We got a phone call Thursday night on the answerphone from the landlady. She said she just wanted to "touch base." We were just arriving from having dinner/watching the Ducks win a football game, so it was a bit too late to return her call.
Sweetie tried during the day on Friday, but was able only to leave her a message on HER voice mail. We caught up with each other Friday evening, around 8PM.
Landlady (whose name I do not use here...must find a nice moniker for her) reported that Effie had complained to her that we had written her legal name in chalk "all over the sidewalk." I have photos of the artwork with the hockey stick tape and the chalk. It's confined to about a 1.5 foot square, and it's down our walkway, just to the left of our porch, which is at the side of this duplex. Not in common public view, in other words.
Landlady also reported that Effie complained Sweetie had "yelled" at her through her open kitchen window Sunday night (10/2/11). Fact break! As recorded in an earlier post, Sweetie said only loudly enough so she could hear him, "Thanks for putting the garbage can back." Sweetie told Landlady how the exchange REALLY went. (Apparently, Effie didn't hear me wish her a good night with her legal first name.) Oh, and apparently she has no sense of time: it was Friday night, 9/30/11. (See earlier post!)
Upshot of the conversation: Landlady wants us to call and tell her as soon as possible after any exchange with Effie--and to tell her exactly what is said and how it's said. Effie is bullying these good people into thinking she's going to sue them. Landlady is also "fearful" that Effie wants to sue us for harrassment. Good luck with that. I don't see a felon with a drug crime on her record really wanting to do that, but okay. We'll report.
So, here are the antics of the weekend. We came home Friday night a bit later than usual, and, after Sweetie and the Landlady talked, we went out again. When we arrived home, Sweetie was driving my car--and we saw her van just pulling into "her" parking space on the street in front of the duplex. Sweetie and I did not want to listen to her snarky comments to us, so we chose to round the corner and give her time to haul in some bags of who-knows-what--shopping bags of some sort. How's this for harrassment? WE didn't want to go to our own home because she was there. We parked and went inside our unit after we saw her front door (fully visible from the street without being creepy) close.
Saturday afternoon, we heard Landlord (need a nice moniker for him, too--Mr. Landlady won't do) using a leaf blower on the little walkway that goes past our door and the famous rubbish bins. Later that afternoon, we called Landlady in answer to a later message she left Friday night, asking if she should go ahead and order more rubbish bins than the ordinary duplex gets so we wouldn't have to share recycling or yard debris bins with Effie. Sadly, that costs extra. I think Effie should have that added to her rent. But for her actions, we wouldn't feel bullied into having to order our own bins. Funny moment: Landlady apologized: the leaf blower had blown the hockey tape off the walkway. It was never really well stuck in the first place. It's mostly for show. I replaced it with more tape, more glitter, and this time I wrote in BLUE chalk, "Return Bin Here, (Effie's initials), thanks."
Saturday night we went to another hockey game. Came back around 10:30. Effie wasn't home when we arrived--or rather her VAN wasn't parked out front. I heard some sounds through our bedroom wall around 11:30, including some music. The music ended before 1AM. It wasn't loud enough that I could identify the tune or even the genre, but it was loud enough to hear over the telly. And this is the same common wall we shared previously with a young family's toddlers. Their screaming child was barely audible some nights. (He had nightmares, poor kid.)
Sunday went by without incident. We went to an earlier hockey game and came home from that and the grocery store around 9PM. The latest tape and chalk message were still out there.
Tonight, we got home around 7PM. Some of the tape was still there, so we thought maybe the rain had just interfered with the bit that was out of place. But then Sweetie noticed the bin was placed backward from the way we usually keep it for our convenience. Just out of spite, I guess. I took photos. And I moved the bin. Dry underneath...no chalk, no glitter. Got lots.
I've considered green and purple for the next message, but I'm waiting. Among the interesting things Landlady said in her Friday chat with Sweetie was that if Effie fails to return the bin to its proper place three times, she will consider that grounds for eviction. So why should I make it any easier for Effie not to perform her little passive-aggressive dance with the bin, eh?
I'm so glad I've been taking photographs. I could take recordings of our little exchanges, but unless a felony is being committed, I have to inform her. No fun in that.
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
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