As most friends here know, I have a couple of ongoing health management things. These few things require a tub and hot water.
On Sunday evening, I was taking a bath, and the water stopped. I thought, “Huh. Water main break or something.” It’s an old city, happens now and then. Our plumbing is only five years old and we have an on-demand hot water heater the same age, so I just sat there a minute … until J said, “There’s a bunch of water out here on the floor.”
That, of course, was the end of my bath. After drying off and collecting my wits, I took a look at the “closet full of a million pipes,” and found this, with hot water gushing out of it —
O
O
The lead from the water heater had separated from the pipe that takes the hot water to the rest of the house. The clamp on the top broke. I actually thought, “thank the plumbing deities for that,” because it looked like an easy fix.
You may or may not know — I don’t do plumbing fixes. Won’t touch ’em. But. I do understand most plumbing things. To confirm my suspicions, I had J go down to the basement to turn the main waterline off-and-on while I checked the bazillion valves in the plumbing closet. Looked like I was right. It was already evening, so we decided on cold water sink baths in the morning, and I Scarlett O’Hara-ed it until the next day.
O
During the critical stage — messy!
O
Called my good friend and contractor (who also happens to be our next-door neighbor) Monday morning. He ran by the hardware store to buy a few things, and it was fixed by noon! Couldn’t have taken him more than five minutes. He only wanted the cost of the supplies, but of course I doubled it and made him take it. Because calling in a plumber for something so simple and stupid would’ve cost three or four times that much. Let alone, having it fixed in less than a day.
So, as I was thinking when I first saw it, if we were going to have a plumbing issue, I’m glad it was a simple one.
I had to cancel the purchase, ergo the whole renovation. The bathtub had been delayed three times already, and today’s fourth delay would put it here after my contractor/plumber was scheduled.
Nevermind the fact that this was all arranged so it would be done while I was out of town; because there wouldn’t be a bathtub or shower here for three or four days.
Honestly, I’m glad to be rid of thinking about it. The sheer hours of work, websites, phone calls about screwed-up delivery has been exhausting.
I’ll spare you my further thoughts about large corporations destroying the service economy through greed.
ETA – And now, the giant awful infection at the surgical site is back. And my surgeon is on vacation. And I’m supposed to be on a plane a week from today,
If you’ll pardon me, I have to get this off my chest. I’ll feel better.
I’d planned the new bathroom for months. I carefully chose the shower curtain, the floor planks, the mirror, the towels, the rug, the sconces, the art, the 36×60 deep-soak tub, the old-timey shower/tap … and the tile.
Not my best drawing (and it makes the bathroom look a little bigger than it is) but this is what was planned.
O
O
The old-timey shower kit arrived quickly and easily from Amazon. The special deep-soak plumbing stuff I needed arrived quickly via UPS. The tub arrives later today. Know what else arrivedtoday? Eight very heavy cases of the wrong tile.
I ordered the brown/blue/green you see above. I got eight cases of white marble with grey veins.
O
O
No problem, I think. I’ll call them, and surely they’ll swap it. Nope.
Home Depot (of course) does not do their own large deliveries (from the local store). It’s farmed out to a logistics company.
Long story short, I’m told by three different reps (none of whom work for Home Depot) that all they can do is process a return, give me my money back, and come pick it up. Three/four days+. Then I have to place a new order for the correct tile. Again. Which will take a week-ish for delivery.
But, I don’t want my money back. I want the correct tile. Because otherwise, I’m going to have a contractor in here with nothing to install.
Anyhow. Yes, it got to the point where I was yelling. Most of you know me well — It’s very, very difficult to get me to angrily holler at you.
So. I’ve decided I’m going with the mistake marble-looking tile. I don’t hate it, it’s not ugly, it doesn’t clash, and it’ll reflect light in a dim bathroom. Plenty of people would happily choose it on purpose. It’ll look something like this, color-wise. It’ll be okay with the blue & green room. It’s fine.
O
O
As my psychiatrist tells me — manage your aggravation and pick your battles according to what’s worth it and what’s not. It’s nice tile, it’s just not what I chose.
This wouldn’t smart quite so much if this weren’t the third time we’d ordered from Home Depot (actually, their logistics company) over about a year and had the wrong thing delivered.
So, Home Depot — never again.
Now, the mental part.
I realize that if this were five years ago, I would have put the eight cases of tile in the back of the SUV, driven them to the store, pitched a stinky fit, and drove home with the correct tile. I’m no longer capable of doing that. I couldn’t even lift a single box. So that’s about coming to terms with what you can no longer do. Plus, this sort of thing pushes my buttons, and I spout things like, “I wish I had a job or ran a company where I could constantly screw up and then tell people, ‘So, what?'”
But, pick your battles. Be the overly-reasonable bigger person when it’s beneficial to you. Be grateful that I’m in a position to pay for a bathroom redo. I’m learnin’.
I hope there are some helpful thoughts in here along with my frustration. And yes, I’m tagging the hell out of Home Depot and the logistics company. Right @homedepot? Ha!
We reserved an Airbnb for a week in May, based on it being listed as “secluded” and a “cabin in the woods.” Today I read the detailed stuff they eventually later send.
We’d wanted something without other people and noise around, both for peace and quiet and the sanity of the two dogs.
Turns out this “cabin in the woods” has another unit over top it, and another on the other side of a wall. Eli only barks if there’s something to bark about, but if there’s a group upstairs enjoying a football game or an excited gathering on the other side of a wall, he’s going to bark.
