Adjusting to Less? —What is your Personal Junkyard View?

from Kelly Lacy at Pexels.com

I live in a posh high-end apartment… beside a junkyard. It seems somewhat oxymoronic, but that’s my reality.

Technically it is not a true junkyard — It is the backyard of a refrigeration business. They have a fleet of vans and trucks. Apparently, any vehicles that are damaged or no longer operable, they just dump them in that area of their property. I’m not sure if they keep them because they plan to repair them at some point, but I haven’t seen any progress on that front. I have never seen them tow any of them away — except one special one.

In contrast, the apartment I live in is beautiful. It features a huge kitchen with ample wooden cabinetry. The shower is the kind with a glass front — no shower curtains needed — I’ve never had a glamor-shower like that before. The building has a state-of-the-art, well-equipped gym, a gorgeous pool, a beautiful common lounge, and several outdoor patios conveniently furnished with grills. My favorite feature is the electronic doors. Residents use electronic fobs to enter the building from the outside, as well as when entering our own individual apartments. And if you want to be obnoxiously fancy, or if you lose your keys (which I did recently), you can just use an app on your phone to enter the building or your own apartment! There is even a locked secure bike room to story your bike, which is an amenity I had definitely never seen provided in an apartment complex before. But ironically the bike room got broken into and my bike was stolen. (As you can see, my luck at this glamorous apartment complex has been less than impeccable.)

Back when I first inquired about the apartment three years ago, they didn’t show me the exact apartment I would reside in, of course. And I would wager that the leasing office purposely avoided showing prospective renters any apartment with a junkyard view.

After I picked up my keys from the leasing office and entered my apartment for the first time, I was quite horrified and dismayed when I looked out the window at my new view. I gently complained a few times to no avail… perhaps I should have been more aggressive. Their response was, in effect, a rather disingenuous ‘Oh, sorry about that.’ From their standpoint, they had no control over the business next door and what they chose to display on their property.

So what was I to do? — David and Goliath and all that. So I just capitulated and settled for the hideous view.

Then one day the view got worse. The business owners dragged in the biggest eyesore of them all. One morning, I once again peered out despairingly at my unpleasant view and there was an additional truck there. The left front of the truck was a burned-out, charred husk. I can only assume its transmission had overheated and caught fire.

They even had the gall to position the van at a 45 degree angle to the rest of the neatly organized defunct vehicles, with the fire-roasted side facing the direction of my apartment building, as if to make the visual as noxious as possible. I was incensed to the highest degree!

Everyday I angrily stared at the horrific sight as if my fury would somehow waft over to the business owners, and they would comply with my desire for them to remove the offending vehicle.

Everyday I grew increasingly upset and more and more dejected about having to see this horror of a sight outside my apartment that I was paying good money for! But I just had to deal with it… After all, there nothing I could do about it except march down there to their business office and complain… which I was not going to do… I’m not that bold.

But I never got used to that one awful vehicle being there.

And then poof — one day it was gone! I wasn’t even purposefully looking out the window… I just instinctively noticed something was different. I had to do a double-take… and a triple-take. I pinched myself because I thought ‘Oh crap, I’m probably dreaming… and I’ll wake up any moment.’ But my mind and eyes were not deceiving me. I was filled with that eerie, but euphoric feeling you get when a nightmare that you’ve been enduring has finally come to a sudden end.

And guess what? — I was never bothered by the sight of the junkyard again! I was simply so thrilled everyday that the most disturbing object in my outside view was gone… forever!

But simultaneously I was slightly resentful that they had performed this mental jujitsu on me and it had worked. Had they purposely placed this burned-out truck there, so that when they took it away, I would be so grateful that I would never complain again?? Hmm… doubtful. — As they had no clue that I was transmitting bad vibes to them everyday. And honestly, even if they did, I’m sure they didn’t give a <bleep> what I or other residents thought about it.

But this situation made me wonder:

How often do we settle for a negative situation, or adjust to it, because it has improved a little?

Are you staying in a job because it’s not as stressful as it used to be, because hey — it’s stable — and who wants to go thru the hassle of prepping for interviews and the angst of waiting on a job offer?

Are you staying in a relationship because it’s not as bad as it used to be, and now you feel you’re too “old” to get back into the dating scene?

Not to say that anyone should leave their current situation… that’s a decision that each person has to weigh for themselves.

I have no advice to give on that… these are just the ruminations of my mind.

In my case, ultimately there was no need for me to leave my apartment. The stakes just weren’t severe enough… at least not after they removed the burned-out truck. I can live with my present view. I often notice the junkyard, but I don’t pay attention to it. I just look beyond it.

When I take a photo of one of Phoenix’s gorgeous sunsets from my balcony, I just pivot my camera angle above the several rows of decrepit vehicles. I don’t even have to intentionally ignore it anymore — it just doesn’t even faze me. With all the other amenities of this apartment, I don’t have any immediate plans to move. If in the future I do move, it won’t be because of the junkyard.

But at the same time, I fondly envision one day hanging with friends… gazing out from my balcony or patio… and only seeing beauty and tranquility… — or at least not a junkyard.