Fire Department's Visit

Things are moving along! This is good!

We now have cameras in the building. I have heard the odd moan that now there is no privacy. To that I have to say, "Who in their right mind expects to find privacy in a public hall?"

For those of us that just want a modicum of security, this is good news. For those of us that are fed up to the ying yang with false fire alarms, this is good news. Those of us who go to bed to sleep and not to hear drug addicts and pushers banging in and out of the fire doors, this is good news. The hope is that this will either discourage this nerve wracking behaviour or that it will identify the dudes and/or dudesses of this nerve wracking behaviour. If you can identify the culprits, catch them in the act, you can stop the noise and destruction.

That is the good news about the cameras. The bad news is that they are not all properly calibrated yet. So Housing would ask any tenant who sees or hears anything that has to do with the problem behaviours , to take note of the time. This will enable the police to find the clip faster. Fast retrieval of the clip makes it faster and easier to I.D. the bad dude and arrest him/her.

Most of us who use Door #4 know that the Intercoms do not all work at this door. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Marion Dunning has told me that they are to be fixed. Tonight I found out that all the panels at all the doors are to be replaced. That is the good news. The not so great news is that the panels have to be brought in from Montreal so it will be a few days. Either Marion or myself or both of us will let you know when they are up and working. Of course, if you watch the closed circuit TV channel, you might just get to see the work being done from your easy chair.

Tonight was the night the Fire Department came to talk to us about Fire Prevention. Mr. Daigle from the Fire Department had some interesting things to say. One of them was that, due to the materials and method used to build this building, this is the best type of building to live in should there be a fire. Each apartment is safe in all except very extreme cases, from spreading fire. What that means is that if a fire happens in another apartment, your best bet is to close your doors and sit it out. It cannot spread to other apartments on its own. This is especially good for the physically disabled who may have difficulty getting out of the building, particularly if they live on a floor other than the ground floor.

One of the things that was discussed was the alarm checks we went through last month. The checking of the alarms is law and must be done. This year however, we had to sit through hours of ringing alarms. I don't know about you, but I was a total wreck after a day of that. Well I found out a few things about it. You can all stop blaming the Fire Department for that one. It is an independent company that does the checks. Since no one has ever had to sit through hours of alarms in past years, it seems that either the checkers were not well trained or were cutting corners or some such thing. Florence and Shaun from Ottawa Housing assured us that they would look into this and get back to us. I think maybe next year when the checks are carried out, we will not get the same treatment. Watch this blog to see what Housing's check on the checkers produces. :o)

Housing will be sending along some info on Neighbourhood Watch. In view of the things that go on around here, this might be a good thing for us to think of getting involved with. The rules have changed since Neighbourhood Watch talked to us last year. At that time, they wanted 50% of the tenants to be involved. That turned out to be unrealistic for us so it died on the drawing table. Apparently, this year, the rules are more realistic for us. When we get the lowdown on this, we will share it with all the tenants. Might be a way to make a difference around here. No one should have to live in fear, so give it some thought.

This country along with the rest of the free world is in a recession to one degree or another. Recessions mean that money is hard to get. Ottawa Housing has a lot of responsibilities - just read your lease. I could be wrong but I don't think I am. We can continue to accept the destruction of our building by a bunch of selfish, thoughtless punks who spend most of their time high on drugs, or we can help weed the bad guys out. We can decide to stop doing the little things that end up costing money. The lease says that Housing is responsible for keeping the halls clean and repaired. Our end of that responsibility is not to add to the mess or the destruction. The carpets look like they are ancient already but they are relatively new carpets. The walls look like they have not been painted in decades - they are covered with foot prints, writing, patch marks where the Maintenance Crews have filled in holes kicked or punched into them. The ceilings are full of holes - the ceilings for crying out loud.

Every one of us had a Mother or Father or siblings, maybe teachers - someone - who wanted more for the little babies we were way back when than life in a ghetto which is what 2100 is turning into. We are big enough and smart enough to do that for ourselves now - well that's what I keep telling people anyway. How about we make a deal with ourselves to try to keep 2100 from continuing on it's downward spiral. How about we try working to get it back up to where it was just a few short years ago. That does not mean you have to go out and scrub floors or paint walls. It means you don't toss your garbage on the floor. You don't punch holes in walls. You get off your duff and carry your garbage out to the garbage bin if it is large or the garbage rooms if it fits down the shoot. Call it getting a little exercise, if you need an excuse.

