The asymmetric arrival of a plethora of household tasks
Over the past year or two things have been going swimmingly(a word not used here until now or in my normal speech patterns, it just showed up) as far as home upkeep, repairs, or maintenance. That has changed recently in a major way.
A major reason was the infamous hurricane Sandy. Other than being miserable for two weeks and losing two trees we came out well relative to many folks, but the price is being paid now. We decided, K insisted, that we get a full house generator. This is not an inexpensive proposition but it will be worth every penny if our power company fails for extended periods whenever a major storm hits.
Before Sandy, one simply bought a generator and the supplier was essentially the general contractor for getting everything set. Post Sandy, NOW, the suppliers as so busy that they do not have the capacity to both supply and completely install the equipment, so the buyer in turn becomes the general contractor. That means coordinating the gas company installation, a plumber with experience, an electrician who understands these machines, a trench digger for the gas lines of to the generator and to the heating boiler for the house, an installer who converts the heating system from oil to gas, a specialist to remove the oil and oil tank from the basement, the actual provider of the generator, and all of the various governmental approvals and inspections.
A few of these people we already know and trust, a few we already know and use because the options are limited, and a few are new to our universe of service providers. Generally speaking the main participants are all large men in their 50's who seem to eat well and have diabetes or knee injuries. Most are congenial, but it's hard to tell who is really charging honestly and who is not, who is really talented who just gets by. Managing this is somewhere between a nuisance and a nightmare.
All of this generator work was pretty much expected, the extent of the management of the project underestimated. More unrelated house repair events also have surfaced. Why does that always seem to happen, that an almost simultaneous series of repairs are needed in many places after a reprieve of a few years. Do inanimate objects have a secret way of communicating to cause maximum harassment to their owners?
For one the sprinkler system had a valve break two weeks ago that maybe, just perhaps, has now been repaired. Our sprinkler system guy is a young man who is the son of our landscaper, our landscaper who does everything from make our fairly large yard look great, cleans our gutters, fixes broken faucets, fills in sinkholes that occasionally appear for various reasons. He is exceptional and does all of this without any guidance from us. He sees a need and takes care of it. The yearly charge if added up is not so small but it seems more than fair given the responsibility that he and his crew take.
His son is a different matter. His father set him up in this side of the business that he previously ran, probably to give him some responsibility and a reason to buy state of the art pickup trucks. On the promptness scale he is marginal, on the skill side he is questionable, and on the intelligence side he does not seem too bright. He is very pleasant. There was an article somewhere recently that somehow used markers to estimate the IQ's of many famous people, with as one knows, 100 being average, or functional but not so creative. I don't remember many of the estimates, but most really successful people were in the 140's, George Bush 2 was 125, Einstein was in the 160's, Madonna and Reggie Jackson were in the 140's and the low one that I remember was Andy Warhol at 86. So we have the Andy Warhol of sprinkler maintenance and repair professionals.
Other events --- three major florescent lights in our basement went out within a one week period, those long fixtures with some sensitive connections. Due to new environmental regulations they now cost a fortune and provide less light with greater longevity --- two sinks, one tub, and worst of all one toilet upstairs have developed slow drainage over the last few weeks that Drano or a plunger cannot deal with. That job has yet to be farmed out, but we know the guy. Fingers crossed that these are just blockages and have nothing to do with our cesspool, a distinct little charm of Long Island living. So far my check of the cesspool linkage in the basement has caused only minor concern.
A couple of other minor events were short annoyances that with persistence and luck I actually managed to solve. My smart phone refused to charge for two days. I plugged it in for 24 hours and finally it took hold. Fine for now but that does not bode well for its longevity, but I am overdue for a change anyway. The other minor event was that the upstairs air conditioning thermostat stopped functioning properly. With a call to our service provider and some on phone instruction that I actually understood, it was repaired after one humid night upstairs.
Then of course came another big one. My desktop computer more or less imploded. It had been a faithful companion for eight years but had outlived its service life, became so slow and unreliable that it needed to be put to rest. Rather than buying an entirely new system, our local computer service provider and I decided to simply replace the computer box and stick with the same system. This was not seamless and for a few days I was in a daze - no morning access to computer news sites, no e-mails coming in, no ability to send e-mails, and complete confusion about how to do basic functions. As of last night this seems to have been mostly corrected and my sanity has improved. As the old blues song says, "you don't miss your water 'til your well runs dry". I missed it terribly for a few days. Revelation! - I must broaden my computer investment and skills to include an IPad or some such device for back-up and more mobile availability. A smart phone does not do it for me. I am all thumbs in the worst way and my vision does not adapt well to the small screens. For me, it is primarily just a mobile telephone.
There are still some issues that are a little annoying and time consuming related to the new computer. All of the e-mail addresses that were automatically built into the system did not seem to transfer. Maybe they are still transferring as some things are doing just that three days after installing the new system or maybe it will take some time to rebuild the database. Who knows what other glitches based on the change or my lack of computer structuring skills will show up. For now though, the ability to write and send an e-mail or write a blog led to this splurge of personal detail, maybe too long, maybe not so interesting, but it will be so nice to see it published and feel connected again.
