I believe in letting people do their job. Unless I'm teaching, I avoid hanging over them with constant critisism. Jerry even commented on the fact that I don't like to complain.But Steve had to go pick up the sink base himself on Friday night, cause Jerry is in Vegas till tonight. Luckily Joe came on Sat to install it before he leaves for Palermo. Bless him and his near unintelligible accent.Two of the Three Stooges plumbers were here Friday and said they would be back on Monday after we get the sink. Done Deal right? No. Today they say they can't come till Wed, they have another job-even tho this one started in MAY.Even tho it's only abouit an hours work. I have tried to call them and no one picks up; I left a rude message.The job is only to connect the existing water pipe to the sink faucet! These guys are a joke. D&D Plumbing(their real name)= Dumb and Dumber.They forgot to install an incoming water pipe for the toilet. Not one fixture is centered or in the right place. Every faucet drips, every stopper doesn't stop. And they are really keeping my life on hold cause I can't unpack anything till it's washed as the boxes of dishes and kitchen stuff long ago succumbed to the galaxies of dust whose levels rival that of an archealogical dig. I am seriously and premeditatedly considering plumbercide, with extreme predjudice. Check the newspaper soon for a story of a woman who goes berserk and beats (to a bloody pulpy mass) a plumber with his own wrench, then allows wild animals to rip him limb from limb and vultures to peck at his eyes and flesh and finally, puts on display in her backyard his head on a pike as a warning and deterrent for other plumbers and sub-contractors.
Maybe that's too extreme. Perhaps I shall just beat him about the head and shoulders using his assistants, Curly and Larry as bludgeons. Head butts and finger pokes are too good for these guys.
In other news, we had our (final) farewell dinner with Joe and Marion last night before they leave for their new life in North Carolina. Best of luck and lots of love to you both. Don't change your accents!
I have used the lyrics from "Hot time summer in the city" as titles to recent posts. Well imagine my surprise, cousins, when on the front page of the Sunday Times, there was an article about that very same song by the the Lovin' Spoonfu.l It reached #1 on the charts August 13, 1966, the day after I turned 17. John Sebastian commented in the article that back them, the summer heatwave was only 2 weeks in August that you could count on like clockwork. These days in NY at least, a heatwave or a snow can occur ( and has )anytime from April to November. But for now:
All around people looking half-dead,
walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a matchhead
Monday, August 07, 2006
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Stupid, mean or apathetic?
I'm angry and I'm hot. MY birthday is coming and I am old. We have no floor tiles, no sink cabinet. I'm crossing my fingers for Friday cause the carpenter is leaving for Italy on the 10th. I'd be incredulous but at this point I believe anything. It seems like many members of our culture are reaching for new levels of mediocrity, few have pride in a job, any job well done, or any act for that matter. The contractor makes mistakes but at least he cares about correcting them. Do many care about much?
I have a dinner date tonight with 2 friends, one who lives 5 minutes from me. Since she is off for the summer, I asked her to come over an hour earlier. She just left a message saying that she doesn't have any plans today but she's bored and looking for something to do so she'll probably just come at 7, as planned. She knows very well that I am slightly disabled, have no car and have been chained to the house all summer due to of contractor-sitting. We have ties going back 30 years, but I am questioning why I feel the need to stay tied to someone so self-involved.
I also ask myself why I read the papers when it upsets me so:
Newly disclosed tapes reveal mass confusion in the military on 9/11 undermining Pentagon claims of readiness. I don't even want to think about that. Or the situation in Israel and Lebanon which is getting worse everyday. Hezbollah seems more than willing to sacrifice all of Lebanon ( which will benefit Syria) while the UN grows more distant and ineffectual.
Today a German newspaper reported that one of the Bin Laden sons has been released from house arrest in Iran for the purpose of recruiting jihadists from Syria in support of Hezbollah.
D. Rumsfeld told the Senate that he had no time for public testimony. Maybe he should have avoided the lying and corruption that brought the investigaton.
Which will be interminable, you can bet.
The Senate approved a $453.5 billion Pentagon bill which includes $1.8 billion for a border fence. Most immigrants pay some taxes and all pay sales tax, yet the rich have hedge funds, trusts and deductions. Screw Al Queda and their ilk-we gotta protect ourselves from those dangerous Mexicans!
