Hatfields and McCoys

Today I arrived at work and knew something was up as soon as I started backing into a place in the garage. There were people scurrying up and down the stairwell carrying furniture and piles of it accumulating in the garage. I discovered the elevator wasn't working, so I headed back to the stairwell and nearly got trampled by more scurriers. "What the hell?", I said to myself. Just then, one of the folks stopped long enough to explain that the landlady had turned off the electrical supply to the elevator.

This was the latest salvo in a feud that has been going on for awhile between the folks in the next suite on our floor and the new owner of the building. I don't know the details and I don't want to know the details. I do know that the chief guy from the company next door has a history of being difficult, based on personal observation. Hearsay has it that the new landlady can also be obstreperous.

Whatever the history of the situation, today the tenants were to move out of the building. Landlady showed up in the parking lot to take photographs of the proceedings. What she thought they might run off with, I have no idea. The carpet? The wall panels? The toilets? Everything else in the place was the tenant's.

Fighting back in kind, one of the tenant's employees began videotaping the landlady as she snapped photos. Something else snapped and the landlady ended up inside with one of her assistants. The next thing you know, the elevator suddenly stopped working.

It was at this point that I arrived and had to swim upstream in the stairwell, fighting the downstream of furniture. Turns out there was a time limit to vacate the premises and with the elevator out of commission, the stairwells were the only recourse for the move.

It did not take long for the story to circulate that the elevators had been deliberately disabled. One of our chiefs waded into the frey and made it clear that it would be a good idea for the "repair" to happen quickly. When it got fixed, I don't know, but I was able to use the elevator on the way back from lunch. After I skirted around the pile of furniture that is still in the parking lot awaiting removal.

Lord. I thought I was stubborn to a fault. It was like watching two rams butting heads for the sake of butting heads, regardless of the cracked skulls that might result. Thankfully nobody got crushed in the stairwell from a falling file cabinet.

Rumor has it that we might be moving our offices in the not too distant future. If in fact we do, I plan to remove my personal items in a working elevator well before the last day.

Some people.

LSW