10:41 p.m. | 2004-02-22 Weekend Interrupted. It�s not been the greatest of weekends and I�m grumpy still. I received notice last week that the plumbers were coming to TheHotel to fiddle with the pipes and whatnot. Again. They�re all about fiddling with the pipes rather than finishing with the pipes and it�s getting a little annoying. It would bother me nevermore if they could do their fiddling say, uh, during the week. You know, any one of those five days that I�m not at home. All day. Yet, they insist on playing with the pipes on Saturdays between the hours of 8:00am and 5:00pm. And, 8:00am means 8:00am, just to be clear. Okay, so maybe that doesn�t seem like such a hassle. Problem is that some suites have local water shutoff valves but others don�t which means they have to turn off ALL the water to TheHotel. In other words, if�n you�re gonna be home that day, there�ll be no showering, no cooking, no laundry, no dishes and, most importantly, no bathroom facilities. When you look at it that way, 8:00am to 5:00pm seems to be a really huge window. More like a garage door. On Friday, I happened to run into the HotelManager who told me that the plumbers would only be turning off the cold water lines, and that he didn�t think they�d need to do anything in my dreamspace. Hence, they shouldn�t be bothering me, nor leaving me completely without water. Right. I can�t even believe that I believed that. I know that I tend to split hairs sometimes, but there�s quite a bit of difference between �hot� and �cold�, and �no botherings� and �many botherings�. Last time I checked, that difference was called �the opposite of�. And, just so you know, �opposites� didn�t attract in this case. Quite the contrary. I�m glad they didn�t wake me up at 8:00am, but I didn�t find my ice cold shower �invigorating�. At all. See, I take a very hot shower in the morning in order to open my sinuses and to warm up my muscles so that they work and I can walk and whatnot. Cold showers have the exact opposite effect on me. Plus, they turn me purple. Sure, I could have gone without a shower, but please� I was going to brunch and I didn�t want Boston Boston thinking that I don�t understand the basics of personal hygiene. Anyway, I got out of the shower and was drying off when I heard knocking at my door. Knowing that it was the plumber and that he had a passkey if I didn�t answer, I threw a towel on my head and a robe on my body and proceeded to answer the door. Here�s what happened. (CI:) Hi. (Plumber:) Hi. I�m the plumber and I need to change out some pipes in your bathroom. (CI:) Uh, I just got out of the shower. (Plumber:) (Blank look.) (CI:) Could you give me a moment? (Plumber:) Oh. Okay. I�ll come back in a couple of minutes. Great. I closed the door, threw on some clothes and was brushing out my hair when he returned. With his co-plumber. I grabbed my stuff and headed out to brunch and grocery shopping. Just for the record, I wasn�t a happy camper. After all, I still had frozen and stiff purple feet and hands. Dangnabit. I went to brunch and the place was completely packed due to some local event. Needless to say, I wasn�t seated in Boston Boston�s section. No, I was seated in an opposite section. And, my waitress put the salad dressing on my salad which was the opposite of what I asked for. At that point, I knew there was no way I was going grocery shopping. I was way too grouchy for that. And, obviously, it was opposite day. No telling what could happen if you go shopping on that day. I came home to an unlocked dreamspace, a flooded bathroom floor and sopping wet towels (those would be my towels) in the bathtub. Apparently, they mopped my floor with them. Oh, joy. That�s a pet peeve of mine, actually. When plumbers use your own towels to mop up the floor. I mean, they�re plumbers� they deal with pipes and water and pipes full of water. You�d think they�d at least carry around their own towels, mop or perhaps a wet-vac (like the one I saw them carrying down the hall later). And, if they�re going to use your own bathroom towels to mop up the floor, they could at least wring them out and hang them up. Geesh. So, I whipped out my mop, mopped up the standing water, rung out and hung up my towels and cursed mightily. The, I finished reading a book (that I started many moons ago) and started another. Which is the opposite of what I�ve been doing for the last eight months or so. Alas, I�ve had reader�s block. However, that was a good opposite. And, of course, I was repeatedly interrupted by the plumbers throughout the day and into the evening. The last time, they came by to check for any leaks and declared that I didn�t have any. It was opposite day though, which was confirmed when I later walked into the bathroom � in my socks � to discover a wet floor once again. Dammit. They�d left by then so I sleuthed around, located the leak and wedged a plastic cup up under the fixture � the old one � that�s dripping water for whatever reason. Which means, need I say, that I�ll be visited by the plumbers once again. Fuck. By the time they left, I was too miffed to catch up on dishes, or do anything remotely constructive. I read until I went to bed. Which means that I had to go grocery shopping, wash catch-up dishes, cook and do yet more dishes today. And, I did. I also cleaned the bathroom since it seems to be the center of attention � and trouble � lately. Bastards. In summation, I have this to say about my weekend. Right. Great. Dangnabit. Oh, joy. Geesh. Dammit. Fuck. Bastards. I sure as hell hope that tomorrow isn�t Backwards Day. your thoughts? seed flower