Moving On

Ken will be in my thoughts and prayers, for sure, but - there is so much other stuff going on that I simly can't stop my life for this. I did stop it for a day's worth, for sure, and I hope the procedure is good, that he fully recovers and that he can go on with his life - he's only 48 years old.

As morbid as it might sound speaking about this so quickly, I have now another room that I will have to rent out - meaning shortly, all 3 rooms will be empty. Ken will not be recovering too quickly from this - I have read the stats about this kind of thing, you're lucky to recover enough to get out of a nursing home type of thing in 40 days. I can't hold his room for 40 days - the ONLY way that happens is if I can't FIND someone else to rent it.

I am not, of course, going to bring that up until they find out whether he's coming through this or not - what his prognosis is - in other words, time to deal with the shock of a family member going through such a traumatic, life-changing ordeal. I wouldn't want some landlord coming and bugging me right off the back, I do have compassion. He has a new computer in there and a few other items that are worth something - mostly his life revolved around going to work and playing an internet, pc-based game called Eve with a bunch of his friends. Just saying I'm sure they'll want to come get his stuff and store it somewhere.

At the same time, I am listing all 3 rooms up for rent. I can't "wait" until ANY of them move out - 2 of them are for-sure goners - they have to move on and I fully understand that. At the same time, prudence does not dictate waiting until they're gone to post the ads, it dictates to start right off and put up a future date - which is not that far off in the future - of a room that is available.

I am very thankful that this loan mod is going through and that I have a reprieve for paying the mortgage - the next payment isn't due until October 1st and that gives me ample time to get the rooms re-rented. I hope I can get them filled up quickly - certainly before the end of this month. I have no clue what the market is for tenants right now - I do know school is starting up and people are looking for places to live. There seems to always be people looking for rooms in this area because of the ample amounts of employers that are within a couple of miles of my home. A huge industrial park with hundreds of business is only a little over a mile away.

The tenant that is being transferred to Boston - Pete - also told me today he would pay me a full month's rent. I had called it even since he gave me $200 deposit, is leaving on the 15th I believe, and won't be here a full month, plus is giving me his queen size bed and the portable amoire for hanging up clothes. He is getting reimbursed by the insurance plan through his employer for the full month's rent, so I think that mighty big of him to offer such - I am not going to sit here and say I turned it down, I can't afford to. If he changes his mind, fine, well and good - if I get the check, very good indeed.

Ummm, I am being "forced" to start doing something with Facebook. Friends and family have added me as a friend, I decided today - after have Facebook save the day, literally in finding some family members of Ken's and being able to get the message to them about the aneurysm - that I might as well use my account there. My brother - of all people - added me as a friend a while back, I never did a thing about it or the other friend requests.

I'm done for now. I'm going to go outside and look at what it's going to take to cut that line and get the beginning of the drip system installed. IF I go through with it, wish me luck!
ben

Sunday/Ken

I guess I didn't write over here yesterday about the situation that took place here starting yesterday afternoon and going on into the night - I am realizing that I have readers both here and on KCL and that the 2 don't necessarily intermix. So, I apologize for my tardiness in getting anything written up - it was a hectic night last night to say the least.

Let's start out saying that Ken is a tenant living in one of the rooms in my house. He has been here for 4 or 5 months I guess. He hasn't really been one of the greatest tenants for multiple reasons, but, I have tolerated the stuff, though at least one of the current tenants doesn't like his methods and ways. I haven't been able to find a listing of "Perfect Tenants" anywhere, where I can pick and choose from a list. I have to post on Craigslist and hope I find someone at least halfway normal.

I would not, in looking at Ken's lifestyle, call his normal. He goes on excessive weekend binges of drinking masssive amounts of beer. A 30 pack of Budweiser will disappear in less than 24 hours. 2 weekends ago he drank an estimated 48 beers in about a day and a half. That's a lot of beer. He is obese - at least 100 pounds overweight. He eats stuff that most people would pass on in thinking of eating it every single day. Canned and boxed stuff; full of sodium: fat calories and much of it very high in cholesterol. He gets no exercise - he takes a taxi to work every day - work is all of 3 and a half miles away. He acquired a bicycle a while back, started riding it to work - didn't last very long.

Let's work this up. Several months ago, Ken was found in the main bathroom, unconscious. It did not last long - but it scared me enough to confront him on it and attempt to try and get him to go see a doctor. He would have nothing to do with it. Oh, I forgot, Ken smokes as well - he smokes a LOT. Double the whammy impact of all of that drinking (I am not JUDGING the man, I am only giving a descriptor of his lifestyle). I remember thinking at the time that I might be dealing with a dead man in my house.

We fast-forward to yesterday afternoon. I know Ken's routine on the weekend. Drink half the night, get up around 11:00 or noonish. Well, 1:30 in the afternoon came around - somewhere around that time anyway - and a phone call came in for Ken. Michael answered the phone, went into Ken's bedroom, came back out and told the caller that Ken is sleeping. I thought that curious - maybe he was just sleeping in. How do you determine what's normal and not normal for a person that drinks as heavily as this guy does? He could have drank ALL night long, went to bed later than normal and that's why he was still sleeping.

Well, around 4:30/5:00 pm, it dawned on me - I was lost in my own world of thought over various things going on in my life - that Ken hadn't been seen all day long. I knew for a fact that he hadn't been out here since 6:00 am or so because that's when I got out of bed. I asked Michael to go in there and take a peek and see if Ken was up - I can't just walk into tenant's rooms, it's basically against the law. The only thing that changes that is if there is an emergency - I had no idea yet whether that level existed yet or not. Well, Michael now offers that Ken had been laying half on and half off the bed when he had gone in there last. Now the alarms are going off, I went to the door, Michael opened it for me - I see Ken with his head on his bed and his body in a weird contortion - so much so that his legs were purple and his arm was also purple.

I immediately went in and started shaking him, calling his name, shaking him some more. I know that if someone has been REALLY drunk, it might take awhile to get them to stir and wake up. I got NOTHING from him - I only knew he was breathing but that's it. That's when I got on the phone and dialed 911. Medics came - they tried to revive him - I mean they REALLY shook him around, they got nothing out of him either. They were asking me all kinds of questions, including how long he had been like this - one of the medics was like: "You mean he's been like this all day long and you did nothing about it?". That got my ire - I didn't KNOW he had been like that all day long - if I had I would have called much sooner. I don't just go walking into tenant's bedrooms everyday asking them if they're okay, that's a little absurd. I got testy back with the man and he backed off.

They hauled him out of here and took him to the hospital. I have word that as of late last night, he was still unconscious.

I don't know anything else, but I am going to call his brother here pretty soon and find out if any information about him is available.

ben