I have met the new CEO, JoAnne Poirier. I know she is willing to help but she is not our nursemaid. Tenants here in the building have to put a bit of effort into this place too.
So how about it? Are you going to be part of the solution? Because if you are not willing to put even a tiny bit of effort into this place, then you are part of the problem.

Business 101

Good Morning, Class!
Welcome to Business 101

One of the first things that is needed by both the employer, employee and the client in any business is good communications.

Back when Canada was a far off colony, before planes or phones or computers, a message would be issued in London, England, put on a ship where it sat for the weeks that it took to traverse the ocean. When the ship landed in Quebec City or Montreal, the message would be entrusted to a fleet footed messenger who would run and paddle his way to the recipient with it. Today, that same message would arrive in seconds via computer. And today, the leader is no longer in London, England. For most companies, the leader is right here in this neighbourhood.

So why, you might ask, does it still take days, weeks and sometimes, months to get anything done? To study this problem, class, we will look at Ottawa Housing Corporation and it's clients. Let us start with the clients, also referred to as tenants.

The problem that needs addressing, for the sake of this lesson, is secondary. How to handle it is what is important today. Let us say, for expediency's sake, that it is a rent problem. Here is how it is handled by most tenants right now.

We open a letter from Housing that says we did not pay our rent and they are going to evict us if we do not pay up right away.

We get mad because that is an automatic transfer every month. We mutter to ourselves. We curse Ottawa Housing out using every nasty word we know in the privacy of our own little apartment.

We head out to the garden where our friends are. Once there we moan and gripe about Ottawa Housing to our friends. They agree and add their own selection of curse words. When some idiot asks if we have called Ottawa Housing to correct the situation, we toss our hands in the air and say, "They know I paid. They are just trying to screw me out of more money." We repeat this little exercise in the Courtyard and then in the foyer at door #2 and again at the mail boxes at door #3.

When we get home we think maybe that idiot had a point so we call Ottawa Housing.

And we get voice mail. Well, we get voice mail after listening to a recording about all sorts of things that have nothing to do with our immediate problem. We leave a message telling them what we think of them. And then we wait, and wait and wait for an answer.

Now let's look at Ottawa Housing. We get back from lunch - the law says we are entitled to a lunch break. We mess with papers on our desk and comment to the gal beside us about that woman we saw on our way in with the dirty faced kids who are undisciplined and running all over the place - they have a law - the kids I mean - that says you cannot make them do anything and if you try they will see you in court. You do a little work and then it is coffee break - the law says you are entitled. On your way out, you remind yourself to try to get to the voice mail.

Coming back, you check out the clock - Good! Another hour and a half and you can get out of this dump. Oh, Yeah! The voice mail. Hmmmm. A complaint from Joe Blow at 2100 Russell Road. Jane must have sent him out a notice without checking. Oh well! These things happen and that is not a good reason for Joe Blow to call me dirty names. Gee! It is time to go home! Night all!

The two main ingredients - pride and communications - are missing from both sides.

Joe would have been better off to have called the bank and made sure that his rent had indeed been sent out to Housing. Once he knows for sure then he can talk to Housing from a positive position. Knowing the facts is a form of power in a case like this.

It is doubtful that Housing will put rules on the voice mail though a real person answering has proven to be a huge plus for many businesses that have chosen to take this route. But back to Joe. A better message for him to have left would have been, "Hello, This is Joe Blow from Apt 001 at 2100 Russell Road. I am in receipt of your letter of (fill in date) which says my rent is not paid. Please check your books - the bank informs me that this money was transferred to you on the 1st. Please let me know at 555-1234."

For Ottawa Housing, voice mail is not a thing that should be put off. Ignoring it makes small problems grow into big problems. Check it first thing in the morning and then several times a day if you use it a lot. And answer your messages. Solving problems is a part of your job. Have some pride in what you do. Do your job! A short call saying that you have his message and are looking into the problem will let Joe stop his frothing at the bit. Then either solve his problem yourself or delegate it to an underling. A fast look at the accounts should, if they are done correctly,

a) prove to you that his rent is indeed paid or
b) has been mis-allocated which is easily fixed. So fix it!

Then call him back and tell him that you have fixed it. That is just common courtesy. Lucky you! Joe has a computer so you can email him the same message. If he didn't have a computer, good business practice says you write him a letter saying the same thing. Leaving tracks of your work is good!

