at least i'm not bored

So, what's been going on...

A young woman knocked on the front door of the house as I walked past this morning; she was there to look at one of the open rooms (the room that formerly belonged to Crazy Lady L). I went and found D and L, and they led her off to look around.

I seriously doubt she's going to rent that room. D and L have done a great job cleaning up the devastation left behind by the evicted Crazy Lady L, but the bathroom next door stinks. It's reeked of urine for some time now, and at first, most people in the house thought it was because of S becoming incontinent as his brain cancer reached the endgame.

Well, S has passed on--may he rest in peace--and the urine stink both remains and has gotten stronger and more intense over the last few weeks.

In the meantime, D and L's son, M, arrived from Alabama and moved into S's old room (now cleared of all the stuff packed to the rafters--it turns out that S was a world-class pack rat).

I haven't used the basement bathroom for some time now. In fact, I actively avoid going anywhere near it. It's that bad, that wrong.

Anyway, M has figured out in short order that the urine stink comes from the Birdman going in there and pissing all over the toilet, leaving unflushed urine in the bowl to ferment, and probably other stuff that I don't even want to know about. All of this in addition to his habit of rinsing his parakeets' birdcage pans out in the shower.

The Birdman...God, I truly hate the guy...

He must be mentally ill. As long as L and S were in the house, the Birdman could fly under the radar, but people in the house are now catching on to his antics.

One way or another, we are going to get rid of this guy.

In a related development, D and L have been persistently upset over a note somebody left for them about how the bathrooms upstairs next to their room are always nicer and cleaner.

D and L clearly suspect I wrote the note, and whenever I hang out with them and they consume a few beers, they begin asking me questions and making non-sequitur statements apparently designed to trip me up and expose me as the note author. Their suspicion doesn't suprise me, considering I openly criticize the state of the bathroom downstairs and the fact that I routinely vote with my feet and use the bathrooms upstairs by their room (I am after all, allowed to use any bathroom in the house that I choose--they are all supposed to be accessible).

But, I didn't write the note.

And while hanging out last Friday night, they suddenly produced the infamous note and handed it around for examination.

It looked (and read) like it had been scrawled out by a 5-year-old.

All the same, it's a fact that the bathrooms on the top floor are nicer and cleaner. The rooms on that floor are more expensive, and the tenants (I suppose) more civilized in their habits. By the simple fact of proximity, D and L see those bathrooms more often and are inevitably more aware of their general cleanliness. (D refers to the basement as "the dungeon," and he has plainly stated that he avoids going down there, so am I expected to believe that he will have some objective awareness of the basement bathroom's state?)

It's simple logic here, people.

It's also a simple fact of my life that people routinely don't find me believable when I complain about something.

"No, he's exaggerating. He's making it up! It just can't be!"

Well, now that their own son is living down in the dungeon, I am suddenly a lot more credible.

M won't use the bathroom, either. He also routinely goes upstairs. My own behavior suddenly makes a lot more sense to everybody.

Hallelujah!

So, let's get rid of the Birdman, eh?

Caution is needed, though. The guy is weird.

I read an account of a "nightmare neighbor" in Chicago who would creep out and shit in the washing machines.

The situation could go wrong if we're not careful. I'd rather get rid of him without provoking an escalation in his behavior.

More later. Not everything is bad. Some things are very good right now, so stay tuned.

This just happens to be the stuff that is hot on my mind while the keyboard is under my fingers...