maxlharris
09-09-2007, 07:44 AM
Hello all,
Today is one of the 12 days of the year when dates are written the same all over the world, or at least Europe and North America. I dunno if that's worth getting excited about, but since we are trans-Western World here, we should celebrate things we share as well as the differences!
I wonder if I got some laughing gas before posting. Cause that's goofy.
Any rate, it's a sunday, so DW is getting something home cooked and novel. I have been seeing a lot of baked ziti around on menus where we've gone, and I've been intrigued, so I'm gonna dig out the Silver Spoon, and figure how to make it Protein Powered. Then I can eat it all week! Nice.
The plan. I'm taking Snoring Beauty (she in the other room, sawing away, though the second I typed this, she stopped) to brunch at a restaurant we haven't been to since December. Then, up a few blocks to the artisan cheese store that we've never been to. Then, groceries. Then home. We have "Taxi Driver" on DVD, and Rock of Love on TV tonight. Or this morning at 11AM if she's up.
My life: I am bugged. The drain flies are not dead. Well, the several hundred smushed on the walls are. But the all important larvae aren't. This history. On Wednesday, the exterminator never showed. On Friday, I got an exterminator to come by and give an estimate. His estimate was: we can't do this, because they're coming from either the sewer line or a leaky pipe in the wall. They might die off in the winter, if where they are gets cold enough to kill em. They might not. My building management has been hard to get in touch with. They were shocked when I said the exterminator never showed. They said the property manager might be in at 2PM on Saturday. No dice. I hung around and waited. I am going to call her at 9:05 AM on Monday. Meanwhile, DW is furious and unhappy. I am morose and seething. Neither one of us is particularly fun to be around while we're in the house. Going out is good, until we think about coming back. DW wants to rage at the manager, drag her down to the apartment, and make her look at the dead bodies. I don't think this solves anything, though it might make us all feel better, like pressing the crosswalk button a few hundred times. It probably doesn't change anything, but you feel like you're doing something useful.
DW has written a very nasty letter to management. I am guilty, because I got caught up in being angry (it's more useful than being depressed, but not anywhere as useful as being thoughtful and assertive). But I want to frame it as management's best interest, rather than threats. Also, we kind of are in a gray area with Little Martha (apartment guidelines say two cats, lease doesn't specify, management office only knows about Elliott). So I don't really want someone giving our file a close look, then coming into the apartment, seeing any of: two cats, two litter boxes, two sets of dishes, two cat beds, etc. And the smushed flies on the walls that DW wants to show to management just depress the Hell out of me.
Oh, and I've been neglecting pretty much every other aspect of my life (while eating on plan) while this goes on.
At any rate, today, 9/9 on all sides of the Atlantic, is a new day. It's a day for positive change (what day isn't a good one for positive change). I'm making plans for the day. I'm cooking. I'm going out. We're buying stuff we need. I'm gonna have DW take photos of the walls. Then we're gonna clean them off. I'm gonna email the photos to management. I'm going to present the situation like this:
The apartment is unrentable as it is. If we move, they will not be able to rent it until they kill the bugs at the source. It's possible that they will spread to other apartments in the building. Since every apartment we are share a wall with (3) has changed occupant at least once in our year and three months, having them unrentable might be a problem, revenue wise. I do not want a reduction in rent (it'd be nice). I do not want to move to another apartment unless I have to (and it can't have carpet, this is not negotiable). I do want it fixed. Promptly. If this is non-persuasive, if I don't get the movement I want from this, I have my hammers: Health Inspector, building inspector, Washington Post, City Paper, local news. If that's how it has to be, well, that how it has to be.
I urge you, if you have problems that are getting you down (this has me cruising very low), you have to make a plan, then execute on it. There aren't problems that can't be remedied, at least a little. And the sense of accomplishment from a good resolution, yeah. I need to show that to DW. Lastly, there is always time to be depressed later, after you've tried your best.
Last thing: Who's gonna make it 9/30 today? 8/30? Forget the big number, let's make 9/9/7, at least 1/1.