There is enough stress in this world that you do not need to create more. Doing these relatively simple tasks lessens stress for both the office staff and the tenant. Now Joe can go out to the garden and tell his buddies, " Gee! I just got this horrid letter from Housing. But I called that gal at Housing and she straightened it out right away. What a swell gal!"

And for the tenants it sure beats tossing your arms in the air and making failure a sure thing.

And as a hard working employee, this sure beats going home angry because some tenant called you a name. And it absolutely looks good on your work record that you do your job and do it well.

Summing Up!

If you are a tenant

• Call with your problems. They do not know what they are if you do not tell them. Osmosis works well for plant life - it is not very useful for humans.
  
• Keep your conversation civil. No one is impressed with your vocabulary when it is limited to four letter words and cursing.
• If you have trouble saying what you want to say, find yourself an advocate - a general advocate, not a lawyer. An advocate is simply someone who will speak for you. Options Bytown is usually willing to be your advocate. But anyone who can take your problem, whittle the anger and misconceptions etc. out of it and present it civilly works.
• Be persistent. That does not mean call them every five minutes. But it does mean that if they do not respond in a reasonable amount of time, remind them that you are waiting for an answer.

If you work at Ottawa Housing

• Answer your voice mail. Some you can solve immediately, others will take some work. Let the caller know which this is and how long you expect it will take to solve.
• If it is a huge problem, it would not hurt to call somewhere along the line just to let the caller know you are in fact working on it and that you have not forgotten them.
• When it is solved, call and tell them.

Here at 2100 we presently have a problem with the Intercoms at door #4. I know that Marion Dunning knows about this - we have emailed each other about it. But perhaps the guy on the 5th floor does not know she knows. He calls and leaves a voice mail. It takes a minute or two to call him back and tell him the problem is being looked after. Better yet, a notice on the bulletin board and near the elevator at door#4 will let everyone know the problem is being worked on and doing so will cut down on the repetitive voice mails. The tenant does not, because the Intercom is not working, miss seeing a relative that has come here all the way from Timbuktu - he will have been able to make other arrangements for his meeting with them. Everybody is happy and the cost is two sheets of paper and a phone call. Got to wait for a supplier in Montreal? Two more sheets of paper saying it cannot be fixed for three days or whatever. So maybe we are not happy but we can accept that. If you do not tell us, a lot of us are annoyed and some are downright mad.

You have a problem with poor people who live in Housing? Well either adjust your attitude or get another job because you do not belong here. I grant you that there are some here who are abusing the system but it is not a good idea to judge all by a few. Most are here out of a need they had not planned. You could end up here. One never knows what is in the future. A change in the structure at Housing, a change in the economy of the country, a change in the state of your health (e.g. Cancer does not discriminate). Would You want to be treated the way you are treating the tenants under your care? If the answer is 'no', than change your attitude.

Working together is so much easier that working against each other. This is one of those situations just begging to have us work together!

To Correct an Error of Fact

I offer my sincerest apologies for the misinformation noted below in the post entitled Courting Disaster.

On February 16, 2009 I wrote a post about the false alarms that are driving us a tad crazy at 2100 Russell Road. One of my big complaints was the about the fine. I said $80.00. I based that on a letter I had received from the Police. I misinterpreted the information in the letter. Mr. Adami from The Citizen wrote me and pointed out that pulling false alarms is covered by the Criminal Code of Canada and, if caught, the culprit gets a good deal more than an $80.00 fine.

So I did what I should have done in the first place. I researched it. and Mr. Adami is so right!
Pulling a false alarm is considered Mischief under the Criminal Code. Mischief is addressed in Section 430.

Specifically, false fire alarms is addressed under Section 437 and is copied here:

PART XI: WILFUL AND FORBIDDEN ACTS IN RESPECT OF CERTAIN PROPERTY

Other Interference with Property

False alarm of fire

437. Every one who wilfully, without reasonable cause, by outcry, ringing bells, using a fire alarm, telephone or telegraph, or in any other manner, makes or circulates or causes to be made or circulated an alarm of fire is guilty of

(a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years; or

(b) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

R.S., c. C-34, s. 393; 1972, c. 13, s. 31.

So what is the difference between a summary and an indictable offence? Well it is a tad complicated but one of the things the Crown looks at among others is the type, the quantity and quality of the evidence. If one person has evidence and shares it, that's good. If 20 people have evidence and share it - that's better. If you see the back of the culprit, that has some value. If you catch him pulling the alarm on your Blackberry, that's better. And there are so many possible "ifs" that the Crown has to look at in deciding which way to go. But the police have to catch the guy or gal in the first place.

