Excused from Lease.

I guess it's like the saying, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." Earlier this week I was emailing with my landlord about my continuing ant problem (or "infestation problem") as I like to call it for dramatic effect, and I suggested my rent be adjusted to disinclude the squarefootage in the "unlivable room". He replies telling me he is unwilling to adjust the rent; however, since I have had "more than my fair share of problems", he will let me out of the lease. I was in shock. I have heard such horror stories about people stuck in leases and paying $1,000+ just to get out, that this was certainly not something I expected. So now, three days later, I have secured a trusty, not-so-old apartment complex that I will readily move into in mid-September, not that I am counting the days (43). Yesterday I signed the paperwork and figured I could make it the short time until I was out of the treehouse without any real issues. Oh contraire...

Last night I got home around 8 o'clock and parked on the wider of the two cross-streets I live on since the other is taken over with bobcats, pipes, and other construction peraphanalia. Then as I'm leaving this morning, I find this:

To the left you will see my 6-week old car with the mirror knocked off. The red splotch is not a tomatoe or paintball as I have since been asked, it's blood... something I discovered after putting my thumb smack in the middle of it. So now, 2.5 hours later, I have finished my police report which was elavated from a "hit-and-run" to "criminal activity" since Officer Whoeveryouwere found five other cars along the street with similar damage. As he was writing down the info (still working under the hit-and-run classification), I pointed out that there are speckles of red (i.e. blood) all along the asphalt leading up to the car. He checked for himself and told me [Andy Griffith surprised voice] "well you're absolutely right!" And as I told the po, lucky for him I watch a lot of CSI.

So anyway, I am now blogging from the car place waiting not so much for my new mirror, but for the 43rd day to come. 

T.G.I.F. 

P.S. - And just for Pollyanna, I am grateful for my landlord for his willingness to let me out of the lease; for my accross-the-street-neigbor who drove around the neighborhood to find the other damaged cars and secured my mirror so it wouldn't scratch my car; for my boss and his understanding of my absence; and for my parents... well for too much to recount. :)