Water Totally-Out, then Back, Then Hot Water Goes out AGAIN!

This morning we were without any water at all.
Surprisingly, it wasn't due to Board or property manager incompetence!
It was a water-main break wodn the block, which the Municipal Water Management Department fixed within six hours!

Good luck was not to last, however.
This afternoon, while doing laundry, I discovered the hot water was out, again!

It's probably as simple as hitting the "reset" button on the hot water heater.
But, since only the Twit has a key to the Boiler Room, and he's not here...

I'm not that concerned about myself or the missus, we can go to the gym and shower there.
But there are at least three families in the complex with newborns or toddlers who need to be bathed and both dishes and clothes washed (in hot water) to maintain sanitation.
I fear for them.

Updates as they occur...
4:00 pm Twit is home, but the hot water is still off.
Either he's not going out for New Year's or he takes cold showers as a matter of course.

8:00pm Hot water is back on, finally.

Hot Water Out...Back Working...Then Goes Out Again!

We awoke at 6am to discover there was no hot water.
Since the Twit is the only one with a key to the Boiler Room, there was nothing we could do about restoring service.
(Plus, since he's probably used to taking cold showers, the Twit would be unaware that there is a problem.)
The hot water came back on around 11am.
However, when I tried to take a shower at 1pm, the hot water was non-functional again.
(It's been running for over 20 minutes now, and the water is still cold.)

It's probably as simple as hitting the "reset" button on the hot water heater.
But, since only the Twit has a key to the Boiler Room...

I'm not that concerned about myself or the missus, we can go to the gym and shower there.
But there are at least three families in the complex with newborns or toddlers who need to be bathed and both dishes and clothes washed (in hot water) to maintain sanitation.
I fear for them.

Updates as they occur...
Returned home at 7pm to find hot water back on.
Whether it stays on or not remains to be seen.

Assessment Bill Late AGAIN and Still NO Minutes!

The assessment bill arrived on Christmas Eve...without Board meeting minutes from either September or December!
(BTW, it was posted on December 22nd, two days after it was supposed to be here!
Another desperate attempt by the Twat to generate late fees by sending bills well within ten days of deadline.)
As to why there's no meeting minutes...either the Twit is totally-incapable of writing a couple of coherent paragraphs, or he's afraid to put anything on paper because he knows he'll be called out on any lies he presents.
It's certainly not due to lack of time on his hands, since he's apparently underemployed judging from the amount of times I see him here in the afternoon.

Property Manager and Board...Scrooge Cubed

Since the Board members and Property Manager are all apparently going to be alone during this holiday season, I thought we'd look at someone who reminds me of them...Ebenezer Scrooge, and how he was also alone at Christmastime.
Two of Board seem to have no significant other or any nearby relatives.
The third appears to have a son by a previous relationship, but no romantic involvement currently.
And the Property Manager had stated she'd be alone during the holidays, but didn't elaborate on how this came about.

As a group, they are very much like Scrooge, who also had no significant other.
But once he did!
One woman gave her heart to him...was engaged to him...and had her heart broken by him!
Her name was Belle!

She appears twice in A Christmas Carol, during Scrooge's journey with the Ghost of Christmas Past.
First, we see how the young Scrooge choose between his love of money and love of her.
Second, we see how, after the breakup, she married a good man and together they raised a loving family, giving Scrooge a look at what "might have been" had he chosen to remain with her!

Almost every adaptation shows the first incident, but omits the second scene (usually due to running time or page count constraints), thus many people have never known how Belle's life turned out after Scrooge left her!

Here's the section about Belle's post-Scrooge life from A Christmas Carol's Stave Two...
For again Scrooge saw himself.
He was older now; a man in the prime of life.
His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice.
There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.
He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
“It matters little,” she said, softly. “To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.”
“What Idol has displaced you?” he rejoined.
“A golden one.”
“This is the even-handed dealing of the world!” he said.
“There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!”
“You fear the world too much,” she answered, gently.
“All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?”
“What then?” he retorted. “Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you.”
She shook her head.
“Am I?”
“Our contract is an old one. 
It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. 
You are changed. 
When it was made, you were another man.”
“I was a boy,” he said impatiently.
“Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are,” she returned.
“I am.
That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two.
How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say.
It is enough that I have thought of it, and can release you.”
“Have I ever sought release?”
“In words. No. Never.”
“In what, then?”
“In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end.
In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight.
If this had never been between us,” said the girl, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; “tell me, would you seek me out and try to win me now? 
Ah, no!”
He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in spite of himself.
But he said with a struggle, “You think not.”
“I would gladly think otherwise if I could,” she answered, “Heaven knows! When I have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be.
But if you were free to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl—you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow?
I do; and I release you.
With a full heart, for the love of him you once were.”
He was about to speak; but with her head turned from him, she resumed.
“You may—the memory of what is past half makes me hope you will—have pain in this.
A very, very brief time, and you will dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an unprofitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke.
May you be happy in the life you have chosen!”
She left him, and they parted.
“Spirit!” said Scrooge, “show me no more!
Conduct me home. Why do you delight to torture me?”
“One shadow more!” exclaimed the Ghost.
“No more!” cried Scrooge.
“No more. I don’t wish to see it. Show me no more!”
But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and forced him to observe what happened next.
They were in another scene and place; a room, not very large or handsome, but full of comfort.
Near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely matron, sitting opposite her daughter.
The noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were more children there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count; and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not forty children conducting themselves like one, but every child was conducting itself like forty.
The consequences were uproarious beyond belief; but no one seemed to care; on the contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily, and enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most ruthlessly.
What would I not have given to be one of them!
Though I never could have been so rude, no, no! I wouldn’t for the wealth of all the world have crushed that braided hair, and torn it down; and for the precious little shoe, I wouldn’t have plucked it off, God bless my soul! to save my life.
As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold young brood, I couldn’t have done it; I should have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment, and never come straight again.
And yet I should have dearly liked, I own, to have touched her lips; to have questioned her, that she might have opened them; to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes, and never raised a blush; to have let loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake beyond price: in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been man enough to know its value.
But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered dress was borne towards it the centre of a flushed and boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who came home attended by a man laden with Christmas toys and presents.
Then the shouting and the struggling, and the onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter! The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection!
The shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every package was received!
The terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll’s frying-pan into his mouth, and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious turkey, glued on a wooden platter!
The immense relief of finding this a false alarm!
The joy, and gratitude, and ecstasy!
They are all indescribable alike.
It is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions got out of the parlour, and by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house; where they went to bed, and so subsided.
And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever, when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his own fireside; and when he thought that such another creature, quite as graceful and as full of promise, might have called him father, and been a spring-time in the haggard winter of his life, his sight grew very dim indeed.
“Belle,” said the husband, turning to his wife with a smile, “I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon.”
“Who was it?”
“Guess!”
“How can I? Tut, don’t I know?” she added in the same breath, laughing as he laughed. “Mr. Scrooge.”
“Mr. Scrooge it was.
I passed his office window; and as it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could scarcely help seeing him.
His partner lies upon the point of death, I hear; and there he sat alone.
Quite alone in the world, I do believe.”
“Spirit!” said Scrooge in a broken voice, “remove me from this place.”
“I told you these were shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost. 
“That they are what they are, do not blame me!”
“Remove me!” Scrooge exclaimed, “I cannot bear it!”
He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon him with a face, in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it had shown him, wrestled with it.
“Leave me! Take me back. Haunt me no longer!” 

