Monday, July 3
Jul. 3rd, 2023 11:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Another cooler, rainy day. We aren't getting a lot of rain, but it's kind of a nice change of pace.
Our animals. They bring me a lot of happiness, seeing the cats play or snuggle, to see the horses/ponies/goats in their pastures at peace. To see Roxy snuffling through the long grass.
My Sweetie drove back to his work apartment. He managed to fit in donating plasma (he can do that fairly often, it's not as taxing as whole blood) and getting in a quick trip to the rock climbing gym in the city he passes through on his way.
We're trying to meet with a contractor about the soffits/fascia for the house, and all weekend he kept saying "I can't make it today, how about tomorrow?". Three times already. Today he was supposed to come, and my husband said that if he can't make it by 3 he would have to leave for work.
The guy texted with "How about tomorrow". Again. I texted him back to tell him that my husband was back at work and would be back in ten days.
My husband seems to think this is all pretty normal for contractors, but I find it enormously frustrating. I would rather have a FIRM COMMITMENT to meeting in a week, instead of every day thinking I had an appointment with him only to say he's not making it.
How does anyone manage to run their lives like that?
It's very entitled, considering that the potential clients are ready to be there for that appointment, EVERY DAY. Why wouldn't a contractor realize that?
Trainwreck wanted to talk. I didn't particularly. I don't get much out talking with her. Today was no exception.
I DID cut her off the minute she was going into "poor me" mode, by reminding her that she is choosing her situation. She right away went into her way of not dealing with it by saying "I need to go now, I'm tired", but she just kept talking about other things instead.
She is just endlessly negative. She began by saying that our brother M did a great job of hosting HIS version of our family gathering at he and his wife's acreage, but then went on to start criticizing people who showed up.
Yup. Many people in our family are not making good choices, but I think TW likes to snipe about them because it takes away the attention from HER.
I deflected her mean gossip. I grew up hearing that crap; the older women all had a bad habit of being critical about everyone else who wasn't in the room, and it's a nasty habit.
Then she bitched about our niece, and re-hashed how our niece annoyed TW when we were trying to clear out Mom's house and took too much stuff or something. She seems to bring this up just about every time we talk, and nothing I do seems to stop her from talking about it all over again.
After talking for over half an hour, I pointedly said "I would like to talk about me for a minute, since we never seem to get to that". So, I talked about what my husband and I were doing over the weekend, working on the yard, the tiling, how I'm doing with River, and she acted like it was punishment of some kind that she had to listen to me.
It is VERY UNREWARDING to talk with her at times.
I forgot to mention that yesterday, my Sweetie found a complete shed snake skin in the yard! Likely from the garter snake I saw. It is so cool, it's like a sock.
I went to pottery, just me this time. I trimmed the items I threw last week, and that was nice.
Then I went for some recreational shopping and found a nice dress, hopefully I can wear it somewhere this summer. It's a geometric A line dress, and it would be nice for something like going to the art gallery (not that you have to dress up for that).
I went to get groceries, and they are still deep into renovations, and things are not even in the same place they were last week. It's very disconcerting.
I lightly asked the check out clerk if they knew when it would be done, and you could see her tense up. It seems she's been taking the brunt of a lot of people's frustrations for not being able to find anything, so I made sure she knew I wasn't upset or angry, just curious.
It must be awful for the employees, trying to keep up with price changes and stocking and dealing with upset customers.
I came home and let everyone out into their pastures for a while.
I learned that the Federal Reserve is sitting on an unused $1 billion stock pile of $1 coins minted at an expense of around $300 million, partly because despite numerous attempts Americans do not want to use the coins but prefer to use the paper note instead.
Canada has one and two dollar coins, and they cost a lot less than the paper notes because they don't wear out as fast. The average dollar bill (because it is used many, many times in a year vs. say, a $50 bill) only lasts a year or two, while the life of a coin can be decades.
https://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nobody-wants
Another cooler, rainy day. We aren't getting a lot of rain, but it's kind of a nice change of pace.
Our animals. They bring me a lot of happiness, seeing the cats play or snuggle, to see the horses/ponies/goats in their pastures at peace. To see Roxy snuffling through the long grass.
My Sweetie drove back to his work apartment. He managed to fit in donating plasma (he can do that fairly often, it's not as taxing as whole blood) and getting in a quick trip to the rock climbing gym in the city he passes through on his way.
