My (current) apartment complex has a lot of potential to be a nice place to live, but my apathetic landlords seem to believe that no tenant should ever be too content with their living situation, not when it's possible to keep the them chronically annoyed. Nothing too dramatic, defect-wise; just enough problems to keep the tenants at a low-boiling seethe.
One of the perennial issues has been an oscillating temperature in the shower. It used to be much worse, and after years of complaining various small fixes helped alleviate the situation somewhat. But not completely, because the other day, once again, I nearly got burned when all the cold water dropped out of the shower leaving only what came straight from the boiler. The reason: the automatic sprinklers had gone on.
It's pathetic and nauseatingly wasteful, those sprinklers. The heads are broken so they gush water straight into the air and/or splay it all over the sidewalk. They go on every day, even when it's raining. They go on for quite a while, leaving swampland behind in the gutters and gulleys edging the lawn. And yet some grass never manages to get any water and instead becomes parched and yellow.
In addition to this being a horrible waste of natural resources, it also serves as a reliable torture mechanism for the tenants because, every day, the sprinklers go on in the morning. Right when everyone would be showering and heading off to their day. I've gotten late starts quite often because unless I hit the shower before 7, I couldn't be sure I'd survive unburned unless I waited until nearly 10.
This weekend the sprinklers added a new hardship to my existence: flooding my moving sale. I'd advertised it for 8am but started setting up at 7am to catch the early birds. I knew better than to set up on the grass, but thanks to the incredible inaccuracy of the water dispersion, when the sprinklers came on my stuff still got wet. And not just from the sprinkling but also from the deluge spilling off the oversaturated ground. Just when I'd think everything was safe, a tidal wave would sneak up and soak things from the bottom up. I'd scurry around and move everything, and then a different group of sprinklers would go on and I'd have to move everything again.
I think it's quite healthy, with this upcoming move, to focus on all the defects of my current residence. It will make the transition less traumatic, right? So I celebrate the new infestation of ants because THEY ARE NOT MY ANTS! Tub doesn't drain? NOT MY PROBLEM! It's wonderful, this sense of freedom to not be burdened by these defects any longer.
On the other hand, just when I was whipping up a healthy sense of loathing for this place, I've been suckered into appreciating it in a way I didn't expect: it would seem that my neighbors are nice. I don't have a lot in common with them, but several have been exceptionally helpful supporting me with my move and helping me carry a lot of stuff. My downstairs neighbor, in particular, not only helped me carry my things on several occasions but also let me tell him all about the Tour de France and Tyler Hamilton. (He'd never heard of him before, but now he understands why Tyler was so terrific and will be looking out for him next year.)
With regards to the Tour, I did manage to tape it and watch it after my moving sale. What a terrific year for it. I realized as I watched the closing ceremony one of the reasons why it's a great sport: it has a lot of winners.
Edit (7/28/03): If I'd known it would be this easy to get the sprinkler thing resolved I'd have blogged the problem long ago... When I went downstairs today I found the landscapers with a pile of sprinkler heads, presumably fixing the damn things. Still doesn't quite alleviate the drought-inducing aspect or eliminate the water-torture-by-shower, but it's a start... I think the real lesson here is that next time I have a problem that needs resolving, I should just complain about it here and that will take care of it. (Right?)