Unfortunately, we have all watched TV shows, both fiction and true stories, where the bad guy gets away because people were afraid to come forward when they knew something. The trouble with that is that if a bad guy gets away with something once, he will do it again, and again and again. Maybe the last 20 false alarms here have been pulled by 20 different guys but I don't think so. If we really have 20 sickos in the building who pull false fire alarms, then, man oh man! are we ever in trouble in this building!

If you know something and don't tell the police or the firemen who respond, then you are making it easier for this dude to pull that alarm again. Right now, when that fire alarm goes off, no one moves. Why should we? It's just that jerk playing games again. Right? What if there is a real fire and none of us move? If we, you and me, are nothing but a hunk of char, it's a wee bit too late for us, isn't it? Or what if the Fire Department is busy checking out our false alarm instead of racing off to a real fire? The difference between living through a fire and dying in one can be just a few minutes - the few minutes they are here instead of there. I guess the questions we all have to ask ourselves is,

1. if we know something are we brave enough to report it?
   
2. If we don't and someone dies in a real fire somewhere else because the Fire Department were here instead of there, could we sleep well knowing we could have prevented it?
   
3. If you cannot work up any empathy for others, from a purely selfish point of view, are you not sick of hearing that darned alarm going off all the time?
   

My answers:

1. I am pretty sure I am brave enough;
   
2. I would never get a decent night's sleep and
   
3. I am really and truly fed up with alarms going off all the time.
   

The description of 'Mischief' is covered by The Criminal Code of Canada, Section 430.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-46/text.html

A description of a Summary and an Indictable offence can be read at one of these sites.

http://www.defencelaw.com/classification.html

or

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002023

The bottom line - let's get this dude out of circulation!

Province, City, OHC - Enablers?? Why?

Could some one tell me why?

Why is it that a tenant down the hall from me was very quickly given an eviction notice because he broke a rule but the gal on the 4th floor that a number of tenants have been complaining about for over four years and who has broken just about all the rules is still here?

It is true that the guy down the hall was breaking a rule. He was allegedly subleasing from another tenant who moved out. And I am guessing that he suffers from paranoia - he told me that the girl across the hall from me was poisoning him through the air vents. He also liked to talk very loudly in the wee hours of the morning on his cell phone which he had to go out into the hall to use - this building is really hard on cell phone users. One official complaint that I know of and he has an eviction notice.

The gal on the fourth floor has broken just about every rule in the book - certainly every section of her lease agreement, and she is still here and there is no indication that she is going to be evicted.

A year and a half ago, we had a meeting with Housing and one of the questions then was, "Why is she still here?" We were told that Housing had no complaints about her. Several of us know that this is not true as we have complained mightily. She is a drug addict. She has invited other drug addicts and drug pushers into the building. She and her motley crew of friends have destroyed the peace of a lot of tenants for years now. She and her motley crew of friends have threatened other tenants. She and her motley crew have destroyed mail boxes, carpets, hall ceilings and undoubtedly more. She has a washing machine in her apartment which is not allowed to the rest of us. Judging from the yelling and screaming, audible to a good many in the courtyard, she has apparently and (to keep this quite legal) allegedly conducted scams from her apartment. In the summer when the doors and windows are open the noise from there sounds very much like a brothel. She and her friends are constantly bumming from the other tenants. Yet she is never given an eviction notice. Would someone please explain this. As that gossip rag used to say, "Inquiring minds want to know!"

In fact there are a number of drug addicts living in this building and disturbing other tenants to one degree or other. Complaints are seemingly lost about them. This brings to mind a lot of questions like, "Does someone at Housing have some sort of vested interest in the drug subculture of Ottawa? Maybe it's someone at City Hall or the Province - complaints to them fall on deaf ears also. Does it have to get as bad as this case in Hamilton
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/090218/canada/canada_hamilton_arrests
before anything is done? Oops! Dumb me! It already has gotten this bad. See Mr. P's Story http://toslayadragon.blogspot.com/2009/01/mr-ps-story.html

I am still looking for an answer to the original question, "WHY?" And while you are at it, why do the Province, the City of Ottawa and The Ottawa Housing Corporation continue enabling drug addicts at our expense and the taxpayer's expense?

Shame on you Ottawa Housing Corporation!
Shame on you Ottawa! Shame on you, Ontario!

