More Can't Fix Stupid

When children have parents that are airheads, one of two things happens.  Either the children become the responsible ones and begin looking out for the parents, or-as in this case-the children go through life completely clueless and they have absolutely no idea why so many strange things keep happening to them. 

I work with a property where there are 4 individual units in a building.  One of the units is occupied by a single mother with two children ages 10 and 15.  Early this spring, they were grilling outside, and being the conscientious residents that they are, the promptly took the grill into their garage once they were done so they didn't leave it out on the driveway which is against the rules.  Of course, it was still hot and it caused a small fire in the garage.  No serious damage done, but the neighbors began to get concerned.  I wrote them and their landlord each a letter to let them know this practice is not allowed.  OK, so here we are in November, and no more issues.  Until this weekend.

The mom left the two children home alone.  No big deal, they are old enough to stay home alone.  Unfortunately, they are apparently as airy as their mother.  They both decided to leave the home with the TV on, water spilling over the sink in the laundry room, and food cooking on the stove. Of course, they did, however, remember to lock the door behind them.  Yes, you guessed it, a couple of heroic homeowners broke the door down and put out the fire with a fire extinguisher.  They cleared the rest of the building and took care of the problem all before anyone residing in that unit came home.  Everyone feels fortunate to have had these observant homeowners living next door.  The damage to the unit is minimal and there is no damage to any of the other three units. 

There really is nothing to say about this one, except "you can't fix stupid."  Therefore, the other residents in the building are pushing to get the tenants evicted and I can't say I blame them. 

So That's Where That Went

Every fall, we sent out contractors to clean the gutters at the properties.  This prevents them from clogging and gets all the debris out of them.  This year, however, I got a report back from a 150 unit townhome association with some unusual findings.

Typically, there are leaves, birds' nests, and the random tennis balls and golf balls.  Even, the periodic child's toy will show up in a gutter.  However, the contractor at this association found some rather unusual items in addition to the regular things.  Found this year, were two remote controls from radio controlled cars, one garage door opener, and a playstation controller.  These were all found in different locations, not the same home. 

The suggestion from the contractor was that these items were thrown out the windows of the second floor and onto the roof of the first floor and no one bothered to  retrieve them, therefore they eventually made their way into the gutters. 

Doesn't it make you wonder what goes on in other people's homes that they would toss these items out the window, and wouldn't seem to care that they are gone?  The most bizzare thing to me, though, is that it didn't just happen to one home, it was 4 different homes.  It really makes me wonder...but that makes my head hurt.