Not your average Joe

Recently, Listmaker complained about his awful landlord. While at least we have heat in our apartment, our landlord is still pretty bad. Therefore, it is my turn to bitch!

My first indication that our landlord Joe was an idiot came shortly after Hurricane Katrina. This was shortly after I had moved into the apartment, and I was very excited that we finally had cable. The whole week following Hurricane Katrina we did not have cable, and I was upset to be missing live coverage of what was happening in New Orleans. When I had first moved in, Joe asked me to fax over a list of what needed to be fixed. He never gave me a time that he would come. On Saturday morning, while I was still in my pajamas, he knocked on the door. After tinkering around to fix the garbage disposal, he heard the CNN coverage of Hurricane Katrina. He said it was awful what was happening down there. Agreed. He blamed the government for their slow response. Agreed. Then he said that the government left all the "colored" people around there, and weren't doing anything. Uhh...ok? "Colored" people. Are we in 1950?

Okay, whatever, I can overlook that if he were not a complete asshole. My biggest problem that I have with him (apart from him not fixing anything that needed fixed when we got there) is the lack of a washer and dryer. When I first moved up here and was living in Worcester, I looked at about a dozen apartments before I found my current one. One of the major selling points was that this apartment had washers and dryers! Sure, they were coin-operated, but who cares? We soon signed the lease on the false information of working washers and dryers.

Upon first moving into the apartment, I soon realized (after wasting about $4 in quarters) that these washers and dryers did not work. I called Joe about it, and he acted surprised, and said he would call Sears about fixing them. After talking to the guy on the first floor, who had lived there for six months, he said that Joe had known about the broken machines for months, and had yet to do anything about it.

After a couple months of calling Joe about the washers and dryers, he stopped by unannounced when I was alone in the apartment, after stepping out of the shower. Answering the door in my towel, I find Joe smugly standing there, licking an ice-cream cone. He informs me that he is not going to bother to call Sears to fix the machines because winter was approaching, and the pipes would freeze. He then promised that he would bring us some quarters to use at local laundromats for the inconvenience. We have yet to see one quarter.

I now try to go as long as I can with out doing laundry, about once every two weeks. Let me tell you, it is a joy to lug the laundry down three flights of stairs, bring it to my car, and waste an hour and a half at the laundromat waiting for it. I would not be so annoyed if we had not taken the apartment partly based on it having a washer and dryer. But knowing that if Joe was not such a jerk, all we would have to do is walk down one flight of stairs, put the laundry in, and go back upstairs until it is done.

After washing my clothes at a local laundromat yesterday, I put them in the dryer. To my surprise, one quarter did not give me 8 minutes anymore, but instead only 6! I asked the lady there why they had raised the prices, and she said it was because gas prices were so high. One more reason to hate Joe.

Allie and I have decided that we probably want to move when our lease runs out in September. Partly because we want to be closer to better public transportation, and partly because of Joe. In the meantime, whenever I walk upstairs, the washer and dryer room is there, teasing me.