Our temporary condo was working out just fine.  I spent time in the living room or bedroom each day while my spouse worked at the kitchen table.  I made food and we watched movies together.  Cue the sweeping music.  Things were as all right as they could be.  Until the roaches showed up.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Now, I have lived in Florida for over 30 years and I am familiar with the fact that these repulsive creatures are inevitable.  They will appear from time to time.  After all, there is an urban legend that they are the only thing that would survive a nuclear event.  If you ask a Floridian, we will likely say that it is not so much an urban legend as truth based on personal experience.  Anyway, it is not normal, okay, acceptable, admissible or tolerable for them to make an appearance in one’s home every day.  Not even in the South.

My husband is a neat freak and I am neat-ish.  I wash dishes multiple times each day and leave nothing that might be attractive to them out on counters.  We found a nearly empty can of bug spray under the kitchen sink and bait doohickeys on the counter that I thought were air fresheners. (Hey, don’t judge me).  Obviously, some other tenant before us realized there was a problem.  I do not know why they would not mention it to the housing company!

Anyway, by day three of the issue, the housing company was moving us to a newer, upgraded condo at no extra charge for the remainder of our stay.  They were apologetic.  Note to every rental tenant on the planet:  If you do not tell the management, they cannot fix the problem!  As a landlord of one rental property myself, I would want the same behavior from my tenant.  If there is a problem, I cannot rectify it if you do not tell me it exists.  But I digress. . . Our old condo will now be treated thoroughly.  We have been moved to a larger condo that seems quite nice.  We now have a living room, dining room, kitchen and TWO bedrooms.  In these strange times that we presently find ourselves in, all of these extra rooms serve as “satellite offices” for one of us at some point during the day.  It beats sharing one two-foot table.  This is going to be the final place we stay in our hometown during the covid-19 shutdown. Really. If I am being honest, this condo is actually a bit larger than we genuinely need, but I don’t care.  I just want it to feel clean and for us to have a safe space to hide from the pandemic.  Please and thank you.