A major reason was the infamous hurricane Sandy. Other than being miserable for two weeks and losing two trees we came out well relative to many folks, but the price is being paid now. We decided, K insisted, that we get a full house generator. This is not an inexpensive proposition but it will be worth every penny if our power company fails for extended periods whenever a major storm hits.
Before Sandy, one simply bought a generator and the supplier was essentially the general contractor for getting everything set. Post Sandy, NOW, the suppliers as so busy that they do not have the capacity to both supply and completely install the equipment, so the buyer in turn becomes the general contractor. That means coordinating the gas company installation, a plumber with experience, an electrician who understands these machines, a trench digger for the gas lines of to the generator and to the heating boiler for the house, an installer who converts the heating system from oil to gas, a specialist to remove the oil and oil tank from the basement, the actual provider of the generator, and all of the various governmental approvals and inspections.
A few of these people we already know and trust, a few we already know and use because the options are limited, and a few are new to our universe of service providers. Generally speaking the main participants are all large men in their 50's who seem to eat well and have diabetes or knee injuries. Most are congenial, but it's hard to tell who is really charging honestly and who is not, who is really talented who just gets by. Managing this is somewhere between a nuisance and a nightmare.
All of this generator work was pretty much expected, the extent of the management of the project underestimated. More unrelated house repair events also have surfaced. Why does that always seem to happen, that an almost simultaneous series of repairs are needed in many places after a reprieve of a few years. Do inanimate objects have a secret way of communicating to cause maximum harassment to their owners?
For one the sprinkler system had a valve break two weeks ago that maybe, just perhaps, has now been repaired. Our sprinkler system guy is a young man who is the son of our landscaper, our landscaper who does everything from make our fairly large yard look great, cleans our gutters, fixes broken faucets, fills in sinkholes that occasionally appear for various reasons. He is exceptional and does all of this without any guidance from us. He sees a need and takes care of it. The yearly charge if added up is not so small but it seems more than fair given the responsibility that he and his crew take.
His son is a different matter. His father set him up in this side of the business that he previously ran, probably to give him some responsibility and a reason to buy state of the art pickup trucks. On the promptness scale he is marginal, on the skill side he is questionable, and on the intelligence side he does not seem too bright. He is very pleasant. There was an article somewhere recently that somehow used markers to estimate the IQ's of many famous people, with as one knows, 100 being average, or functional but not so creative. I don't remember many of the estimates, but most really successful people were in the 140's, George Bush 2 was 125, Einstein was in the 160's, Madonna and Reggie Jackson were in the 140's and the low one that I remember was Andy Warhol at 86. So we have the Andy Warhol of sprinkler maintenance and repair professionals.
Other events --- three major florescent lights in our basement went out within a one week period, those long fixtures with some sensitive connections. Due to new environmental regulations they now cost a fortune and provide less light with greater longevity --- two sinks, one tub, and worst of all one toilet upstairs have developed slow drainage over the last few weeks that Drano or a plunger cannot deal with. That job has yet to be farmed out, but we know the guy. Fingers crossed that these are just blockages and have nothing to do with our cesspool, a distinct little charm of Long Island living. So far my check of the cesspool linkage in the basement has caused only minor concern.
A couple of other minor events were short annoyances that with persistence and luck I actually managed to solve. My smart phone refused to charge for two days. I plugged it in for 24 hours and finally it took hold. Fine for now but that does not bode well for its longevity, but I am overdue for a change anyway. The other minor event was that the upstairs air conditioning thermostat stopped functioning properly. With a call to our service provider and some on phone instruction that I actually understood, it was repaired after one humid night upstairs.
Then of course came another big one. My desktop computer more or less imploded. It had been a faithful companion for eight years but had outlived its service life, became so slow and unreliable that it needed to be put to rest. Rather than buying an entirely new system, our local computer service provider and I decided to simply replace the computer box and stick with the same system. This was not seamless and for a few days I was in a daze - no morning access to computer news sites, no e-mails coming in, no ability to send e-mails, and complete confusion about how to do basic functions. As of last night this seems to have been mostly corrected and my sanity has improved. As the old blues song says, "you don't miss your water 'til your well runs dry". I missed it terribly for a few days. Revelation! - I must broaden my computer investment and skills to include an IPad or some such device for back-up and more mobile availability. A smart phone does not do it for me. I am all thumbs in the worst way and my vision does not adapt well to the small screens. For me, it is primarily just a mobile telephone.
There are still some issues that are a little annoying and time consuming related to the new computer. All of the e-mail addresses that were automatically built into the system did not seem to transfer. Maybe they are still transferring as some things are doing just that three days after installing the new system or maybe it will take some time to rebuild the database. Who knows what other glitches based on the change or my lack of computer structuring skills will show up. For now though, the ability to write and send an e-mail or write a blog led to this splurge of personal detail, maybe too long, maybe not so interesting, but it will be so nice to see it published and feel connected again.
posted by John Borden at 6:11 AM
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