Blind Tuesday
Tuesday, July 30th, 2024 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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77F and partly cloudy tonight.
Once again, no real information about the union negotiations today, but more rumors, and the rumors had a bit more detail to them.
The first rumor was that an email went out to the custodians instructing all of them to hand in their keys and badges tomorrow (Wednesday) at the end of their shifts, and to make sure all the bathrooms were stocked with paper towels and toilet paper.
This rumor was odd because it says this email was only sent to custodians, even though both maintenance, and groundskeeping are in the same union as the custodians.
And one version of the rumor said that it didn't go out to all the custodians.
So I'm not sure what to make of it.
The second rumor was that there will be meetings held on Thursday, August 1st, at 6:30AM, and 2:30 PM for everybody to vote on a second proposal from Geostaff... that will happen at Potawatomi, in room 101... and people are instructed to enter through entrance #1... presumably because nobody will have their keys or badges.
But again... that's just a rumor! No such email was posted on the board by the timeclock or anywhere else.
Okay, so Tom's reaction to Rumor 1, today, was that we need to cease all work on the pool.
It so happens that the pool was drained completely last week, as part of a scheduled maintenance that only happens every fourth year!
So not only is it empty, but the water filters are in the middle of being replaced, and we've got ladders and tools down in the pool, touching up the grout, and doing other work.
So it's nowhere near ready to refill.
And we're leaving it as is, because if we do strike... good luck dragging that out when you've got no pool!
Likewise, no paper towels or toilet paper have been ordered since early last May. There nothing in stock right now, and the bathrooms themselves have not been touched since the last day of school.
They're filthy, and they've only got the paper products that were left in them at the end of May.
Speculations about Rumor 1, are that... because the housekeeping staff vastly outnumbers the maintenance and ground staff, Geostaff thinks it's sufficient to only intimidate them... because without a majority of them voting no, there can't be a strike.
This, however doesn't account for the older rumor from last May, that the maintenance team will split off and strike separately, if the custodial team doesn't strike.
Other speculations are that we are already on strike, because we voted no, last Thursday... but that it just doesn't kick-in until this Thursday.
As for Rumor 2, about a vote on Thursday, I heard it only from one of the groundskeepers... though I didn't have the chance to talk to anybody else today, other than Tom.
I wrote down the information... 2:30PM, room 101... and I intend to be there...
But my goddam closing is supposed to be at 1PM on Thursday!
So if that runs over an hour, I could be late to such a vote!
So now we get into the supposed closing on Thursday!..
There hasn't been any change on that front, which would seem to be good news... but I still have this nagging feeling it's gonna go sideways!
I keep thinking back to my call with Mr. Taylor on Sunday, and basically, he's worried his partner here in Chicagoland is trying to double-cross him!
Worried enough to have hired an attorney to be there, to stop me from signing if it IS a double-cross.
And he was actually thinking of flying out here from California himself!
So how valuable is this house really, if this partner's paying lawyers to help him double-cross Offer Heroes LLC, to get it for himself?.. and it's worth it to Taylor to hire an attorney to prevent that, and even to fly out in person?
It's like they're fighting over the Arc of the Covenant or something!
So I am even more of the mind that... if Thursday comes and I find myself in the middle of a Mexican standoff, where both sides have guns drawn on one another... with the Lake lawyers saying, Sign the papers, Pat!.. It's the only way!.. and Jim & Taylor are like, Don't sign those papers, Pat! It's a trick!...
I'm gonna tell them all the deal is off and walk out!
Because, fuck you!.. this is my family's house, and all of our legacy furniture is still in there, and my cat still lives there, and that shed's still full of expensive shit, and it could take BMO until next spring to actually send the sheriff!
I needed 5K in JULY, to get through August, and if I'm gonna have to just suck it up for another month without that money then everybody can fuck off!.. because it means I didn't need that money to survive, and it would make way more sense to just find some other way to save the house!
I'm already out of there, so they can't throw me on the street!
My dog's already safe!
I mean, I feel like I'd just call BMO's loss mitigation and tell them immediately, Hey! Turns out that TODI is not valid, so I never owned that house, which means your lawyers need to ammend the foreclosure suit pretty drastically, and start going after my other five siblings, in addition to me!
And then I go to the five siblings and say... Hey! we're ALL gonna have a foreclosure on our records if you guys don't want to come together and figure out a way to save the fucking house for real!
And then I'd go to some bank and say, Hey! I need a loan for 80K to buy my parents house from BMO! It's in foreclosure, but it's owned jointly by me and my five siblings, so siblings X and Y are willing to cosign, and they're all on board with this, but we need this loan!
