Here vs. there

It’s now been three months since I left the warm, Mediterranean climate of Sonoma for the wintry cold of Montana, and it’s time to assess. Did I make the right move?

Absolutely. That’s the short answer, anyway. Just the fact that I’m now an adequate ice climber… Would I be if I stayed in Sonoma? Not bloody likely.

But there are a lot of things that I miss. A steady job with a steady paycheck is one. Although my job at the Sun was really starting to get to be job-like, and that’s part of the reason why I left, right now I’m just scraping things together. I guess it’s sort of a contradiction: right now I miss the security of knowing what’s next, even though that security really got boring for me after a while.

I’m also a bit jealous that the folks at the Sun are now dabbling in video for the website, which sounds exciting. I’d love to be part of something where anyone’s idea is worth trying out, which is what seems to be going on right now. It looks like a really cool scene.

And naturally I miss my friends over there, although I have a lot of friends here. It’s been great being in a house with three housemates, because working in the basement can get kind of lonely. I don’t know what I’d do without them sometimes. I miss the camaraderie of a workplace (although not the politics).

There are some things I don’t miss at all. Hot summers, dreary winters, and just way too many people and cars crammed into a place. Everybody driving everywhere for everything, and always in a rush. And I don’t miss the greed…, which is not to say greed doesn’t exist in Montana, but I got hit with it a few times upon leaving Sonoma.

The first was from Bill Hammett, publisher of the Sun, who refused to give me permission to reprint articles I had written as a Sun employee. Granted, the Sun owns intellectual rights to most of my work, but it’s a commonly accepted practice for publications to grant its writers permission to use their own work once they leave the company, free of charge. Hammett, whose background is not in newspapers and is unfamiliar with this practice, demanded some sort of compensation.

The second was from my former landlady, Debra Ritner of Glen Ellen, shorting me $300.96 on my apartment’s security deposit, despite Deirdre and me cleaning for a solid week prior to moving out.

Here’s the breakdown of what she took out, from the letter she sent me with the remainder of the deposit:

1) 2 plants for front planters and it need more soil.
Plants $11.69
Soil $4.62
(the charge for the plants was anticipated, though not the soil)

2) Living room mini blinds that were broken - size 58x46 from 3 Day blinds
$125.04
(the edges of three blinds were bent, which I don’t think was our doing originally)

3) Broken faucet in kitchen water leaked all over bottom cabinet floor
$39.61
(This one is the most egregious – blatant theft on her behalf. First of all, the faucet wasn’t broken when I moved out. Second of all, she’s the landlady – it’s her job to take of things like broken faucets, not mine. She had called to tell me that the faucet was broken before sending this letter, but she never said she was actually charging me for it.)

4) Re-clean carpet, some stains in bedroom but very large stains in living room, tried to re-clean so we didn’t have to charge you for replacement of L.R. carpet
$88
(Gee, thanks Debra, although the carpet was professionally steam-cleaned, as per the instructions in the lease, and the receipt was put on the counter for you to see. The stains you mention are in your head.)

5) Recleaned outside of refrigerator, kitchen walls had food and grease on it and kit fan recleaned, yard raked leafs, pine needles, trimmed bamboo, pulled weeds
2 hr. @$16/hr. =$32

In the end she writes “Best Wishes on your new home! You were both good tenants and paid us on time.”

Without having taken photographs it’s hard to show just how clean the apartment was, both inside and out, but some of the things on this list are crazy. Some, such as the blinds and the carpet stains, I’m convinced were not our doing, although I don’t have hard evidence. Some things are just natural wear and tear after living in a place for over two years. Suing her would probably end up costing more than I would ever get back.

It just disturbs me that someone would take advantage of me in this way. We gave her almost $24,000 in rent over 25 months ($950/month); we always paid on time, and never had any complaints from the neighbors. Why would she do this?