1998

Apartment 808 we all lived in turned out to be in the "Crack Towers" of Burlington. My job at Precision was ok, but my boss was a bitter man, who made life at work miserable. The only good thing about my job was taking apart old Mercedes Benzs right down to the bare frame. I learned alot about cars that year, and I also started to network with people in the automotive industry. I was very friendly and well liked by all our customers which would pay off very well in the future.

The picture on the left is Peter sitting in the living room of our apartment. The front bumper in the background ws orginally from Simeon's green Benz, and I sold it 2 years later for $400. Sometimes it pays to hang onto things.

The picture on the right is of my friend David and myself. Sadly the suspenders I am wearing are no longer with me.

Above you will see my favorite picture of Mark. He made an excellent roomate, with an extreme amount of patience for all my antics. "uhhh, Mark you are standing in...".

The building we lived steadily became un-acceptable. One night Carolyn came home and told me about some weird man in the elevator that made her feel very uncomfortable. I decided that night it was time to go. We moved within a week, and ending up paying rent for two places. I would not let the slumlord Frank into the apartment for early viewings. I knew he would go in, so we removed all the light bulbs, fuses, and took the Vise Grip door handle to my bedroom after shutting the door. It was winter so we turned the heat off and opened all the windows. I remember laying baby powder on the ground infront of the door way. I caught him twice entering my apartment, to which he always denied. The day I gave him back the keys, I found him on his knees in his office fixing the carpet. I had the keys in an envelope with a note inside. I threw the envelope at him and walked out. To this day I wonder what he thought about the note. It said -

Frank,

The windmills of the gods grind slowly, but oh do they grind.

Beware.

I had found a new apartment that was the first floor of a house on Harris Crescent, which was very close to the downtown of Burlington. It was also a nice 5 minute walk(not even) to the Poacher, a local pub that I spent a lot of time at.

The house was really sweet inside. It was only a one bedroom, so we gave Mark the bedroom and made a second bedroom by seperating the front room(bay window) with a curtian from the rest of the house. This was not the first time I had an unconventional bedroom, and definitly not the last. As you can see by the picture on the right I had a sweet garden, and to date, the best yet.

By the end of the year, I had come to dislike my job very much. Something had to change, and the next year would bring about change indeed.