I have made several references to the absentee landlord of the property directly to the south of ours. On at least one occasion, I referred to him as Tick. His real name was Nick.
He was not a great landlord. His criterion seemed to be that he would rent to almost anyone. A couple of tenants were great (Dan and Andrew, I’m talking about you.) While some of the folks living there were okay, more than a few were problematic – see here, e.g. A handful of the tenants complained to my wife or me of the inadequacies of the dwelling place, not at all surprising.
Nick also scraped my wife’s car with his rusty truck. Even though my wife had TWO witnesses, he adamantly denied it. My wife dealt with the insurance companies (plural) for months.
His most egregious act that I was involved with, though, was the Wide River of manure that he poured out of his basement and onto our sidewalk.
I witnessed Nick being frequently verbally unpleasant to his wife. But we noticed that he had slowed down considerably over the past couple of years, and she was doing some of the tasks he used to do too infrequently, notably lawnmowing. Finally, they either hired someone or, more likely, got a relative to do it.
Huh
Then, on January 20, my wife told me she found out that Nick had died in late November! He was “surrounded by his loving family, ” according to the obit. I’m scratching around looking for a kind word to say. Alas, no. I feel for his family, who presumably loved him. Am I a terrible person?
I always thought he was a little bit afraid of me, the big black man, though I never did anything to intentionally intimidate him.
The next day (Jan 21), I hear this motorized noise. A guy in a pickup truck was cutting down the hedge in front of Nick’s property. It wasn’t your standard four- or five-foot growth. It was often taller than I am, spiraling wildly onto the sidewalk, narrowing one’s path. The monstrosity also looked ominous enough that someone with ill intent could hide behind it.
Pickup Truck Guy told me that Nick’s widow was told by the city of Albany that she had to get the item removed by February 15 or the city would do it and bill her.
I won’t miss the hedge.