Tenants, free stuff and Calftown Garage Sales

WE HAD A tenant in our 505 Maine space for more than four months. It didn't work out. It's a long story, but let's just say paying your rent on time and communicating with the landlord are good ideas. Sheryl is tough but she's fair.

The tenant had until 5 p.m. Saturday to get all the stuff out. He was still there at 5 p.m. He didn't get everything out.

Beware!

So we helped him put a battered refrigerator and a huge plant on the sidewalk. He said he would try to get back for them, though we knew he wouldn't. We told him if they were still there on Sunday we would find a way to dispose of them. They were still there Sunday afternoon, so Sheryl drew up "free" signs. As we pulled up to the building this morning we anticipated seeing the old fridge and having to haul it off - hey Frank, can we borrow your dumpster?

Lo and behold, this morning both are gone.

We've done this before with stuff we don't need but not downtown. One time we had a chair at the Eighth and Washington store that Luckycat had soiled and we put it on the sidewalk. The next thing we knew, the Outside People had claimed it (yes, they do have homes) and it was sitting on their porch that afternoon.

The poor chair. We watched it deteriorate on their porch every time we drove past their house. And I use "house" liberally.

Anyway, free is free and if they haul it away, it's all good. We call these little exchanges Calftown Garage Sales. It's really not nice enough to give away to a Salvation Army, but we are too lazy to throw it away, and somebody could use it. You never know when you might need golf clubs or spare parts for the vacuum cleaner - they've gone into the alley behind our house and quickly were snatched up by some lucky scavenger.

So our space at 505 Maine is for rent again and there is no fridge or plant on the sidewalk. We even had a message on the answering machine this morning from someone interested in the space. All in all, our Monday is looking up.