This winter we rented our Florida vacation condo to a lady from Connecticut, where it snows. And snows. And snows.

"What if the furnace breaks while you're away?" I asked. "Won't the pipes in your house freeze and burst?"

"Not a chance," she said, and told me her secret...

A steamer wasn't on my shopping list, but this one came free when I purchased a Dirt Devil hand vac. With the words "Platinum Force" emblazoned on the red finish, the small hand steamer promised lots of oomph, and maybe something more.

Broken appliances are annoying and costly, but nothing's worse than an appliance that breaks halfway. When a stove or dehumidifier shuts down completely, you fix it or replace it and that's that. But appliances that stall and then start up again cause no end of aggravation, costing money, time, and sanity.

Another landlord has gone missing. Happens all the time. You see messages from distressed tenants posted in the Yahoo forum: “My landlord has disappeared, what do I do?” 

Chances are, there’s a logical explanation. The building is being foreclosed and the landlord skipped town. Or, he’s so wealthy he forgot to stop by and collect the rents. Or, he simply got tired of fixing all those drippy faucets. 

Still, whenever I hear about another missing landlord, my imagination spins.  Abducted by space aliens?  Hiding from hit men? And when these things happen, how do tenants cope?

Such questions are fodder for fiction like this: Mystery of the Missing Landlord >