My Building Manager is Big Brother

We have an insane building manager. Ok, maybe he isn't actually insane but I do think he's a little off.

First, he's a compulsive spender. The building actually had to block him from raising condo fees to do more little adjustments to the building. Honestly, if you have to block the building manager from doing his job, you have a problem.

Now he has found a loop hole. He's allowed to use the building's savings account. And you know what he wants to buy, cameras. 8 cameras for our tiny building.

While I understand that security is important, I don't feel we need quite this much. That and what is going to be the added cost? He didn't mention the price on the mass letter he sent out. He did, however, tell my husband that all the equipment would cost R$8000. Does that include installation? Upkeep?

I swear, the guy breaks into a sweat if he doesn't spend some building cash every month or two.

And what really pisses me off, royally pisses me off, is that he won't buy a freaking bike rack for the building. He won't put a simple rack out in a small, useless common area next to our garage. His thing is that we have to put in a roof to protect the bikes and this and that.

Again, you don't have to do construction every time you add something. Not everything has to be a drama and cost a butt load of cash. Buy a freaking rack, put it out there, and people use at their own risk. If they don't want their bike rained on they will buy a weather bag or bring it up to their apartments.

While he's at it, angle one of the two cameras he's planning to have in our 14 car garage so it also gets the bikes. Or maybe I can just compromise with him. He gets the bike rack, from our savings money, and I'll suggest that he buys one more camera just for them. That should make him warm and fuzzy enough to go with it. 

Out of Control

My Sindico (spelling?), basically our building manager, is out of control. Well, not really out of control but not under control.

We were notified the day before yesterday that the lights would, once again, but turned off all day.  Keep in mind that the day before yesterday notification was posted after 9pm. I'm in hibernation mode by that point, just trying to get the little monkeys down and get some alone time. I'm not cruising the elevator looking for notices.

So I was notified yesterday. Now here's the issue, our emergency lights in the stairwell die after 3 and a half hours. Say what? That's just plain stupid. And you need power back on to charge them again. I talked to my building manager about this and he said that it's just how it is. I asked him if he really thought an emergency in Rio de Janeiro could be handled in under 3 hrs. Hell no! You can hardly get an ambulance in under 3 hrs!

And let's not talk about the old people in this building. Of course they all live on the upper floors.  We're risking hip breakage with every step down those stairs. But no, we could not rent a generator.  Too expensive. But have I mentioned that he has spent building money on new mail boxes. There wasn't anything wrong with the old one. A customized doormat, new doormen uniforms, tinted front windows on the building, water pipes, new intercoms, plants, handouts on how to save water... daily, etc etc.

I almost distributed handouts on how to save paper just to annoy him, and to point out how obnoxious his handouts are.  His are especially annoying because we are supposed to save water but he has the doormen spraying down the sidewalk in front of the building and outside the gate daily.  Heard of a broom much? And the other doorman makes extra cash by washing cars in the building. Bye bye water.

But he does do good. He deals with the crazy upstairs neighbors. Actually, he deals with the complaints from other people about the crazy upstairs neighbors.  We sometimes get concerned about their safety when we hear things being thrown. My building manager has a strict, and very unBrazilian, it's none of our business standpoint. I'm sure that has benefited us on numerous occasions.

So I will, once again, be AWOL today. I'm already going through withdrawals. Is it just me or has someone sucked all the internet... I mean oxygen out of the building? 

I will be ok! I'll take it one hour at a time.