Another snow day, sickness and a stove

Midland didn't call off, but everyone else did. In fact, there were so many that canceled school that they listed the districts that had school instead. For the record, they were Midland, Bullock Creek and Sanford. At least the wind chill isn't -20° anymore. But really, we shouldn't complain. The day that it was -20° it was supposed to be -40°.

Currently out my front door.

Marty is sick. He came home from work early on Wednesday, was feeling better yesterday but feels worse today. Of course, he is at work and will come home early only if he is dying. He is off tomorrow, so at least he can sleep.

"I have known dad for 16 years and I only remember him calling off of work because you were sick." - Christian

I finally got my new stove. I guess I shouldn't complain... it was only 3 weeks. It took him 6 months to fix the holes he put in the walls when the hot water tank upstairs leaked into my utility room. It took him 5 months to put in my garage door opener, 7 months to fix my kitchen cabinet and 3 months to get the birds out of my wall. Suddenly tree weeks doesn't seem so bad.

Long story short, my oven had rusted. There were 2 holes in the bottom and when we used it everything had a metallic taste. When he came to look at it he said it was food, because "porcelain doesn't rust." He also said that there is no such thing as a "metallic taste" and that his boss at corporate wouldn't let him replace it because it doesn't impede the use of the oven. I told him that I am not paying rent until I get a new one. I went to the office everyday and asked the new manager if the maintenance guy had heard from them (he hid when he saw me coming.) Finally last week she said that he was going to take one from another apartment and give it to me. She told him that was fine, because I didn't want a new one... just one that worked. He finally brought it over yesterday. It is a newer model and looks like it has never been used. And yes, I was very excited.

Was I a big fat meanie head? Maybe. But I am not going to have a repeat of Detroit. In Detroit, we lived in a house that didn't have working heat (You had to manually turn the furnace on and let it run until it was hot, then manually turn it off.) We told our landlord about it repeatedly, but he never fixed it. We were afraid of being kicked out, so we just learned to deal with it. Looking back - and after a long conversation with a woman at the Landlords and Tenants something or other in Lansing - we now know that he couldn't have kicked us out for asking for heat, but when you live 5 hours from family, you are a little paranoid. Now I know what my rights are.