Kids are finally in bed

I finally got the kids in bed! N had a Cub Scout pack meeting tonight. We usually all go to pack meetings, but J and K took a nap this afternoon and woke up shortly before the time for the meeting. J didn't feel up to going, and she was eating dinner when it was time to go anyway.

Last night N had a Cub Scout den meeting. Usually they don't fall in the same week. They used hand tools and put together little wooden tool boxes from a kit. Mr. K took him. J, K and I went to J's school for a Girl Scout recruitment meeting. J is now on a waiting list for a Daisy troop in the area to have an opening. Apparently there are long lists of girls waiting for openings in a troop because there aren't enough leaders. I was a Girl Scout leader when I finished college and lived (unmarried) in New York and Michigan. Now I don't have time or ability to be a leader since I don't have anyone who can watch the kids while I do the training and meetings. Also, I am not free to go on camping trips or stuff like that anymore. Perhaps N can be the babysitter when K is old enough to be a Daisy, but he's still too young now.

N has a birthday party to attend tomorrow afternoon at an arcade near here. I don't even know who the kid is who invited him, but I'll just have to drop him off because I'll have J and K to watch, and they can't crash this kid's party. Mr. K has to go to our first rental house (the one with tenants who actually pay the rent) and fix the rotted bathroom floor. Apparently when the plumber tried to put on a new toilet today, he couldn't because the floor was so rotted. My guess is there's been a water leak for quite a while. We called a plumber because the toilet was running and the cold water in the tub was not shutting off completely. I'm wondering how long these problems have been going on because I've noticed the water bills gradually increasing from $144 per month to now $180 per month. I hope when we get the problems solved, it will make a noticeable dent in the water bills.

With respect to the rental it took us forever to fill and also the one we bought in mid-October, we received no rent for November. Mr. K sent the "Pay or Quits." We still go no money in the five days allowed. Mr. K went to the court Thursday and began the eviction process. His court date is December 6. The amazing thing is that neither tenant even called us to try to explain where their rent was and why we shouldn't evict them. If they don't bother to show up at court on December 6, and Mr. K does, he will immediately get something like a "writ of possession" which he takes to the sheriff and schedules a time for the eviction. Usually it takes a couple weeks or so to get an appointment with the sheriff. The sheriff will hang around while Mr. K and whomever he brings take all the tenant's belongings out of the house and put them in the front yard (in the case of the place that took us forever to rent, there is no yard so the stuff will go on the sidewalk). The tenant has 24 hours to claim her things (if no one steals them, and Mr. K had a doormat stolen from that place), and then they belong to Mr. K, which means he needs to clean them up immediately. If he sells them, any money made has to go to what the tenant owes him. If he just dumps the stuff (likely after it's picked over by the thieving neighborhood), he owes the tenant nothing for it. Probably if anything is worth a darn, he'll donate it to charity since we don't have an easy way to sell someone's junk. I suppose we could try a pawn shop.

Hopefully the people will move out on their own, and there will be nothing left when the sheriff shows up. Unfortunately, the evictions could end up at Christmas, so we will look like the Grinch, even though our having to make the mortgage payments (and the utilities in the case of the lady at the place that took us forever to rent who neglected to put the gas/water/sewer/trash bill in her name) with no rental income to cover it right at Christmas, along with the expense of an eviction right while we are trying to afford Christmas. But, yes, we still have a place to live, and those people won't.

We haven't received a dime at the place that was so hard to rent other than the money she gave Mr. K to sign the lease. I don't personally see the difference between that and shoplifting at a store, but our government considers the first a civil matter and the second criminal. Personally, I consider it theft.