Another Vacancy

Monday August 12, 1991

We're awake at 7:20. We're naughty and have chocolate muffins for breakfast. We compensate by taking the dogs on a 70 minute walk, taking a new route, which pleases Frank. He likes seeing something new. We enjoy the walk and it feels good physically to both of us.

After lunch and laundry we head for the valley to check out Lemona house. It is worse than we expected and needs much cleaning and repair. It will not be ready to show this weekend after all. Change the ad.

We finish repairs at Gledhill, meet the dishwasher repairman and a possible tenant.

After dinner we head for North Hollywood to square dance with our friends. We go out to Baker's Square afterwards. We surprise ourselves and do pretty well at dancing after so long not dancing.

It was alot of work managing four rental houses, and you don't get sick time from being a landlord. There are still repairs to do, tenants to deal with, rent to collect, vacancies to take care of. After mom passed away, my brother Gary and I inherited 3 of the rental houses and sold them shortly thereafter. It takes someone with lots of time, patience and a variety of handyman skills to be a landlord. Even though we manage 15 rental houses in Sonoma County, it was just too difficult to manage these from 400 miles away and my brother was not interested in becoming a landlord.

I'm glad to see Mom and Frank went out walking. Hiking the regional parks where we live in Windsor is one of my favorite pasttimes. There is nothing as invigorating as enjoying God's creation and breathing fresh air.