Washday Blues

Good News for all those who use Door #4 as their main entrance. Yesterday I received a message from our Building Manager that the intercom system which has been out of whack for some time is on the list for repair. I will let you know when it is up and working again. In the meantime, it seems that the Intercoms at Doors #1 and #2 do work. You might send visitors and deliveries who do not have cell phones to one of them until then.

If you are new to 2100 or if you just never knew because no one ever told you, there is a big bin in each of the laundry rooms. It is intended to put clothes and linens that you no longer want but that are not ready for the garbage yet. People in need can then take what they want. Recycling at it's best! Sad to say, there have been a few people who are short on consideration and/or brains who put dirty clothes and/or garbage in the bins. So just to make it clear to anyone not in the know, here are a few rules regarding those two bins.

• Put clean clothes and linens only.
• Put in things that are in good repair. Torn or badly stained items should be put in the garbage.
• Do not put loose shoes in the bins. Like clothes, shoes should be reusable and clean and put in a grocery bag to prevent them messing up the clothes and linens or becoming separated.

On the subject of the laundry rooms - There are signs up but some people do not read them so I will put it here too. Clean out the lint trap in the dryer after every use. Lint burns better than any kindling wood you ever saw, so letting it build up can be dangerous. Also it is just common courtesy for the next person to use the machines.

For the drug addicts in the building, here is a novel idea - When you need money for drugs, try working for it! Stop breaking our machines and stealing the money from them.

There is no law that says landlords must supply laundry facilities. It is a privilege to have them, not a right. The alternative is a walk to the shopping center and the laundromat there which I am grateful I do not have to do in the winter months. A private landlord, faced with the deliberate destruction of the machines that has gone on here would remove them. Ottawa Housing has not chosen that path but it would not totally surprise me if they faced one more deliberately broken machine and pulled the plug on our having our own laundry facility.

Ever filled a machine, put your money in and found out after that it was broken? No fun! So why not take a moment and put a note on the machine that it is Out of Order? And then call the company and tell them so they send someone to fix it. They do return your money, by the way. And you save the next guy from having a similar experience. Maybe someday the favour will be returned. :o)

If you own a Queen or King sized comforter, our machines are too small to wash them. The laundromat at Elmvale, however, does have machines that can accommodate them.

Many of the problems I hear about that originate in the laundry room are avoidable. But it does take a little common courtesy and thought. Most people in this building are pretty decent and do the logical thing. It only takes one jerk to mess things up. In the words from an old TV show, "Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to teach the jerk!" :o)

One last thought. How hard is it to bend over and pick up the softener sheet when it falls on the floor and put it in the garbage? Gotta ask those who leave them lying around - What happened to your last maid? And if you can afford a maid, where is she when you do the laundry and what are you doing living here in subsidized housing?

Courting Disaster!

Last month I told you about the fire alarms and our problems with false alarms. Well tonight we had another. At 9pm. I did what I always do when the alarm goes off. I turned on the TV to the closed circuit TV of the doors. I checked to see if there was anything remotely like smoke or fire in the court yard. I checked out in the hall. No one even bothered opening their door this time.

On the TV, I could see a couple of the gals who had been playing beanbags in the lounge but other than that, nothing. The Fire Department never came - the alarm was turned off from here eventually. There was no fire!

The paragraph below contains facts which are incorrect Those have be struck out. See http://toslayadragon.blogspot.com/2009/02/to-correct-error-of-fact.html

That brings to mind two issues that no one seems to want to talk about or do anything about. The first of these is the false alarms themselves. How do we stop them? Digital cameras were suggested by Mr.Loveridge. With today's technology, it is possible that they are there already and are, for all intents and purposes, invisible to anyone but the technicians, but who knows? If they are, I certainly hope whoever gets the tapes, caught tonight's little prankster. And I hope they throw the proverbial book at him! Just in case you are unaware, these days 'the book' is $80.00 - a real deterrent! And if you read sarcasm into that, that's ok. I wrote it with sarcasm. $80.00 will not even slow them down.

$80.00 for bringing the Fire Department out probably barely covers the cost of running those fire trucks from the Fire Station to here. If those men and women are here chasing a false alarm when a real call comes in and someone dies because they did not get there fast enough, do we tell the victim's family, "Oh well, we're sorry. The Fire Department was chasing a false alarm at 2100 Russell Road but we caught the guy who pulled it and fined him." $80.00! Is that what a charred body is worth these days?