Rock on!
Today is one of the 12 days of the year when dates are written the same all over the world, or at least Europe and North America. I dunno if that's worth getting excited about, but since we are trans-Western World here, we should celebrate things we share as well as the differences!
I wonder if I got some laughing gas before posting. Cause that's goofy.
Any rate, it's a sunday, so DW is getting something home cooked and novel. I have been seeing a lot of baked ziti around on menus where we've gone, and I've been intrigued, so I'm gonna dig out the Silver Spoon, and figure how to make it Protein Powered. Then I can eat it all week! Nice.
The plan. I'm taking Snoring Beauty (she in the other room, sawing away, though the second I typed this, she stopped) to brunch at a restaurant we haven't been to since December. Then, up a few blocks to the artisan cheese store that we've never been to. Then, groceries. Then home. We have "Taxi Driver" on DVD, and Rock of Love on TV tonight. Or this morning at 11AM if she's up.
My life: I am bugged. The drain flies are not dead. Well, the several hundred smushed on the walls are. But the all important larvae aren't. This history. On Wednesday, the exterminator never showed. On Friday, I got an exterminator to come by and give an estimate. His estimate was: we can't do this, because they're coming from either the sewer line or a leaky pipe in the wall. They might die off in the winter, if where they are gets cold enough to kill em. They might not. My building management has been hard to get in touch with. They were shocked when I said the exterminator never showed. They said the property manager might be in at 2PM on Saturday. No dice. I hung around and waited. I am going to call her at 9:05 AM on Monday. Meanwhile, DW is furious and unhappy. I am morose and seething. Neither one of us is particularly fun to be around while we're in the house. Going out is good, until we think about coming back. DW wants to rage at the manager, drag her down to the apartment, and make her look at the dead bodies. I don't think this solves anything, though it might make us all feel better, like pressing the crosswalk button a few hundred times. It probably doesn't change anything, but you feel like you're doing something useful.
DW has written a very nasty letter to management. I am guilty, because I got caught up in being angry (it's more useful than being depressed, but not anywhere as useful as being thoughtful and assertive). But I want to frame it as management's best interest, rather than threats. Also, we kind of are in a gray area with Little Martha (apartment guidelines say two cats, lease doesn't specify, management office only knows about Elliott). So I don't really want someone giving our file a close look, then coming into the apartment, seeing any of: two cats, two litter boxes, two sets of dishes, two cat beds, etc. And the smushed flies on the walls that DW wants to show to management just depress the Hell out of me.
Oh, and I've been neglecting pretty much every other aspect of my life (while eating on plan) while this goes on.
At any rate, today, 9/9 on all sides of the Atlantic, is a new day. It's a day for positive change (what day isn't a good one for positive change). I'm making plans for the day. I'm cooking. I'm going out. We're buying stuff we need. I'm gonna have DW take photos of the walls. Then we're gonna clean them off. I'm gonna email the photos to management. I'm going to present the situation like this:
The apartment is unrentable as it is. If we move, they will not be able to rent it until they kill the bugs at the source. It's possible that they will spread to other apartments in the building. Since every apartment we are share a wall with (3) has changed occupant at least once in our year and three months, having them unrentable might be a problem, revenue wise. I do not want a reduction in rent (it'd be nice). I do not want to move to another apartment unless I have to (and it can't have carpet, this is not negotiable). I do want it fixed. Promptly. If this is non-persuasive, if I don't get the movement I want from this, I have my hammers: Health Inspector, building inspector, Washington Post, City Paper, local news. If that's how it has to be, well, that how it has to be.
I urge you, if you have problems that are getting you down (this has me cruising very low), you have to make a plan, then execute on it. There aren't problems that can't be remedied, at least a little. And the sense of accomplishment from a good resolution, yeah. I need to show that to DW. Lastly, there is always time to be depressed later, after you've tried your best.
Last thing: Who's gonna make it 9/30 today? 8/30? Forget the big number, let's make 9/9/7, at least 1/1.
Rock on!