It’s a story of a love affair between appliances and this apartment, the breakup, the sorrow, and the moving on.
I.
I awoke some time after 7 when Ms. S. arrived home from work; I awoke to the sound of a radio broadcast.
We do not have a radio.
In the parking lot someone — not a usual resident — was sitting in their parked car (taking up a valuable parking spot) listening to their radio at full volume. Window up or down? I cannot say. Ms. S. said she could hear it from the other side of the building, where she had to park because this person had taken a spot in front of our unit.
To me it was mostly white noise; to Ms. S. it was a rage trigger … which is understandable, as she, unlike yours truly, was exhausted and needed to sleep.
Fast-forward half an hour, during which time I got up, got ready, etc., and we chat, Ms. S. goes to bed, and I do not see her again awake until 3pm.
Radio Free Parking Lot had departed some minutes earlier. Outside it was in the 40s and windows were still dewy. I prepared breakfast (one egg, about 4oz of liver, coffee and tea … yum!) and got to work.
II.
At noon the cats were fed. After 1 a knock came at the door, and it wasn’t Kenny.
It was Larry … here to install a new dish washer … so let me back up.
Yesterday around 2:45 I missed a phone call and received a voice mail, the latter announcing itself as Teresa from the main office inquiring as to whether our water heater was fixed. As soon as I had time I went to the main office, Teresa asked if she could help me, and I turned toward Melissa and riddled: “Can you guess what I’m here about?”
“The water heater?” her question flopped morosely. I nodded. From the other office Marilyn asked loudly, “Which apartment?” and Melissa and I each responded. “Sir, come on in,” she continued, “I have Kenny on the phone. You tell him precisely what’s wrong.” And I did. And Kenny, quite dejected by this point, his voice promised, said he’d be by today to install a new one.
But this is about the dish washer.
“Also,” I began, turning to Melissa, and I related and repeated the issues with the dish washer and AC, but pointed out that neither was critical. It was just that if the dish washer motor was in need of repair, I didn’t want to damage it further.
Marilyn poked her head through the door. “Run it!” she ordered with enthusiasm. “If it dies, we’ll get you a new one.” There were smiles all around. “Run it!” she repeated. I left, returned home, and related this all almost as a dramatic reenactment to Ms. S. And so I planned on running the dish washer — when Ms. S. wasn’t around because it still made annoying scratching and clawing noises as if a honey badger were trapped inside — until it died.
Then Larry knocked on the door and announced that he was here to install a new dish washer. I related my surprise but also my gratitude, and retold Marilyn’s imperative from the day before. He got to work removing the old one bit by bit and from time to time I took photos and videos of the process. He wheeled the old one out on a dolly, carried in the new one, and began attaching it just as Kenny arrived.
III.
I showed Kenny video I’d taken of the leaking water heater, and so he flipped the breaker and began unplugging the leaking beast. He drained it with a hose leading out the front door. I tracked down A & E and hauled them into the bedroom where Ms. S. still slumbered. I helped Kenny move items from a shelf and then, once the dish washer was finished, he and Larry removed the old tank and brought back a different specimen of the same model.
It would take up to half an hour for the new one to fill up.
Kenny wheeled the defective model to a shed and then took off in his truck. Meanwhile Larry refilled our AC unit with freon; we should have no more freezing up.
I checked on Ms. S., who had slept through all the ruckus. She got up once the workmen left and while I had ‘lunch’ she enjoyed ‘breakfast.’
Such is our schedule.
IV.
That’s when the cable (internet) went down.
But [1] it’s obviously back up and [2] it’s a story for another day.
In short:
- now we have working appliances again
- the upside to renting is not being responsible for said appliances
- our maintenance guys are really quite awesome