We're trying to meet with a contractor about the soffits/fascia for the house, and all weekend he kept saying "I can't make it today, how about tomorrow?". Three times already. Today he was supposed to come, and my husband said that if he can't make it by 3 he would have to leave for work.
The guy texted with "How about tomorrow". Again. I texted him back to tell him that my husband was back at work and would be back in ten days.
My husband seems to think this is all pretty normal for contractors, but I find it enormously frustrating. I would rather have a FIRM COMMITMENT to meeting in a week, instead of every day thinking I had an appointment with him only to say he's not making it.
How does anyone manage to run their lives like that?
It's very entitled, considering that the potential clients are ready to be there for that appointment, EVERY DAY. Why wouldn't a contractor realize that?
Trainwreck wanted to talk. I didn't particularly. I don't get much out talking with her. Today was no exception.
I DID cut her off the minute she was going into "poor me" mode, by reminding her that she is choosing her situation. She right away went into her way of not dealing with it by saying "I need to go now, I'm tired", but she just kept talking about other things instead.
She is just endlessly negative. She began by saying that our brother M did a great job of hosting HIS version of our family gathering at he and his wife's acreage, but then went on to start criticizing people who showed up.
Yup. Many people in our family are not making good choices, but I think TW likes to snipe about them because it takes away the attention from HER.
I deflected her mean gossip. I grew up hearing that crap; the older women all had a bad habit of being critical about everyone else who wasn't in the room, and it's a nasty habit.
Then she bitched about our niece, and re-hashed how our niece annoyed TW when we were trying to clear out Mom's house and took too much stuff or something. She seems to bring this up just about every time we talk, and nothing I do seems to stop her from talking about it all over again.
After talking for over half an hour, I pointedly said "I would like to talk about me for a minute, since we never seem to get to that". So, I talked about what my husband and I were doing over the weekend, working on the yard, the tiling, how I'm doing with River, and she acted like it was punishment of some kind that she had to listen to me.
It is VERY UNREWARDING to talk with her at times.
I forgot to mention that yesterday, my Sweetie found a complete shed snake skin in the yard! Likely from the garter snake I saw. It is so cool, it's like a sock.
I went to pottery, just me this time. I trimmed the items I threw last week, and that was nice.
Then I went for some recreational shopping and found a nice dress, hopefully I can wear it somewhere this summer. It's a geometric A line dress, and it would be nice for something like going to the art gallery (not that you have to dress up for that).
I went to get groceries, and they are still deep into renovations, and things are not even in the same place they were last week. It's very disconcerting.
I lightly asked the check out clerk if they knew when it would be done, and you could see her tense up. It seems she's been taking the brunt of a lot of people's frustrations for not being able to find anything, so I made sure she knew I wasn't upset or angry, just curious.
It must be awful for the employees, trying to keep up with price changes and stocking and dealing with upset customers.
I came home and let everyone out into their pastures for a while.
I learned that the Federal Reserve is sitting on an unused $1 billion stock pile of $1 coins minted at an expense of around $300 million, partly because despite numerous attempts Americans do not want to use the coins but prefer to use the paper note instead.
Canada has one and two dollar coins, and they cost a lot less than the paper notes because they don't wear out as fast. The average dollar bill (because it is used many, many times in a year vs. say, a $50 bill) only lasts a year or two, while the life of a coin can be decades.
https://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nobody-wants
no subject
Date: 2023-07-04 09:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-07-04 10:10 am (UTC)Yet, when I talked to him on the phone, he sounded very positive about wanting the opportunity to come to our home and look at the work that needed to be done, and give us an estimate.
If we felt he was a good choice (after my husband quizzed him a bit), THEN we would figure out when the work could be done.
At this point, I feel very annoyed that he can't be honest with us about his availability. All weekend we had a standing "appointment" with him; every day he said he would come at about 5 pm.
The OTHER soffit/fascia guy we got out to have a look at the house and make an estimate basically ghosted us.
This is what happens; if they can get a bigger job that is easier, they will take that one but not say no to you, and never really commit one way or another. That way, if they have a stretch without a job ahead of them they can call you back and see if you still needed the work done.
I HAVE heard of contractors abandoning a smaller job too, if they're offered something better.
One of my sisters had a local guy do some work, and he left a few things unfinished even after he was paid in full. It took her son chewing the guy out (they knew each other) for him to come back and finish it.
no subject
Date: 2023-07-05 04:51 am (UTC)