Sadly, I was Actually Awake and Working

Ms. Kathy texted me on Tuesday at 5:41 a.m. She wanted to let me know she forgot to mail the rent check, so she was putting it in the mail today. She would overnight it.

There are so many things wrong with the paragraph above. First is the obvious 5:41 a.m. This is not an hour of the day I want to hear bad news. For that matter, it isn't a time I want to hear any news. I no longer bother with explaining time zones to tenants, as I figure if they have something to tell me, it is better that they just get it out of the way. But in this case, what would another hour or three hurt?

Of course the major faux pas with her message was that the rent wasn't in the mail. What I really didn't understand and mumbled to my phone as I read her note again, was how she could "forget" to mail the rent check? After I have given her a million breaks and changed her rent-due date? Was she just so used to having me hound her month after month she wasn't able to remember on her own? At any rate, kudos to Ms. Kathy for being proactive and contacting me first.

The last problem with her text might be harder to comprehend. Though this doesn't seem to be that much of an issue anywhere else, the post offices in the greater Phoenix metropolitan area tend to be crowded with those desperate to receive mail via inept government employees. Therefore, the lines tend to be long. An hour long.

Additionally there is a very nasty postal employee who works there. She derives a thrill from arbitrarily sending people to the back of the line when they haven't done her bidding. (You know, it is really too bad Seinfeld went off the air. This would have made a great episode.) If the long lines weren't enough to make me beg Ms. Kathy not to overnight her check to me, this woman's sinister bureaucratic methods (causing me to sleep with the night light) is enough for me to be willing to wait a few extra days.

Figuring the back story might give Ms. Kathy waaaayyy too much ammo, I just texted her back, relaying a simple: "Just put it in the regular mail. I will get it in a couple of days."

What I see here are the classic Mr. Richards syndrome. That being, ask for an inch but take a mile. Then, to make nice, torture me by sending the rent overnight. Mr. Richards seemed to think it would resolve a lot of ills to pop the rent in the overnight mail. Instead it just annoyed me further. Mr. Richards finally was asked to leave--just because I wasn't up to dealing with his shenanigans any more.

Don't go there Ms. Kathy.