A bill in Cogress to raise the national minium wage to a livable level can only be accomplished if the very richest Americans don't have to pay estate taxes.
In addition to military spending in defense of a foreign civil war, billions are being wasted in gov't service contracts in Iraq every month.Crony, Bribe and Graft Inc, USA. And now, the Pentagon has ordered 11,00 troops to Afganistan, the 82nd Airborne. When I was a kid, I had a friend in the 82nd. He was sent to Vietnam then somehow ended up in Cambodia- where we did not officially have any troops. I've experienced many, many years of being lied to by the gov't but never as badly as now.
Bush's new plan for terror-tribunals allows hearsay and coerced testimony while denying classified evidence to defendants.
Can you hear the screams of the Constitution as it's being ripped apart?
Somalia, Congo, Sri Lanka; why are Africans less important?
Katherine Harris, unbelievably running for the Senate in Fla, had all her aides quit on her when she didn't tell them she got a subpoena in a defense-lobbying investigation.
The CDC says a 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana was due to home-schooled kids whose parents were wary of the vaccination.Really, you can't make this stuff up.
The Kansas Board of Ed ousted conservatives and decided that evolution theory and sex ed may be possibly more credible and relevant than intelligent design. How 21st century!
And of course, Fidel Castro, dead or not dead?
But here is my very favorite story, A Hong Kong banker two years ago agreed to pay $15.4 million for 8 years of private ballroom dance instruction ( that's about $5000 a day). She paid 1/2 than reneged on the deal suing for her payment of $7.4 mil. The instructors say breach of contract and are counter-suing for the balance. Gotta Dance!
The weatherpeople say that today is the last day of the 100 degree heat wave.
Three NY TV stations said that a "cold front" is arriving on Friday. Temperatures will be around 87 for the weekend. Brrrrr.
I have a dinner date tonight with 2 friends, one who lives 5 minutes from me. Since she is off for the summer, I asked her to come over an hour earlier. She just left a message saying that she doesn't have any plans today but she's bored and looking for something to do so she'll probably just come at 7, as planned. She knows very well that I am slightly disabled, have no car and have been chained to the house all summer due to of contractor-sitting. We have ties going back 30 years, but I am questioning why I feel the need to stay tied to someone so self-involved.
I also ask myself why I read the papers when it upsets me so:
Newly disclosed tapes reveal mass confusion in the military on 9/11 undermining Pentagon claims of readiness. I don't even want to think about that. Or the situation in Israel and Lebanon which is getting worse everyday. Hezbollah seems more than willing to sacrifice all of Lebanon ( which will benefit Syria) while the UN grows more distant and ineffectual.
Today a German newspaper reported that one of the Bin Laden sons has been released from house arrest in Iran for the purpose of recruiting jihadists from Syria in support of Hezbollah.
D. Rumsfeld told the Senate that he had no time for public testimony. Maybe he should have avoided the lying and corruption that brought the investigaton.
Which will be interminable, you can bet.
The Senate approved a $453.5 billion Pentagon bill which includes $1.8 billion for a border fence. Most immigrants pay some taxes and all pay sales tax, yet the rich have hedge funds, trusts and deductions. Screw Al Queda and their ilk-we gotta protect ourselves from those dangerous Mexicans!
A bill in Cogress to raise the national minium wage to a livable level can only be accomplished if the very richest Americans don't have to pay estate taxes.
In addition to military spending in defense of a foreign civil war, billions are being wasted in gov't service contracts in Iraq every month.Crony, Bribe and Graft Inc, USA. And now, the Pentagon has ordered 11,00 troops to Afganistan, the 82nd Airborne. When I was a kid, I had a friend in the 82nd. He was sent to Vietnam then somehow ended up in Cambodia- where we did not officially have any troops. I've experienced many, many years of being lied to by the gov't but never as badly as now.
Bush's new plan for terror-tribunals allows hearsay and coerced testimony while denying classified evidence to defendants.
Can you hear the screams of the Constitution as it's being ripped apart?
Somalia, Congo, Sri Lanka; why are Africans less important?
