2007-11-08 - 5:16 p.m.

...is this a general or specific LACK OF CLUE???....

I finished lecturing today, met with some students, met with some electricians, and left early for home. Well, not early, actually. I got to work at 7:30am, and I left at 4:30pm. I guess that counts as a full day - followed by an evening of writing another lecture in the peace and quiet of my domicile.

Yeah, right.

I got home to discover more roofers - this problem dates back to a year ago when the ceiling and wall of our front stairwell collapsed - much activity ensued. The roofers are finally returning to sand down the floor, which was apparently affected by the influx of water. They've been working on 1 square meter of wood for the last three hours apparently. And they are making a bloody huge amount of noise.

So much for peace and quiet.

We had another strange interaction with our landlady yesterday. She has decided that she wants to clean our carpet this fall - I mean, she wants to bring in professional cleaners to professionally clean it. She has gone out of her way to find us 'organic' cleaners, which is nice, although K and I can't quite get over the sensation that we will be having the house flooded with water once again....

It's expected to take 24-48 hours to dry, during which time I will be sleeping downstairs, clearly - I'm having a hard enough time with those stairs without making them slippery..

Anyway, in the long run this is not a big deal. Although our landlady made one of her classic incomprehensible statements. "I guess this will be our Christmas present to you this year!"

I kind of wanted to reply, "And our Christmas present to you will be our rent check!"

Isn't it rather odd, to think of maintaining THEIR HOUSE as a Christmas present to US??

***

p.s. a day of working with my feet up on a chair, and lecturing from a combo seated/standing approach has reduced the size of the cankles. Shame. I was going to beg for another foot massage tonight....