And then we get the lawn mowed, keep the utilities on, and I keep feeding Prowly every damn day until it's worked out!
And then I move back in, and it's NOT renovated!
It's just the same old house, and I put all the shit from storage back into it!
And then I pick up where I left off, and the monthly payment's not bad, because the loan is only for 80K!
I swear to God, that's what I'm gonna do, if there is ANY funny business on Thursday!
So... when I swung by the house today, Prowly was actually there!
He was in the music room and called to me as I came in the door.
I pet him in the hallway, and then he hopped up on the table as I gave him his moist food, and pet him some more.
I topped off his dry food too.
He looked more robust than back in June.
last spring, he seemed to be getting a bit skinny and gaunt.
So it was good to see that he's actually gained weight since I moved out!
I would hope that's a sign he's hunting down his own food out there, and only supplementing it now, with the cat food I leave for him at home... which he used to be pretty fickle about eating.
I couldn't stay long, but it was good to see and pet him again, and he also seemed satisfied with the brief reunion.
Of course, it was heartbreaking to think about, the rest of the day today, but that's also what's giving me the conviction to tell these idiots to go fuck themselves on Thursday, if it's anything other than a perfect, flawless closing!
Because there probably IS still time to figure out some other solution, that would cost me far LESS than trying to buy the house back after it's been flipped!.. and all our shit's been stolen or thrown away!
Later tonight, on the drive home, I once again spotted a shadowy cat on the parking near a stop sign... this time at Downer & Root Street... that kind of hopped up and ran under a bush, just as I came to a halt, in my car.
This is what the cat on Jackson & Benton did last week, on my drive home.
So... under the theory that Prowly's tracking me... then last week, from Jackson & Benton, he'd have seen me drive another block to Downer, before taking a left.
Root Street is just two very short blocks down from Jackson, on Downer, and effectively the same distance from Melody Manor as Benton & Jackson... as the cat prowls.
But from this vantage at Root Street, he'd be able to see me go straight... straight... straight... straight... downhill toward downtown.
It's worth noting, for this theory, that Prowly... who I trained to be very cognizant of cars... would understand that all cars stop at certain intersections.
Benton is the last stop on Jackson, before Downer... just as Root street is the first stop on Downer, after Jackson... on my nightly route home.
He has, however, been back to the house every single night since I moved out, to clean his plate, which means he's never roamed far enough that he couldn't get back to home base the same night.
Google Maps says the route I take from MM to AT, is 1.1 miles.
And I know that I can walk that in 20 minutes... roughly 3 miles per hour.
Prowly is likely conserving his energy in these uncertain times, and so will not be doing anything like the pace of 3MPH.
However, as the cat prowls, cutting through back yards and such, the distance from MM to AT is under a mile.
Not that he's traveled that whole distance yet, because he's still mapping it out, but it means that forays over to Benton & Jackson... or Downer & Root are well under a mile.
Assuming a stalking speed of 0.5MPH, he could get all the way to the tower and back home in four hours... or five if he's hunting and/or resting along the way.
That's kind of a long time to be off the reservation, but I'd imagine he's doing all this in discreet stages... making sure he's secured a safe path to this checkpoint and back first... and then from there to the next checkpoint.
But it does get more challenging in the final half mile, when it's all concrete and no grass.
He'd likely take longer to adapt to the more urban landscape as it gets closer to the river.
So if this game were to run indefinitely, then I think it'd still take him another month or two, to actually confront me downtown, outside the garage, or the tower.
It's still not known whether or not I'll be feeding him at MM, with the electricity and central air going, in two months... but it's possible!
I will do so, if this sale falls through, and the sheriff doesn't show.
And no matter what happens, I will still drive that same route home every night.
I know this is a far fetched theory, and that I'm probably just slowly going crazy due to the emotional torture of this whole crisis.
But it's not impossible!
And I've got nothing to lose by keeping an eye out, and being prepared for a possible confrontation downtown with Prowly.
The vest and leash are in a side pocket of my backpack now, and the trash door key's been marked with a bonnet band.
I still need some canned food in the backpack, and here in the flat, but his carrier and litterbox are at least in the car now.
He may come to visit me downtown here, of his own accord one day.
Or... He may just stalk me around here and wait for me to come home.
And maybe I will come home, one way or another!
One thing's for sure... thanks to the greed, ignorance, and ineptitude of humans... it's still impossible to SAY what will happen, right now!
I'm just glad I am only a mile from home, and that I haven't done anything stupid yet like kill the power, board up the cat doors, or leave the keys in a lock box and forget the place... and all the shit left inside it.
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