Katherine Harris, unbelievably running for the Senate in Fla, had all her aides quit on her when she didn't tell them she got a subpoena in a defense-lobbying investigation.
The CDC says a 2005 measles outbreak in Indiana was due to home-schooled kids whose parents were wary of the vaccination.Really, you can't make this stuff up.
The Kansas Board of Ed ousted conservatives and decided that evolution theory and sex ed may be possibly more credible and relevant than intelligent design. How 21st century!
And of course, Fidel Castro, dead or not dead?
But here is my very favorite story, A Hong Kong banker two years ago agreed to pay $15.4 million for 8 years of private ballroom dance instruction ( that's about $5000 a day). She paid 1/2 than reneged on the deal suing for her payment of $7.4 mil. The instructors say breach of contract and are counter-suing for the balance. Gotta Dance!
The weatherpeople say that today is the last day of the 100 degree heat wave.
Three NY TV stations said that a "cold front" is arriving on Friday. Temperatures will be around 87 for the weekend. Brrrrr.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Everything but the kitchen sink
August.We started construction in May, I really thought we would be done by the Fourth of July. Ha. Jerry put down a 1/4" sub-floor instead of 1/2". The tiles we waited 2 weeks for were installed over this, by a sub-contractor. The result was a wavy floor. The tiles are named "Caribbean" but really, waves are superfluous at this point. When Jerry arrived to view the damage, I'm afraid I burst into tears, a delayed reaction to too much dust and take-out food. Alarmed, he promised to fix it and put 1/2" plywood over it and reodered new tiles- but at the cost of another 2 weeks. Ironically, this works out because the order for the cabinet that holds the damn sink was lost and will take... another 2 weeks. These have passed in a hot and sticky way but everything is set for delivery tomorrow, a day that promises to break all heat records as well as my patience. At least the electricians are finally done, those stupid-heads. We waited a month for "special" bulbs for the bathroom lights (" they were in the box, did you throw them out?") 3 times they came and none of them worked. You know how some people (men) never read the instructions or test the equipment first? Well, it wasn't the bulbs but the improperly wired light fixtures that didn't work. Mon Dieu. Now that we have lights, I can see that the paint job has to be re-done.
The debris in the backyard has been removed but the garden is covered with volunteer morning glories, strangling all the perenniels. So it shall remain, it's too hot too garden.
Poor Steve works in Queens where the electricity demand is huge and they are cutting power, so the AC in his office is set high. He's luckier than his sister who lives in Queens and was without power for a week! What, they didn't know it was going to be hot this summer? They really put the con in Con Edison.
On 7/15 we celebrated my Aunt Sarah's 96th birthday at a party at my cousin Janie's. It was great to see everyone and it was so wonderful to be with my Aunt, who looks incredible. She reminds me so much of my Mom, who was her little sister. Both of us still have the urge to call her, so we call each other instead. It's a good plan.
We saw an Israeli movie, "Ushpitzin" It was OK, sort of an updated Sholem Aleichem story.The best thing was, a character used the phrase Oivavoi. It was the first time I heard it spoken, having read it in a book. Turns out, the accent is on the first syllable. I've been saying it wrong! Dios Mio!
The deity of the day is Iris, goddess of rainbows!
The debris in the backyard has been removed but the garden is covered with volunteer morning glories, strangling all the perenniels. So it shall remain, it's too hot too garden.
Poor Steve works in Queens where the electricity demand is huge and they are cutting power, so the AC in his office is set high. He's luckier than his sister who lives in Queens and was without power for a week! What, they didn't know it was going to be hot this summer? They really put the con in Con Edison.
On 7/15 we celebrated my Aunt Sarah's 96th birthday at a party at my cousin Janie's. It was great to see everyone and it was so wonderful to be with my Aunt, who looks incredible. She reminds me so much of my Mom, who was her little sister. Both of us still have the urge to call her, so we call each other instead. It's a good plan.
We saw an Israeli movie, "Ushpitzin" It was OK, sort of an updated Sholem Aleichem story.The best thing was, a character used the phrase Oivavoi. It was the first time I heard it spoken, having read it in a book. Turns out, the accent is on the first syllable. I've been saying it wrong! Dios Mio!
The deity of the day is Iris, goddess of rainbows!
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