...bastardo!...

8 hours, 2 glasses of wine and $780.00 later we finally have water. The absentee landlord being... absent, I am currently waiting for the other landlord, his supervisor. Upon his arrival he and I are going to have a chat. We are going to sit down and I will explain to him the abhorrent conditions (i.e. fuel leak in furnace, busted thermostat, exposed back entrance in basement, furnace filter needs replacing) that led to the freezing and subsequent bursting of our pipes. I am going to show him the frozen solid water gauge which is currently in our freezer to show him exactly how it was when we found it; I will draw his attention to the bottom of the gauge which has actually split open from bursting. Among his immediate concerns will be the heating, which is crucial. Then he will contact the city and get us a new water guage, as well as CO2 monitors, which we are lacking.

We will talk about many other things as well - the fact that the upstairs has no heat, there's a long crack down one wall, several malfunctioning windows, a broken trellis on the front porch, and the abominable safety hazard that is the basement. There will be politeness and calm, but our case will be made, concrete steps will be put into place by the landlord to fix every single one of these concerns, barring which Cam said "we'll have him arrested". Which, really, would not be out of line on our parts.

This may not be apparent right now, but let me make it abundantly clear. I am really really pissed off. This has been the shittiest day. Aside from having to deal with this bullshit all fucking day and having to call in off work (which is not cool - either for the money deprivation it leads to or the general leaving the people at work hanging), I can't even enjoy the one inadvertent night off I have because there is the cage of an animal I hate which stinks like rancid piss and thus has to be cleaned, and it appears this has to be done by Janet and myself because everyone else has left. So these two things together = a lot of my time being taken up by shit that isn't my problem and I shouldn't have to deal with = time taken away from other things I have to do which are not going to get done now. Things like laundry, and groceries, and visiting my doctor to get a substitute for Bextra, which by the way I will be needing hardcore in T-minus 3 days.

I am on MSN right now. Some of you may see me. Unless you are very, very certain you have given me no reason to hate you today, do not message me. If you know you have been good, but tend to be annoying or have any doubts as to how well I can deal with you - again, do not message me. There is only one of you on my list who I am waiting for, and this is the only reason why my MSN is even running at all right now, given my current state of communication aversion.

Please ignore this rant - go back to your days, your lives, your holiday enjoyment. I hope you are having holiday enjoyment - I quite obviously am not. Eat a chocolate on my behalf. Maybe down a bottle of Jack Daniels. Whatever does the trick. I will reconvene at a later time.