I meant to post this yesterday ... but anyway ... on to yoga...

Yesterday, Cyndi and I found out that we need to vacate our house by May 31st, or else the landlord would need us to pay rent for the whole month of June. We originally planned to stay until June 15th, based on an agreement with new tenants coming in June.

Knowing the kids had school until June 12th, we worked out a deal with the new tenants, through the landlord, to let us stay until June 15th, provided that we would empty a bedroom by May 15th for them to start moving things into the house. We kept up our end of the bargain, emptying Laura’s room last week. Laura moved into Mikie’s room a few weeks ago, packing her belongings all the while. I expected the new tenants to show up this weekend, wanting to move their stuff into the room. They never did.

The landlord called us yesterday, telling us the deal with the new tenants would not work. They would not pay the months if they couldn’t move in on June 1st. When we explained that we emptied a room, he said that doesn’t matter, they won’t pay. So, rather than pay the extra, we’ll just leave early. But the new tenants do not get to move their stuff in – we won’t let them.

We made the mistake of not talking directly to the new tenants ourselves. We could have avoided disaster with just a little more effort. I learned in many of my communication classes about the message, receiver, noise, etc, about how the more repeated the message, the more distorted, and how using the landlord to communicate for us could have given the new tenants the message that we don’t care about them or their wants and needs. But who cares! Stand by your word, dammit! I stand by mine.