shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
1. So, found out tonight via super's wife and sign, that the gas is out in my building due to a leaking pipe in the basement.

Super's Wife: Here's a hot pad for you to cook on until the gas is restored.
Me:When will that be? Next week?
Super's Wife: Between you and me? Maybe not for about 3-6 months.
Me: WHAT?
Super's Wife: and that's not the worst of it, the dryers aren't working in the basement because of this. The washers are for now. And we may not have hot water due to a problem with boiler -- which needs gas to light and...
Me: We have hot water right?
Super's wife: For now.
Me: 3 to 6 months to fix???
Super's Wife: Plumber came today and said it is a big job, we have to fix pipes in basement and throughout the building -
Super: What are you doing? Why are you telling her all this?
Super's Wife: She asked me.
Super: We know nothing. Don't tell them this!

I walk back into my apartment with my hot pad. And notice no hot water is running from my sink. Fuck. Oh, well, could be worse -- I could have a husband and a kid, and two dogs...which the people below me have. Or it could be the electricity.

Considering I just signed a two-year lease. Every time I do this - something crazy happens.

Sigh. With all the crap going on at work and now this...I'm considering running away from home or New York. Permanently.

I go on vacation to Martha's Vineyard on Thursday to visit a friend. I may not return. I may just stay there.

2. Finished book -- it had too much sex, not enough plot, and I was annoyed because it had potential.

I don't know what I expected. The plot was basically a Duke falls for his Tenant Farmer's Niece, but struggles with whether he can marry her -- because hello, Tenant Farmer's Niece, and he feels he has a responsibility to his father's legacy.

(This isn't really a spoiler. It's a romance novel. Not a historical novel by Thomas Hardy, the guy who wrote Tess of D'Ubervilles. Of course he marries the tenant farmer's niece, after his mother talks him into it and that his father would be proud.)

Started new book, which takes itself far less seriously and as a result is far more enjoyable -- also less sex and more fun dialogue and humor. It's also a historical romance, but I'm guessing the Victorian Period -- since the heroine sets clocks and is a time-keeper, and mentions telescopes and chrometers, and was born on a merchant frigate. Note that they didn't necessarily have clocks back in the 1700s or telescopes, but somehow I doubt this advanced.

The hero is inheriting a Dukedom too, but he doesn't care about it, has no interest in obtaining a wife, refuses to have an heir -- and is a bit of a playboy, struggling to raise two wards who he inherited from a previous set of relatives that died.

It's rather funny in places. He needs a governess. The heroine turns him down since she is a timekeeper, but unfortunately she is late to catch the coach to Greenwhich, and decides to try the ferry -- even though she is currently phobic when it comes to boats. She figures she's being silly and to try -- but has a panic attack and jumps off, only to land in the Thames. And lose her ledger and time-keeping device -- which means her livelihood. She has to start all over. Being a rather resourceful heroine, she goes to back to the hero's house, soaking wet no less, and agrees to be his governess for the exorbitant sum of 5 pounds a week, and 200 pounds upon the wards movement to boarding school -- this is the 1800s, so apparently that was a lot back then? Also the ability to use the hero's telescope to look at the stars. The hero, who is rather taken with her -- even though she is rather short in stature, and he is rather tall (I don't see why that would be an issue, most tall men I know marry short women with the exception of my father and my mother's sister's husband),
agrees. He also gives her his top-coat, because she's soaking wet and shivering -- even though it is June. He thinks it must be raining, until after she leaves and he realizes, wait, it isn't raining and there is no sign of rain and it hasn't rained all day.

LOL!

Ah, I like this. It makes me laugh. And requires little concentration. Perfect travel reading material. I'd give you the title and author, but frankly I can't remember what they are at the moment.

Date: 2019-07-17 10:04 pm (UTC)
yourlibrarian: Small Green Waterfall (NAT-Waterfall-niki_vakita)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
Also no hot water is a major problem for a length of time.

Funny thing, the only thing our apartment uses gas for is the furnace and water heater (how I wish they were electric). When we came back from our trip we didn't notice at first that the water heater wasn't working (the pilot light had gone out). Like you said, it's hot and we don't generally use hot water for anything but the shower anyway (or sinks in the winter). But three days in I took an early morning shower and boy was it cold! I guess we'd used enough water that the tank refilled and the water coming in was chilly from being underground.

Date: 2019-07-18 05:36 pm (UTC)
yourlibrarian: Surprised Pepper (AVEN-SurprisedPepper-ebsolutely.png)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
People say -- break your lease, find somewhere else. But first I can't -- because it just happened, have to give them a chance to fix -- not their fault, it's an old building. And second, it's not like other places have issues -- you just gave me an example of yours. Everyone has issues. At least with this one -- it's on someone else to fix it, not me.

Yes, not to mention breaking a lease can come with financial consequences. Plus, getting anyone to do quick maintenance work, well, I am both glad I no longer have to arrange that (for our apartment at least) and also well understand how flaky businesses can be about actually doing the work. Plus, moving is not a quick process unless you have so little that you could live out of your car.

Date: 2019-07-24 06:00 pm (UTC)
yourlibrarian: DeanThatstheBreaks-hysterya (SPN-DeanThatstheBreaks-hysterya)
From: [personal profile] yourlibrarian
It is. These past few days we had a temperature dip and I took the opportunity to bake a few things in the mornings that I had in the freezer.

And many times the building managers are as frustrated as the tenants. I put in a work order about our windows several months ago. When they were fixing our roof the roofers cracked one of our windows, and two others are quite old at this point and leaking air badly. They caulked in the meantime, and two months later the window guys came in to look and measure. They said they'd be back in about a month to install them. It's going on two now. I haven't bothered calling about it. I'm just hoping they get installed before it gets cold.

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