The Princess is In in Everyday Ramblings

This is the busy street by the grocery store I go to most often. The camera does not do justice to the reds, not even close; they are so much deeper and richer to the eye. I took this yesterday afternoon. I was down there again this morning getting some heavier things (need multiple trips) and it was raining steadily and foggy and you could barely see the trees.

I tried out my rain protocol as I walked over “the hill” to get there. It is about 4 miles. The rain was varied in intensity and so I learned what I needed and I was very glad I bagged my phone and wallet by the time I got to the store.

This is a total aside but I heard on the TED Radio Hour yesterday about this guy who was born not being able to see color and he has this device he had implanted with an aerial that allows him to “hear” color. Colors send out different frequencies. He is an artist. It is pretty amazing. He can hear Infrared and UV too.

Being able to apprehend color is something I so do not take for granted.

Ever since I moved in here almost 7 years ago there has been this “issue” with my bathtub/shower arrangement. It is a relatively inexpensive all in one but there is a gap between the tub and the shower walls and what caulking there was has been gone for a long time. As that part of my place is at ground level (the whole place is dug into the side of a hill)…

…It is impossible to keep clean and I get slugs and creepy crawly things on occasion in the tub and ants until they stepped up the outside extermination. When I made a maintenance request for a problem I am having with my clothes dryer (I get a new one, yippee!) I thought I’d mention this problem. There was also some leakage with my kitchen faucet as the place ages out.

The repair guy was supposed to come between 9 and noon yesterday.

I got up early and took a shower and cleaned and cleaned and washed my shower curtain and took everything out of the shower area to prepare for the repair and then settled in to work.

It might be appropriate to mention here that I was tired as I put in a bunch of overtime this week.

No one showed up. No one called. No one emailed.

Just after noon as I was taking a broken down shipping box out to the garbage area to recycle I saw these three young men horsing around outside, ball caps and a big pair of wire cutters, they looked like they had misplaced their giant skateboards that young men here carry everywhere.

I went for a walk to enjoy the sunshine and try to work my way through my irritation about all that prep for…

When I got back those young men were in my apartment and they were wearing cologne.

They had caulked the side of the shower stall deal where it meets the interior wall (which was completely unnecessary) and were working on my sink. The cats were fine but Diego was riled up and bitey.

I was furious. Absolutely furious. It was quite a rush.

Once I calmed down enough to talk, I expressed how unhappy I was, I did not swear or express what I was thinking about twelve year old plumber’s apprentices but pointed out where they needed to caulk.

The younger two left and the older one, who was probably 24 or so took care of the join and I calmed down enough to talk to him in a civil way and he said he had never seen a tub/shower installed quite that way before. That mollified me a bit.

Why is waiting for maintenance people/workmen so irritating?

For me it was an issue of not feeling in control, being tired and worried about the cats getting out. (They are chipped but are not wearing collars and tags.)

My faucet is no longer leaking and the caulking is done, not perfectly but enough to keep unwanted creatures for an unexpected visit.

So I am good, but man my princess was on full display yesterday.

Last updated September 17, 2016