Sunday, June 20, 2010

Rant

Taking a break from parenting issues, I need to rant.  And since this is *my* blog, I will do so.

 I HATE OUR APT!!!!!!!!!!!

(deep breath.)

So I know I've said I hate it for the lack of space, which is a never-ending problem.  We aren't going to suddenly have less stuff  (no matter how much I feel like we purge, or store, or whatever, we just have too much stuff.) so we are going to be cramped.  But here's what really stinks: our "maintenance service."

Ha! Maintenance service.  Ahhh, that is amusing.  Or maybe what's more amusing are the office staff that act like they give a crap about you when you talk to them.

I could go on and on about things that need fixed at our place that haven't been.  Most of them are minor, like the light above our sink that hasn't worked since Oliver was born. I can live without that light.  But what about the hot water heater that is sure to go out anytime?  In October we went 5 days without hot water.  It went out on Thursday, I think, because I remember we got up early that morning and went to my mom's.  We didn't take showers or anything til we got to her house, and I remember using cold water that morning to wash my face.  I was tired and didnt really think anything of it. I don't know if I even tried the hot water, to be honest.  But I know Wed. night we had had hot water.  Anyway...we got back late Saturday to no hot water.  They do not consider this "emergency worthy" so there was no need to call maintenance.  The last time we called maintenance with a "non-emergency" Jay ended up cursing the maintenance man.  Big surprise that nothing gets fixed here!  Where was I?  Oh yes, no hot water.  So I called first thing Monday.  By 3:00 they had still not come and I knew they would be out of there by 5:00 at the latest.  So I called and said I needed hot water, like, 4 days ago, but would prefer it NOW.  So they came about 4:15.  Did something to the heater, said that the company (whoever that is) said they had to try this before doing anything else.  He said it would be at least half an hour before we could tell if it worked, and he doubted it would.  (Gee, thanks. Jerk.)  Sure enough, it didn't.  But where were they at 4:45?  Nowhere to be found.  Another night with no hot water.  Tuesday, they "fixed" it.  Sure, as long as I take a shower (with Oliver, no less) in less than 7 minutes.  Get to that 7 minute mark and you're talking icicles, baby. 

I need to call and tell them that our tub faucet is leaking.  More like streaming water, but hey, no need to get into semantics.  Here's why I *do not* want to call them.  If you are not home or do not answer the door, they come in anyway.  So while I am there by myself with Oliver all day, what happens when they come just as I'm getting out of the shower and cant hear them knocking?  They'll come in anyway, and good gravy, will hopefully at least knock before they'd come in the bathroom.  But I'm not counting on that.  Either way, how awkward...me answering in, what, a towel?  No thank you.  Believe it or not, I have modesty standards.  None of which include a wet towel wrapped around me.

Pshewwwww...and I haven't even gotten to my *real* rant yet!!!!

(smooths down hair...ok, ready.)

Thursday night I was getting ready to go to bed and the lights flickered for half a second and I heard our A/C click on and off when that happened.  It was seriously less than half a second...our laptops battery is shot and only works with the plug-in, so if we had lost power for any amount of time, the computer would've died.  Since it didn't, and everything came back on normally, I didn't think much of it.

Fast forward about 7 hours.  6:00 a.m. and Oliver wakes up, hot and sweaty and thirsty.  Our room gets hot at night, sometimes, so I didn't think much about it until I opened our door, and it was just as hot outside our room as inside.  Great.  They had shown me how to do something with the breakers which sometimes helps "kick start" the AC again.  They said if the AC turns on the same time as something else it can overload or whatever.  (My eyes glaze over when they start to talk about anything like that.)  So I did that, and went back to bed.  Oliver fell asleep again around 7ish, and so did I.  At 9:00ish we both woke up and it was still HOT.  So I tried the breaker thing one more time, giving it more time before I flipped it back on.  Still nothing.  The compressor-thing outside was running, and it was running inside, but there was no air what-so-ever blowing out of the vents.

So by 9:30 I called the office.  Here's basically how our convo went:

Me: "Hi, our air conditioner isn't working."

Office Lady: "Ok, is it not running, or blowing out hot air, or what? Tell me more about whats going on."

Me: "Ok, well I tried the fuse thing that I was told about before-"

Lady: "-Oh yes! The breaker! That didn't do it?"

(How badly I wanted to say, "Actually it did! I just called cos I have nothing better to do!")

