It's all kinds of crazy over here...

First, we'll start with today. Or rather, it started last night...

An earthquake hit Japan. RR and I saw this on the news last night as we were finishing watching "The Mentalist". At that point they were talking about a possible tsunami warning for the west coast. RR went home. I went to bed.

At 2am (or somewhere in that neighborhood) Clown called to inform me that they had, indeed, issued a tsunami warning for the Oregon Coast. Um, thanks. Really. Thanks. But damn, did you have to call so early?

At around 4:30am the tsunami alarms started sounding. At 5am I finally gave up sleep and started packing to move to higher ground. After all, I'm less than a block from the ocean. I'm in the "surge zone"... time to go. So I rousted RR out of bed to help me move vehicles (because I have more than one) and get the pups and my stuff to relative safety (thank you Dizzy).

As far as I know, we're still under the tsunami warning... but so far, zilch. Which is just fine by me. I really don't want to find out just how crappy my renter's insurance really is. Bullet dodged.

So, now on to the crazy happenings yesterday and the day before...

On Sunday, while re-parking the truck (which was across from CPSL's house) I noticed that the For Rent sign was down and that there was a new car in the driveway. YAY!! Finally I can get my money back, right? Right.

So, on Monday I called CPSL. He didn't pick up (surprise). So I left a not-so-nice message mentioning that I saw he had a new tenant and when could I come and pick up my deposit? He didn't return my call.

I called again Wednesday and this time he did pick up. Again I asked when I could pick up my check. He said he was keeping my deposit because I left the place dirty (which I didn't and which I have pictures of, of course). I explained, not nicely, that if that was the case he had 31 days to notify me of what he was holding back and why and that since he had failed to do this I wanted my full deposit back ASAP. I also informed him that, by law, I was able to sue for twice the amount owed. And then I further informed him that I was aware that his rental was illegal and that if he pressed me to take it to court that I would sue for all the rent I had paid him up to $7,000. He got a tad pissy and hung up on me.

5 minutes later he called me back and told me that he was going to consult with someone and could I refrain from doing anything "drastic" until he called me in the morning. Fine.

The next day he called me to say that I was right about a lot more than he thought I was and that he would be dropping a check off to my work for the original deposit amount in the next 15 minutes and then he wanted to be done with it. Fine.

When he arrived to drop off the check he informed me not to use him as a reference. I burst out laughing. He stalked off in a huff. I took the check down to his bank and cashed it immediately...

That's right, folks. I finally got my deposit back. Success!!

And just in time to fix the back brakes on the bug...