Flaming Carcinogens Bring Pleasure to All

I’m slightly embarrassed to say I am having yet another issue with my landlord, over fumes. Fortunately, having a conflict with the actual landlord is a lot more pleasant than having it with the building manager, from whom I have received quite an impressive stack of insulting emails.

To recap, there had been two occasions of the building manager grilling underneath my windows, thus filling my place with wood smoke on one occasion, and lighter fluid fumes on the other.

It possibly might not have been so bad if my windows actually closed, but the last decade in which they did so probably featured the Summer of Love. If there is a strong wind outside, I can stand inside my ostensibly closed windows and enjoy quite a stiff breeze, so when it comes to carcinogens aflame just outside, “closed” means pretty much the same as “open.”

Fortunately, after a few emails back and forth, the landlord said the building manager had agreed not to use lighter fluid in the future. I think she should get a propane or even an electric grill, but as long as there’s not actual lighter fluid, I think that will be OK.

A couple of weeks ago, on a rainy evening, it seemed to me that I could smell burning lighter fluid in my kitchen, and I opened the door to the trash area to see that, sure enough, some neighbors were grilling near the trash chute, a major fire hazard had it not been raining. This building is old, and made of wood.

I mentioned that to the neighbor and he said he was going to stand right over it, so there was nothing to worry about. Soon my apartment filled with fumes; I also noticed the grill was in fact largely unattended. I opened several windows and asked my neighbor to let me know when the fire was entirely out.

He knocked on my door later and said they wouldn’t be grilling in that location again. I said that was great, and that it would also be super if we could ixnay on the lighter fluid, at which he looked a bit blank, so I decided to leave it.

But when I recently had occasion to email the landlord about something else, I mentioned the grilling near the trash chute, and she said that she would ask the building manager to ask all tenants to grill in the back yard only. I imagine that she, like me, perceived a fire hazard.

I replied that it would be great if the notice also included a request to avoid lighter fluid, and she wrote back, “Still the same folks in the building so just a little reminder about grilling should be all that is necessary.”

Since, as far as I know, the tenants have never been asked to eschew lighter fluid, I wasn’t sure how a reminder to grill in the back yard was going to convey that aspect, and wrote back to make my thoughts on the subject as clear as I possibly could, which I like to think is pretty clear.

Then I was afraid she was going to send me a mean email, which is what the building manager always does at this juncture, but she didn’t reply at all, which was fine. Probably the building manager warned her that I always have to have the last word and that the only way to stop a conversation with me is to drop your own end of the rope.

Then I wondered if I was being more of a pain than necessary, but decided I wasn’t: If the landlord is going to let the windows fall into such disrepair that they are useless against smoke, I don’t think it’s too much for them to ask their tenants not to burn toxins right under said windows.

However, I did decide to let another issue go, which is noise coming from the building manager’s apartment, which is right underneath mine. She arrives home from work around midnight, and I have asked her in the past to go easy with the stereo and TV after she gets home, because I have to get up at about 7:30 a.m. for work.

I got a nasty email or two, but I also haven’t heard thumping bass too much since then, so it was worth it. In fact, I mostly have heard nothing until recently, when she has again taken to watching movies or listening to music when she gets home, though not with the bass turned up, which does help. This can easily go on until three or four in the morning.

I can hear it loud and clear, and it does wake me up, but I decided that if I lived in Baghdad, I would learn to sleep through the sound of bombs exploding; therefore, I can learn to sleep through this and/or use earplugs.

It would probably be going too far to speak of preserving political capital for the purpose of combating fumes, but at least I can try not to go farther into the hole.