the end of the world as we know it
Well, yesterday was educational.
Three people volunteered, out of the blue, to meet me at noon and come help me pack up the apartment. How many showed up? None.
So much for NannyLula‘s desire to take one of my workshops, ever. If she showed up with Julian Assange hanging off one arm and Bono hanging off the other, covered in diamonds and waving fans of $10,000 bills, I’d turn her away. I was wrong about Nanny Lula: turns out I didn’t give her the time/place deets. All the above now applies to the others. As for the others, well, I’m sure the universe has something in store for them.
Tonight is the Big Meeting with the co-op board. They’ll want me to have $3000 and/or gotten my tax assessments up to date and correct for the last (I dunno, every time they mention dates they add years retroactively) five (currently) years. Given that the burglars took half my papers (thank GOD not the T4 for the work I did in Yellowknife) and I was stuck up in Penticton until a few days ago, and that since I got back I’ve been trying to pack up my apartment in case I get evicted effective tonight, that ain’t an option. Not in any universe governed by the laws of space and time.
Oh, and my very nice potential business partner insists on a meeting this afternoon. Like I’m gonna be any use at that.
Yesterday I did fifteen, count ’em, fifteen loads of laundry, since it doesn’t make sense to pack up dirty clothes. Today, the task is going to be bunging all of that into boxes since I don’t exactly have the time to curate my collection and will have to do a huge editing session wherever I end up.
Which brings me to Union Gospel Mission. A multi-service nonprofit on the Downtown Eastside, they have done great work and I’ve always been a big supporter, so when I realized I was going to be offloading a lot of things like my old bookcases, my hideabed, and some bedroom dressers, they were the first people I called. We organized a pickup time, and all seemed well. They’d even take the clothes that didn’t fit me anymore, provided they were in good condition. SUPER!
When I said three people bailed on me yesterday, what I meant was “three people and one multi-service nonprofit.” The driver emailed to say they were short-staffed and he didn’t want to put the volunteers to work helping him load my donation. That they are short staffed because they don’t have nice donated things in their shops to sell to raise the money to pay salaries seems not to have occurred to him. Seriously, after four or five days of emailing to organize this pickup, to bail on the afternoon before? UGH.
In any case, without a car, and with no working buzzer to let people in to pick things up, the donation scenario becomes complicated. Nigh impossible, particularly by the 31st. I may just toss it all out onto the sidewalk and watch the scavengers take it away.
In any case, I know by March 1 I’ll be in a better place one way or another, a place where the guy at the next table doesn’t pass out reeking of vodka at 10am) with or without my stuff (if the co-op decides to somehow hold it for ransom). There really isn’t any point holding on to my stuff, since I don’t have and am not likely to get $3000. And if they keep it, they have to store it somewhere more secure (Hello, break-in and flooding!) than the apartment anyway. Thank god I got the jewelry out when I did.
Wish me luck. And, if that doesn’t work, revenge.
raincoaster 
Raincoaster, sorry for the difficulties and the bails. If I were closer, I would be there to help. Bailing seems to be epidemic right now. My GF had a freebee intro workshop planned and 9 people had said they would be there, and only 1 showed up.
So, this is the “new” post 2012 world? Not too impressed so far. :)
My sympathies. I keep my friends according to who helps me move (six times between 89-99, which is why I’ve hunkered down in this centrally heated roachtrap for the last 13 years.) And a tip (though I’m sure you’re a seasoned pilgrim). Depending on where you’re going, how you get there, or where you’re storing stuff, boxes are highly overrated. I move with clothing, bedding, shoes, light odds and ends in double-bagged heavy duty trash bags. Make sure to put stick on labels on each so you know what’s what. It’s especially good for the leaving part of moving, since you can toss them down stairs. As for books, I put them in smallish stacks, say, two towers of 6-10 paperbacks eachs, double bag them in smallish trash bags, ,and double twine around them and knot it tight, so you can just use the twine like a handle. Yes, I’m insane, but it works. Someday I’ll share with you my suitcase packing technique for overseas flights which involve copious amounts of zip-lock bags, Good luck!!
It can only get better from here, right?
This sounds quite good to me. I have lots of trash bags!
Didn’t take long to get an apology from UGM.
You’ve got great intentions with the ‘donating to charity’ thing, but getting rid of it all has to be your priority… make a ‘free’ sign and toss the stuff to the curb.
Using garbage bags to move is the right idea… so is just getting rid of everything and buying new/used stuff later on. Unless your furniture is made up of family heirlooms and antiques, you can always find another dresser for $40 at Goodwill, or $75 at IKEA. Stuff is stuff, put some lighter fluid on it, spark it up and move on… except the books.
I’m probably a day late and a dollar short here, but you do seem to have some recourse to appeal the decision to a provincial agency:
https://tenants.bc.ca/main/?evictions
After the break in and flooding and rip off you have this to face – how freaking unfair! It sucks that this is happening to you.
Not that it’s any comfort but almost everyone I know is in financial distress and like you they have worked their butts off all of their lives. There is no work here and moving to the islands is a dead end unless you can create your own job or are independently wealthy. My 58 year old girlfriend just had to move into a studio apartment with here 72 year old mom. My contract jobs are only trickling in when previously they flowed. I’m busy only because I’m taking on any work I can dredge up and any dredged up work pays next to nothing.
It sucks that I cannot do anything to help. I don’t know what to do besides continuing to pray for you. :(
So sorry to hear all this Rain. :(
Just thought I would pass this on to you. They are hiring a programmer. Don’t know if you do that. The site itself might be of interest.
http://www.wwoof.ca/programmer-required
Always a free place to stay in a crunch. I hope things work out for you.
Gabriel, you’re right about the priority being getting rid of things. I still feel there’s a way…in the meantime, I’m putting things in the lobby with a big FREE sign on them. And my friend Alice has rounded up her brother, her step-dad, and a truck to help me give it all away when the time comes, ie when I finally get all the stuff off the bookcases.
It’s not a tenant issue, because it’s a co-op. CMHC rules. But in talking to my neighbor today I learned some very, very interesting things about CMHC rules and how they apply to our apartments. Also, turns out he wants my unit, and the mildew does not put him off. He’s a carpenter, and knows just what to do to fix it. He’s anxious to move because of the piano on the other side of his unit. So since he hasn’t started to pack, I think a March 1 handover date might suit everyone involved very, very well.
TT I know you would do what you could. And god knows, I know times are tough. I could make these problems go away if I had three thousand dollars, but I don’t, and all the people I used to be able to borrow that from have moved overseas in search of work or lost their six-figure jobs entirely and are scratching a living part-timing in retail.
Beadden, thank you. I’m no programmer, but I did apply at Automattic to be a story editor/writer. I’d have applied as a Happiness Engineer, but I’ve been stressed and crabby lately and I think i’ve told one too many people in the forum they need to pull their heads out their asses. If the hiring were up to Mark, I’d be in, I like to think. But Matt has a veto and he insists on his staff not being sarcastic. Imagine!