The Life of a Slumlord

There are aspects of being a slumlord that are amusing and entertaining – unless YOU are the slumlord (or his wife). I think my husband had a brain fart the day he made the decision to delve into this life-changing career. Unfortunately, it’s the kind of “fart” that continues to stink long after the deed is done.

When we took over the 4-plexes I think Jim had grandiose ideas of turning them (and their tenants) into something better. The problem is – Jim has a heart and truly cares for people. But sometimes you can’t help people by “helping” them. There are people who don’t seem capable of bettering themselves. “Helping” becomes “enabling”. And there are people who can never appreciate help because they are too busy “taking” and they don’t understand or want to understand what it is to “give.”

I would like to think we have learned something from this chapter of our lives. But, as one can learn from events in the Bible, human beings are forgetful of the life-lessons they experience along the path toward eternity. In other words, we tend to let our egos get the best of us sometimes and we repeat the same mistakes over and over. Maybe if I chronicle some of the events of the past couple of years – put it here in black and white – where we can refer back to it… well, you know what I mean – maybe, just maybe, we can learn from our mistakes. This time. It’s worth a try anyway.

To be continued...