Reminds me of the emotionally-barren lives of the Twit, the Twat, the Tart, and the Eunuch.
Is it too late for them to see the light and reform, much like Ebenezer did?
Probably...

Observations about the Board Meeting

Held, as usual, over a mile away from the condo, at a local library.
M and I were the only non-Board/property manager humans present.
The Board and property manager were limited in their vitriol due to being located in the main room of the library, instead of a side room.
The Twat complained about being abandoned by her family during the holidays.
(Does this mean her husband has left her for a woman?)
Because we were sitting behind the Twit and the Eunuch, we had a clear look at both of their rapidly-expanding bald spots.
Oddly, though the Eunuch is younger, his "moon roof" is bigger.
The Eunuch commented that the Twit is growing his hair longer (probably to do a comb-over of his "chrome dome").
The Tart sat mute through most of the meeting, looking depressed.

Interesting note: the condo's official Christmas bonus for the mailcarrier is only $10.
M and I give him a $20 gift card (the maximum under the law), so we again prove our moral superiority to the Board and property manager.
(No surprise there...)

M brought up the fact that the Board and property manager failed (as usual) to keep their word.
They had no intelligent response and mumbled something to the effect that "it'll be taken care of"
We'll see.

Though the matter was "tabled" at the last meeting, no mention was made of the security camera farce, so I think it's safe to assume that the matter is finally dead.

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To access, send an e-mail to claremontwhistleblower at gpantsmail.com, replace the "at" with "@" and take off "pants".
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Property Manager and Board Fail to Provide Timely Notice

Sometime between midnight and 6am today, a member of the Board crept in and posted a notice regarding a meeting tonight about adapting a new budget for the year 2013.
The mailed notice was over two months ago, and no update was received with last month's (late as usual) assessment billing.

This is in violation of the state's condo code, specifically...

(765 ILCS 605/18.5) (from Ch. 30, par. 318.5)
(c) Meetings and finances.
       (3) Each unit owner of a condominium subject to the authority of the board of the master association shall receive written notice mailed or delivered no less than 10 and no more than 30 days prior to any meeting of the board of the master association concerning the adoption of the proposed annual budget or any increase in the budget, or establishment of an assessment.

Plus...

Notice of meetings shall be mailed or delivered at least 48 hours prior thereto, unless a written waiver of such notice is signed by the persons entitled to notice before the meeting is convened.
Copies of notices of meetings of the board of the master association shall be posted in entranceways, elevators, or other conspicuous places in the condominium at least 48 hours prior to the meeting of the board of the master association.

Where there is no common entranceway for 7 or more units, the board of the master association may designate one or more locations in the proximity of these units where the notices of meetings shall be posted.

None of these clearly-stated rules was followed, legally-invalidating any decisions made at tonight's meeting.
But then, the property manager and Board tend to ignore such legal niceties when it doesn't suit their purposes!
In addition, we have yet to receive the minutes from the September meeting.
What is the Board hiding?
And why, during the  incredibly-busy holiday season, did the property manager and Board fail to provide timely notice?
It's like they didn't want unit owners to attend...

We have another function to be at tonight, but may cancel to be sure we cover (and record) the open part of the meeting as permitted by the state's Condo Code...

(765 ILCS 605/18.5)(from Ch. 30, par. 318.5)(c)(4)(C)
Any unit owner may record the proceedings at meetings required to be open by this Act by tape, film or other means; the board may prescribe reasonable rules and regulations to govern the right to make such recordings.

There's currently nothing in the condo declaration or rules/regulation prohibiting our doing so.
They may attempt to pass a new rule prohibiting recording, but it wouldn't take effect until the new rule/regulation is passed by majority vote and published/distributed to all unit owners.
If the Board or property manager attempt to strong-arm us, we'll call the police (the police station is only a block away from the off-site meeting location.) and file charges.

Addendum:
While there is a late notice in the lobby of '60, there is none in the lobby of '58!
It's as if they don't want the residents of '58 to attend...

Posted at our blog and distributed via hardcopy to subscribers and non-Board unit owners.