{"id":1152,"date":"2009-12-23T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2009-12-23T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=1152"},"modified":"2012-03-26T16:25:36","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T20:25:36","slug":"tick-tock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/23\/tick-tock\/","title":{"rendered":"TICK TOCK"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I sometimes get rent envelopes <\/strong><\/span>with flakes of floor varnish inside.\u00a0 Tenants also occasionally send dead bugs.\u00a0 Sometimes they send poems.\u00a0 The most common enclosure is a Post-It stating “the bank has screwed up my bank account again,” and that’s why there’s only half a month’s rent.<\/p>\n

One tenant sent me a padded mailer stamped FRAGILE.<\/p>\n

I held that package at arm’s length, pulled the ripcord, and thought about the Unabomber.<\/p>\n

Tick tock.\u00a0 There was a watch inside. \u00a0It was a chromatic watch; the face had C-C#-D-D# instead of numbers.<\/p>\n

The tenant wrote he really appreciated his apartment and said his dad owned the Chromatic Watch Company<\/a>.\u00a0 I could also get a watch with Circle of 4ths or Circle of 5ths if I wanted.<\/p>\n

I dropped off two Yiddishe Cup CDs<\/strong><\/span> at the tenant’s door as a thank-you.<\/p>\n

I used to give all the tenants gifts. It was a hassle and expensive.\u00a0 I gave everybody a box of Malley’s chocolates at Christmas.\u00a0 We would make sure the tenant was home; we didn’t just put the candy by the door; somebody might steal it.<\/p>\n

I gave up on it.\u00a0 The candy man routine was costing me about $1,000\/year.\u00a0 Very few people were thanking me.<\/p>\n

Also, I used to take the building managers to Miller’s Dining Room for dinner.\u00a0 Then Miller’s burned down.<\/p>\n

We tried an Italian place after that.<\/strong><\/span> It wasn’t the same.\u00a0 Miller’s was the <\/em>gentile response to Corky & Lenny’s deli.\u00a0 The seasoned waitresses at Miller’s circulated with huge platters of sticky buns, corn sticks and muffins.\u00a0 No pickles. My building managers — who were all older than me then — really like the small-town Ohio vibe. \u00a0The favorite main dish was chicken a la king.<\/p>\n

I would thank the managers on behalf of my family, including my dad, who was usually in Florida that time of year.<\/p>\n

Maybe I should do those dinners again.<\/p>\n

I probably won’t.\u00a0 Now I’m older than most of the managers. \u00a0The younger custodians like the cold cash.<\/p>\n

Miller’s was fun.\u00a0 The young people would have liked the sticky buns.
\n—-<\/span>
\n1 of 2 posts for 12\/23\/09.\u00a0 Please see the post below too.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I sometimes get rent envelopes with flakes of floor varnish inside.\u00a0 Tenants also occasionally send dead bugs.\u00a0 Sometimes they send poems.\u00a0 The most common enclosure is a Post-It stating “the bank has screwed up my bank account again,” and that’s why there’s only half a month’s rent. One tenant sent me a padded mailer stamped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landlord-biz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8563,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/8563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}