So I'm sitting at my desk working diligently on a family law outline, when I have a knock on my door. It's the maintenance man, Jason, who is here to do the annual vent cleaning. After he's done with the vents he says, "Lawren, there's a new rule that we have to put these stickers on the window portion of your sliding glass door." Before reading the sticker, I say, "Ok, sure. No problem." Gotta follow the rules right?

As he's cleaning up, I walk over to look at the sticker. 1) It's BIG, UGLY and has BRIGHT RED writing on it. 2) His boss told him it had to be RIGHT NEXT to the handle of the door, not down subtly in the corner, and 3) The sign reads: Balcony Weight Not to Exceed 1,500 pounds.

I'm thinking, "No shit Sherlock!" Now, if you saw my balcony, you'd know that having 4 people on it would be pushing the limit of being comfortable.

I asked Jason why the sudden need for a sticker to tell me something so freaking obvious. He said, "Well, another tenant was storing things out there--very heavy things--and his balcony started to cave in. And, he's suing the apartment complex."

It's a good thing Jason didn't know the guy's name.

Once again, when common sense fails us, we head to the legal system. It's got to be someone else's fault that I'm a huge giant dumbass, right?

I know I'm going into this profession, but I sure hope my common sense doesn't fail me in recognizing when someone should be held accountable for something and when someone shouldn't.

Posted by Lawren at November 19, 2003 02:40 PM

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