Two different things altogether.

I was going to gripe a little about Travelling Companion having to work until well after ten last night,  but it’s first of all pointless,  and secondly,  at least we can have the soup I made for last night’s meal this evening.   If she comes home that is.

And that’s all I’ll say about that.  We won’t get into the 99% or 1% or who is working or who isn’t.

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I fired off a note this morning to the Landlords,  since we’re missing one tiny little piece of the puzzle when it comes to picking up our Residence Permits on Friday morning.   For whatever reason that is only known to the administrators of the immigration end of things here in Absurdistan,  we need to have some sort of proof that we indeed pay rent here in their fine upstanding country.

Now,  I’ll let you ponder that for just a moment.  

If you’re being paid to be here by some company or other,  which also involves them going to a certain amount of expense to keep you here,  what would then make you think that we’re somehow living in a cardboard box under a bridge?   Hm?   I just don’t understand that part of the puzzle.

I seem to recall some similar silliness when we were first getting established in Horseheads,  New York all those years ago.  We couldn’t open an account at the Chemung Canal Trust Company until we had an address,  and we couldn’t get an address until we had an account.

Ever read "Catch-22"?

It was at that point that Travelling Companion inadvertently had to drop a name,  since it just so happened that the Company that Cannot be Named has (still) a rather large presence in that town.   That worked.  We came back in after we had found a place and gave them our new address.   Gee,  that was difficult.

The supposed big paradigm shift this time around is,  there’s a company that is supposed to handle these types of things for us.  The only slight wrinkle is,  they’re located in Texas.   I don’t want to get in trouble here as to the logic of having some company in Texas appointed to look after all the requirements one might have when living HALF A WORLD AWAY,  but Texas?   Seriously.  

So apart from the fact that they’re in Texas (and I KNOW they have an office in the UK,  so that’s another mystery)  they think that every Ex-Pat is an American.  God love ‘em.    Sorry there folks.  

What is a W-2 anyway?  

It’s a rhetorical question.  I KNOW what a “W-2 is,  but I don’t need one.  I’m Canadian.  Hello!  That would be like me asking my neighbour in Burlington, Ontario if he contributed to his “401-K”?  He’d rightfully look at me like I’m from another planet.  And yes,  I know what that is too,  but I don’t have one.  Got me two or three different RRSPs though…

*sigh*

I’ll only go so far as to say that,  once in a while they just don’t “get it”.  And that’s all I’ll dare say.  There are a bunch of other words I could put in there,  but I’ll just get off on a rant,  and there’s no telling where that’ll end up.   I can feel my heart rate increasing as I write this.   So I’d better stop.

 

All part of the “experience”.    Oh goodie.

 

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Anyway,  I had other things I was going to mention today and I’ve drifted off into a little bit of a gripe fest.

 

I couldn’t help but notice this morning as I was out and back for my daily constitutional,  that someone was cleaning out one of the storage lockers in the basement. 

At least that’s what I gather.

I mean,  there’s “junk”,  and then there’s stuff that makes you say,  “What the hell?”   Or even,  “What IS that?”

I cleaned out what I would have considered “junk” before we moved to Europe in 08,  but it was no where near as nasty as some of this stuff. 

 

 

I’m not sure where a person would be cutting grass in this neighbourhood,  with the exception of one of the rooftops next door?  In the case of that machine,  the question might be more like,  “When?”

It was all getting loaded onto a truck and carted away.  My guess is it was a junk removal company?  Had to be.

 

 

So then when I came back a little later,  and there was a cop in the building,  I wasn’t quite sure what the heck was going on.   I thought it had to do with these junk removal guys,  but he was there with one of his associates with another couple of official looking Dudes.   It turns out it had something to do with one particular tenant that well,  has been giving everyone a bit of “cause for concern”?   According to one of the “boys” who was just about to open the restaurant downstairs,  they were in breach of their agreement,  and were going to be getting served some papers of some sort. 

 

I KNEW that they had a second place about a half a block away,  so I just thought I’d extend my little walk a tad,  and see what was what.   So nosey.

And sure enough,  there they were:

 

No sign of the Mexico people,  and I’m not even sure there was anyone there. 

I had to be a little bit surreptitious,  since I’m reasonably certain that the cops aren’t too keen on some dipshit like yours truly taking their pictures when they’re “on the job”,  so to speak?

 

Apparently the whole thing had to do with the one place (in the basement of our building) being designated as some sort of “Club”,  when in fact they were running a catering establishment from there, (with the accompanying nasty smells) and the other place down the street supposedly being the proper site for such an endeavour,  but they were using it as a part time residence.  

Or something.    

Hey,  on a good day,  my German is only about 95%,  so I’m a little sketchy on some of the details.

 

But,  like Rosanna Danna would say,  “It’s always something.”

 

Tomorrow morning we’ll be having a little visit.   I’ll fill you in on that one when the time comes.

 

Keep those sticks on the ice.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

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