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I'm half way through writing the next episode of Bike when I suddenly realise I hadn't heard the central heating/hot water boiler light up. It's old and noisy. On checking I find it isn't working. Up in the attic to make sure the header tank hasn't run dry - it hadn't. Looks like the boiler may have died of old age. After swearing at the cats because they wanted to see what was going on but know even less about boilers than I do - which is minuscule - I try the immersion heater, which I kept despite the assurances of the plumber I wouldn't need it. Something happened - well it began making a noise like it was heating something, so I might yet have hot water. The plumber is coming on Friday so I hope things will be sorted, but I'm not holding my breath.
The upshot is I haven't had time to finish Bike, so I'll try tomorrow. Life is at present a total pain, and I can't wait to retire because one of the most vexing things is that I'm never home in the day to be able to admit builders or plumbers or telecoms, and it's been like this for the past 5 years since my aunt died. None of the utilities or service industries seem to realise that there are millions of people like me who are busy during the day as most of them only seem to work 9-5 Monday to Friday, and we have to take a day off to get anything done, which in my case can involve having to cancel a dozen or more patient appointments.
I'm sure I'll survive and get things sorted eventually, but in the interim I am heartily fed up.
Comments
You have my sympathy.....
It seems that it is the mission of every utility in the world to screw with our lives when it comes to scheduling repairs. My favorite is the telephone company, which in my neck of the woods (sorry for the American colloquialisms) is Verizon - oh for the days of Ma Bell!
Anyway, whenever you try to schedule a phone repairman, they never have anyone available for at least a week, and then when they finally give you a date they can't even tell you morning or afternoon, let alone give you an appointment time. No, you get the classic,"We'll be there on Friday - wait for us."
Makes you want to pay a little visit to the local Verizon office......
D. Eden
Dum Vivimus, Vivamus
The other side of that is
The other side of that is that for those of us who _will_ do work outside of the 9-5 world, we get screamed at for not being 'awake' at 8 AM for when they get to work, and certainly get no thanks for working on their problems until 3 that morning.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
After big sudden audit by business owner...
Business owner: "So marketing guys should get a double bonus, Sales will get teir incentive plan adjusted up, IT guys... Don't fire them."
Ah, yes, British Summer
Who else would be running central heating at the end of June?
I turn ours down a degree or two sometime in April when the weather warms up and that is usually that for the summer, but I was surprised to find it on yesterday morning.
At least around these parts the afternoons are pleasantly warm enough to not need a coat, but the mornings can still have a hint of frost. I'm not going to go on about the 'old days', that only makes me sound ancient.
Penny
And cold Russia again...
... is buying air conditioners at the record rates :-)
Moscow today hit 30C mark in several districts :-)
Good thing that I was running around Moscow on errands in air conditioned car :-)
Some things
are the same on both sides of the pond.
Sorry about your plumbing problems
Not fun at all and I sympathize completely about your appt time problems. Worse yet is when you stay home and they don't even show up..... "we were running behind...."