I messaged the host to ask what he thought about the situation. He said the other spaces weren’t booked, but they might be, so barking and noise could be a problem. He also told me the reason they’ll probably be booked is because they’re hosting an artists retreat that week. Oh, and you’re not allowed to use the fireplace. (Weird, as it’s featured in the photos.) As you can see, this had rapidly turned into exactly the situation I did not want.
So, I said I’m very sorry for the trouble, I canceled, and I got a full refund. I immediately booked a charming cottage-cabin on the other side of the Hudson, on forested land in the Catskills with no one else around, a big claw foot tub, a fireplace, and a private gazebo with a grill. Perfect!
Then the original host’s wife then messages me, and asks if she could transfer us to one of their more secluded cabins up in the woods without neighbors, and if we liked, we could walk down to the artists retreat anytime we liked.
Welp. It was a little too late for that. I can almost hear her saying to her husband, “You just turned away a week’s booking in the bigger space and let a composer and a writer go during a week when we’re having an artist’s retreat.” I’m going to assume she’s the brains when it comes to the business.
Still. I love the new place we found in the Catskills. And it’s owned by theatre folk. Photos below!
Hooo … am I tired! Tomorrow I’m off to the airport hotel, which sounds dreary, but it will be very nice. It’s supposed to be a quite decent hotel, and it’s attached directly to the airport. This way, I’m already there for my flight the next day, no rushing, no public transportation issues, another spa day.
A foggy, wet day; but no actual rain. Just a light wetting-you mist. Well, ya know. Fog.
O
“A foggy day in London Town Had me low and had me down I viewed the morning with alarm The British Museum had lost its charm.”
O
A bit of a rant today concerning the visit. It’s an entertaining and surprising rant, but if you’d like to skip it, just scroll down to the photos.
Lots of walking and standing today, and I’d have to say unfortunately, Westminster Abbey does disabilities very poorly. I went 15 minutes before opening, and after I’d walked around the large yard to get to the main entrance line. The employee out front sort of talked in circles when I asked whether there was a disabled entrance. I was tired of asking about it (and I was already there), so I waited in the line with the normals. They opened at 9:30 on the mark, but all the folks that worked there already seemed very much “on guard.”
When I didn’t want a free tour headset, the person-wearing-a-robe kept going on and on about it. After two or three go-rounds, her last sentence to me was, “But why don’t you have an audio guide?” Um, hello? I guess they don’t like people to refuse headsets. Maybe we try to talk to them too much otherwise. That impression was further confirmed as the day progressed.
Of all of the places I’ve visited in the past week, The Abbey staff has been the least friendly/helpful by far. And I’m not even very needy or demanding. The Docklands Museum and Southwark Cathedral absolutely both destroy Westminster Abbey in this respect. (I should mention, I had a very nice conversation about Jenny Lind with the lovely young headset-collector woman in Poets’ Corner.)
Later, after saying the same thing three or four times to different docents before they “got” what I was talking about, I realized they’re programmed to parrot this and that, and prefer not to be bothered; that I couldn’t possibly have anything useful or interesting to mention. In one instance, I mentioned a fact about some burials in the Stuart aisle of the Lady Chapel. She disagreed. I told her she should really read her very own Dean Stanley’s book … he documented all the royal burials in the mid-1800s.
At one point, I really needed to sit down (or fall down) for a while. I explained to a verger/docent/person. She told me I had to walk all the way around to get the 24 inches forward to where she was standing next to the chairs, rather than just picking up the rope hook for literally two or three seconds.
O
I mean, c’mon.
O
I was briefly in the vicinity of one absolutely hysterical docent — every time you took a step towards him, he either exaggeratedly turned his head the other way or walked to another corner. (For real. I tried it a few times to make sure. LOL)
This kind of crap filters down through the layers, and of course, as they’ll often remind you, this is first and foremost, a place of worship. As a career churchy myself, to say I was less-than-impressed is a gross understatement. And I’m looking at you, Dean Hoyle.
That’s plenty of complaining for today! Let’s look at some awesome pictures! I took dozens and dozens, so we’ll just do the highlights here.
O
Henry VII’s stunning Lady Chapel
O
O
I guess I can now say that I was once in the quire at Westminster Abbey
O
O
Chaucer’s tomb. Interestingly, he was not interred here as a great poet, but due to his job as an upper-level government functionary.
O
O
QEI — The lady, the myth, the legend. (She’s not in the box. She’s stacked in the crypt underneath below the floor, with her sister Queen Mary. Elizabeth is on top. Poetic justice.
O
O
Edward the Confessor
O
O
An aisle in the Cloister
O
O
Remarkably preserved medieval paintings!
O
I’m a bit of a scholar on the subject, I’ve done my own research, I’ve read Dean Stanley’s book(s) at least two or three times, and I’ve been to the Abbey in person several times, this being my last.
Yes, sure, I felt a little unwelcome. Big deal. However, combined with feeling physically uncomfortable without any way of helping myself, I don’t need to return. There was an Evensong later in the day I’d considered, but I hopped on the boat for an afternoon cruise instead.
One of the crew came over to me (a few of them know me by now) to mention that a more comfortable window seat had just opened up on the starboard side, and I realized that I felt very much more welcome on the Uber Boat than inside Westminster Abbey.
Sit Still Phill 