50K Down the Furnace

Africans. Ugh!

You know, I… hmm. I truly hate property Chi. It’s January 20th and, because of that damned property, there is no chance of reaching 50K by the end of 2014.

While talking to Hanna on Friday, she mentioned that, two hours after Gonzalez fixed the furnace on Thursday, it broke again. So I had to call him to come take a look at it. He called me while I was at the shipping depot and… and…

Gonzalez: Hey Roger. We tried to fix your furnace. The bearings on the furnace went bad and we tried to replace them, but they’re too rusted and rotted out. When the bearings go bad, they seize up and blow the fuse. The heat exchanger was also rusted out and cracked. The brass fitting of the bearings welded itself to the shaft on the blowing wheel. Getting parts at this point ain't an option. There were just too many problems and the furnace is too old. You’re gonna need a new furnace.

Me (pissed): And how much is the new furnace gonna cost?

Gonzalez: $2500.

I was devastated. In the middle of the first month of the year, I was already hit with a bill that would guarantee that I will not be reaching my goal of 50k for 2014. I stood there looking blindly into space. Then I had a thought.

Me: Let me ask you, is there any way that the bearings were damaged as a result of sabotage?

Gonzalez: No no. You can’t sabotage rusted bearings. All the current problems of the furnace are a result of age. No sabotage, man.

Shit. On top of the $600 to pay for the ducts, I then had to pay $2500 for a new furnace installation. I went over there Saturday morning to check out what happened, and Gonzalez’s worker showed me everything. This new expense also makes it nearly impossible for me to serve the Africans with 30 day notices this month, and maybe not February either. I simply can't afford it anymore. I was so angry. Blasted Rita. I should have never let her buy a property in Smalltown.

I talked with Brooklyn Mike who made some very good points. In the end, I realized that I can’t continue paying for Rita’s property anymore. I’m tired of her goals getting in the way of mine. This was the same woman who, when I couldn’t change my schedule to go to Nigeria the first time, she said, “Why don’t you just quit that damned job?” Quit my job so that I can go to Nigeria and be teased for 8 days? Really? So who’s gonna pay the $3100 for the new furnace? Rita? No, I didn’t think so. Thanks to that damned trip, by the way, my first two pay checks for the year was $75 and $123, instead of $655 and $750. Ugh! My father Roy has also been bothering me. He called me last week and said he needed me to come down to NYC to talk. I asked him what the problem was and he said that it’s something that needs to be talked about in person. When I pressed further, he said:

“I want to see you and talk to you now before things gets worse.”

How vague can one person be? Before what gets worse? The hell does that mean? Why can’t people be adults and just say what they want to say instead of making it into a big dramatic scene? He asked me to take a weekend off work so I can come down to see him. These people… I don’t know what to say. What kind of parents are these? Here’s a guy who worked a shitload of jobs and did what he had to do to make it. He knows how important it is to be dependable and make money at one's job. And yet he and Rita continue to bother me about taking time off to see them and placate their egos. They have both made it. So why get in my way when I’m trying to do the same?

One might say that they just want to spend time with their son, but I know better. We were never that kind of family. Everyone in my family, living in that apartment on Ocean Avenue, was more or less out for themselves. And now that they’re getting older they want us to be a TV family. It doesn’t work that way. I can’t be raised the way I was raised, and then be expected to act a different way. I don’t do that.  I… I spent a long time pretending to be the nice guy, but I can see that façade slowly crumbling. I can’t do this much longer, and I’m beginning to care less and less about what would happen to my psyche if I cut off communication with the pair of ‘em.

I haven’t made any final decisions yet, but I’m definitely not taking a weekend off to see Roy. Maybe I’ll go down there after work one day if I can get the right priced ticket, but that’s about it. If you can’t say what you need to say in 5 hours, tough. As for Rita and property Chi, I think it’s time for her to start thinking about handing it over to a property management company. Familial duty is important to me, but I refuse to be taken advantage of because of it. I don’t have the time or the money to take care of the issues at property Chi and, even if I did, I know it would mean nothing. My 50K dreams are gone and it wouldn't matter one bit to these guys. These... these parents of mine, don’t seem to care about anything except their legacies. And that’s all fine and good, but it cannot get in the way of my own legacy. I won’t let that happen.