeling well - two more days until the vet visit.  The heat in the apartment is also an issue.  Today it went up to 87° and I had to have all the windows closed as there was a 40% chance of rain, so she was even more uncomfortable.  No idea how I am going to get her into that carrier on Friday because when I picked her up, it took us over an hour to get her in and she was confined in just one room.

And when I opened my door to leave the apartment for work this morning, a piece of paper that was tucked under the door knob fluttered to the floor.  I have officially received a NOTICE OF INTENT TO FILE A COMPLAINT FOR SUMMARY EJECTMENT [Failure to Pay Rent], citing the amounts due for the April 1st payment.  I've lived at the Enclave since 2007, in this apartment since 2009, and in all that time my rent payment was late exactly once, because their computer system screwed up and didn't credit my account correctly. 

First thought:  it was an issue with the auto debit - I immediately pulled up the checking account - yup, the money was taken from the account.  When I got to work and could pull up the Resident Portal, it shows $0 owed and it was credited on the 1st, so they got the funds.  I've tried to call the office three times and got a voice mail every single time, left a message the last time.  Sent messages in the Resident Portal to the General Manager and the Collections Manager, followed up with emails from my Gmail and work OUTLOOK.   No reply.  So I marched into the office after driving home from work....

There were seven people standing there, each one of us holding that piece of paper.  The phones were ringing off the hook.  First they tried to tell us it had been sent to everyone in error.  That might've worked, except one person pointed out this was the third such notice they received.  Then a different staff member tried to say it was a Montgomery County requirement.  I quickly contradicted them on that one, then the general manager came out and said it was a state requirement that started back in 2021 in order to process evictions in a timely fashion.  I had already checked that out and verified when the eviction moratorium was lifted in May 2021, all landlords were indeed required to send all tenants notice that proceedings would start 10 days after a missed due date, but it was a one-time requirement, not every month.  At that point, the manager pulled me into her office and we had a nice chat.  Right or wrong, the training managers had received was that failure to send out this notice - with all of this month's billing amounts on it - every month would slow the ejection process down and they were told to do it.

I pointed out to the crowd scene in the reception area, which was filling up quickly as people came home from work, and suggested that putting ,044 [1200 unit property at 97% occupancy] notices on every door, just to catch the view habitual non-payer was not very smart, and suggested she verify again with a real estate lawyer, and seek a more tenant friendly way of getting the point across.

 

One more ridiculously hot summery day, then we are supposed to return to more April-like conditions.  One more day of work and I am off until Monday the 17th.

And so this evening will be spent winding down.