Maybe if you try putting yourself in the place of the victim's family or even think of yourself as the victim who just loses his home and all his possessions but keeps his life, you would start lobbying to have that fine made into something that is more of a deterrent. But this is all academic as we never catch them anyway. Maybe less discussing those cameras and more speedy installation is called for. And maybe a fine that really hurts the jerk who pulls those false alarms wouldn't hurt either.

The other thing about fire alarms in this building is that they go off so often, both false alarms and those way too frequent monthly tests - so frequent that no one pays them any mind. No one moved when this one went off. The Fire Department wrote me to tell me that it is the law that the alarms are tested monthly. Well I say that familiarity breeds contempt. This is true of more than personal relationships. It is true of way too many fire alarms. And at 2100 Russell Road, between the false alarms and the frequent checks, we hear so many fire alarms that no one moves further than the off box on their wall when they hear one. It might have sounded like a good idea - monthly checks - but no one used any psychology in making that decision or they would have known that too much of a good thing is NOT a good thing.

I do not know who made these rules but they really do need to be reworked, fine tuned, hell, any kind of logical tuning would work better than this. If there ever is a real fire in this building, there is going to be a lot of dead bodies. Are the Provincial and City governments going to wait until that happens? And they look so bad no one in their right mind would vote them in again? Or the possible law suits put them farther behind the *8* ball than they are now? Maybe your next stop should be at the Education System’s door - bring Logic back as a subject. It seems to be missing in a lot of people's thinking. Change the law to make it useful, not the useless legislation we have now.

Law that does not work is not good law.

This is not good law!

Anatomy of a Building

2100 Russell Road is not a new building. One of the things it does not do well is handle the water and the water pressure associated with washers in individual apartments. This sometimes causes the water in another apartment to back up or the pipes to leak.

As we all signed a lease and of course we all read the lease before we signed it, we all know that we cannot have our own personal washer.(Section 6.8 of your lease). It is a pain in the butt having to take my clothes all the way downstairs to wash them! It's a bigger pain in the butt to spend a day cleaning water up off my floor or walking all the way to Elmvale Shopping Center to use that laundromat. I think I will stop groaning and be grateful that I have not one laundry room, but two and not one washer but 6 to chose from and that I do not have to drag my laundry off to Elmvale. Yup!! Things could be worse! Especially glad I don't have to go out with my laundry when it is -20°C.

If you are one of the few people who have sneaked a washer in here, you might try giving a thought to your neighbours and the misery you cause them. If empathy is not part of your make up, you could consider that by having a washer, you are breaking your contract with Housing and that it is a cause to eviction.

I have mentioned this before but I will mention it again for those few who do not know what I am talking about.

Larger buildings circulate air via air vents. In apartment buildings there are usually one or more air vents, most often found in the kitchen and/or bathroom. At 2100 we have 2 vents per unit. One in the bathroom which is sealed and one in the kitchen which has a little door that opens downward. Behind that little door is a filter. One of the bonuses of living in an Ottawa Housing Apartment is that Housing supplies the filters.

Filters should be changed ever three or four months. Housing apparently do not change the filters - you change your own. It is really a 'piece of cake' to change your air filter. You will find it near the ceiling and in the corner to the far left of the stove. Loosen the screw until the door swings down. Remove the old filter and put the new one in. Close the door and refasten the screw. A 2 minute job that will definitely have you breathing easier and cleaner. Well , maybe 5 minutes if you are a wobbly old crow when using a ladder, like myself. :o)

You didn't know that filter was to be changed? Oh! Just never thought about it! Well don't feel bad. I didn't think about it much either. But when a cold or virus started making the rounds of the building, it came to mind in a hurry. So I asked. Would you believe, the Maintenance Department has a huge box of filters just waiting for you to ask for one. I changed mine. It was black with the dust of at least the four years I have lived here.

As those of you who were here when the Royal Vic loped off my nose and the Queensway Carlton built me a new one from skin grafted from my forehead know, I can't smell much. I do know when that girl that bathes in Avon is about or when a skunk has been chased by dogs but most things don't register anymore. So I do not smell the smells I hear a bunch of folks griping about. They apparently come through the air vents. This is just a guess, but I think a clean air filter might give you less to gripe about too.

So do yourself a favour and change the filter. If perchance you cannot do this by yourself or at all, give me a holler the next time you see me - I'm the gal with the walker and the little chihuahua dog. I will find someone to help you change it.

Why didn't the Building Manager tell you this? Who knows! Probably the poor girl is worn out writing letters to seniors making them take up their 'Welcome Mats' to do anything as mundane as tell you to change your air filters.