Me: " No, it didn't.  I've tried it twice since 6 a.m. with no luck.  The outside is running, the inside is running, but there's no air what-so-ever blowing out."

Lady: "So no air at all?"

Me: "No. It thinks its working, cos its running, but its not."

Lady: "Ahh hahaha! Thinks its working! I like that"

(Me thinking: "I don't.")

Lady: "Ok, well, I'll write this up and send them over to look at it."

Me: "Ok, thanks so much!"

Around 10:30 I decide to take Oliver out for the day because I knew they wouldn't rush over.  We went to the library then went swimming at Jay's parents house.  I decided to give him a nap there since it was cooler there, obviously.  When Jay got off work a little after 2 he said he would go by the apt and see if it was on. 

Ready for this? I know you'll be shocked... They hadn't even been there yet!!!!

I know, I wasn't really that surprised either.  But I wasn't happy.  Jay got really mad and called and told them how ridiculous this was, that we have one of the oldest compressors and if you look at all the other apts around us they have new a/c units outside and ours is old as dirt.  That this has happened at least 3 times just this year since we first turned it on sometime in April.  This happens several times every year.  We have lived there 2 years, longer than a lot of these people who are in and out in a few months time (whether its by their choice or they're kicked out all depends on the people, lol.  We live by some *really awesome* people.).  We pay our rent, we don't give them trouble, what else are we supposed to do?

So here's what Office Lady says: "Well, we had a lot of people call in today with the same problem, so our guys have been soooo busy."

Really? Cos when I called she didn't say anything about that.  And if they called after me, sorry, get in line.  How did WE get pushed to the bottom of the pile?!

Jay says something about how well maybe if you're that busy, you should hire, you know, REAL maintenance people who actually know how to fix air conditioners.  She says something about how they are just hiring some more people and Jay's like no, I mean outside help, people that know how to fix air conditioners and do it on a regular basis.  Not Handy Manny that you picked up off the street.

(Ok, maybe he left out the Handy Manny part.  But I think it would've been appropriate.)

Office Lady again says well, we are just getting to hiring more people....I think Jay wanted to bang his head on the wall at this point.  He says they need to get ours fixed NOW and it was beyond ridiculous that they hadn't been there yet.  He said he expected it to be fixed today. (Friday)  She said they were working "late" because of all the calls and another lady in the background yells "they're working tomorrow too!"  Great.  Oh, and Jay was also told that they are getting 4 new a/c units this next week but they aren't sure who they are going to.  If we do not get one of those units, they are going to have some angry people storming their office.  We were told this the last 2 summers we have been there and have yet to see one.  Its about darn time.

So Friday night we spent at the ILs. There was no way Oliver could sleep in that heat.  It was in the 90s and stayed that way all weekend.  If it was just us, fine, we'd suck it up.  But when you have an almost-2-year-old? No thank you.

We went back twice Saturday and it still was never fixed.

How many freaking people could have called that they weren't able to fix it Friday *or* Saturday??!?!

I think they hate us. I don't know why, but I'm pretty sure they do.  Maybe they read my blog.  LOL

So we've been at Jay's parents house since Friday.  Its now Sunday night, almost 11 p.m., and I'm going to head to bed. I'm calling in the morning, and praying that God gives me the words.  I stink at being mean.  I wish I could be, but I always get nervous and upset.  Especially when people act like they're being nice to me. 

At least I'm that way for awhile.  Ask me again in 24 hours if we still aren't home.

Some people may think we are being petty.  So many people live without air conditioning.  Our neighbors never turn theirs on.  But here's the thing:  We would not have chosen to live there if we could not have at least had the *option* of turning on our a/c.  I have terrible allergies that make it miserable for me to have the windows open. (which wasn't a bad thing freshman year at bsu when I got a dr's note saying I needed an a/c in our dorm room. score!) I went back there tonight to get a few things and the thermostat that is always at least 5 degrees off (lower than it should be) read 80.  So it was at least 85 downstairs.  Upstairs was way worse.  There has not been a breeze, either, so even if we were to open our windows, it would not have helped.

But again.  We are paying for an apt (ok, ok, technically its a "townhouse." whatever)  that is supposed to have air conditioning AND maintenance service.  We are receiving neither and thus have been out of our home for over 48 hours now.  Excuse me if I'm a little bitter.

Pshew.  I feel better now.  At least I think I do.  Or else I've just gotten myself even more riled up. 

God tells us to rejoice, always.  I'm trying Lord, I really am. 

But darn it I can't stand those maintenance people...

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