Quick note before I head to bed…
So for the last month or so, our apartment complex has been in the process of this re-siding project, where they’d like to take our retro-70’s buildings and make them look pretty modern. They’ve been working on the building adjacent to us for the last few weeks now and on the days I work from home it’s been pretty neat to watch the building being transformed right before my eyes…
Well the "coolness" of that ended today…
I was woken up this morning at 8am with the sound of thunderous pounding on the outside walls. Today they started on our building. I was beginning to wonder when they’d get to it, since I guess they’re supposed to be done at the end of August and it took almost 5 weeks to do the building across from us. I think they’re running behind. On Tuesdays I typically work from home (since I have meetings all day), but I could only take about 2 hours of the pounding before I ducked out of one of my meetings and made the commute into the office.
While I was walking out the door, I noticed that I had left my porch-light on all night again (which I accidentally do all the time). It was to my surprise when I found that the little globe from the light was removed and placed on the floor. The light was actually off and in between the bulb and socket was a little white adapter that converts the socket back into an electrical outlet. And a LOOOOOOOOOOONG cord was being run around the apartment complex….
At first I was a bit miffed that they were stealing my power, probably to run the radio (which was blaring). I was tempted to go back inside and turn the light switch off, but I figured "You know, it’s a bit warm out here today. These guys work hard all day long, and if the few cents it costs me to keep that light socket running all day will help make today go faster for them, it’s no big deal."
So I end my day at work and head on home… I get in around 5:45ish, only to find that they’re STILL WORKING! "Okay" I figure, "They’re working a bit late, but people are now starting to come home so they’ll probably wrap it up at 6pm. It’s no big deal, I can wait." So I wait… I wait, and I wait… Next thing I know it’s freaking 7:25pm and they’re still pounding! What the heck?!? This was really getting to me, so I was relieved when Bethany called and was ready to grab some dinner.
As I’m leaving my apartment I see that they’re finally cleaning up (it’s about time), and I get in my car and begin to pull out. As I pull out I see a guy coming to my porch-light, he pulls out the cord and starts wrapping it up, then walks away. AND HE LEAVES THE FREAKIN’ GLOBE ON THE GROUND! I was about go get out and say something, but I figured "they’re cleaning up, they’ll be back to put it up. I’m running late and want to see Bethany, we’ll see if they leave it out"
So I go out and have a great time with Bethany and Shannon, come home around 11pm only to find that NOT ONLY HAS THE GLOBE NOT BEEN PUT BACK ON, BUT IT’S NOW MISSING!!! WHAT THE HECK?!?
I don’t want to be too judgemental of these guys. Manual labor is a hard gig, and it’s easy for me to criticize sitting in my air-conditioned office having access to the Internet all day long – but enough is enough. Just because you have a hard job doesn’t give you the right to be an ignorant jerk. It’s bad enough that they hijack my energy without asking me about it (and I wonder how that thought process went on in the morning – Woah look, some sucker left his porch light on. Looks like we’re jamming out to some tunes.) But if you’re going to steal my power, the least you can do is leave it the same way you found it.
To be fair, all of the back porch-lights are gone (as well as their globes) due to the siding project. My globe is probably with the all of the back-porch globes in the storage shed in the parking lot – but at least leave me a note or something. I can’t tell you how tacky my front porch looks with a light-bulb sticking out of it (and everyone else in the front has their globes), so I took out the bulb, and along with it, the nice little power converter they still had hooked up to it.
I’m seriously tempted to write them a note and stick it on the missing socket. I don’t mind if you use my power without asking me, but the least you could do is leave my porch light the same way you found it! I want the light globe on the porch light by the end of the day or I’m calling your boss. When I get my globe, you’ll get your socket converter back.
Argggh.. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh, but I’m frustrated when I overlook some rude behavior then get taken advantage of.
Update on "Porch Light" situation: When I left for work this morning I saw that they did not have anything conected up to my light socket (I intentionally left the light on all night). Part of that may be that I now have their converter.
At the same time I found the note on the ground. Originally I thought that the tape didn’t hold and the note fell down sometime in the night, but the note was ripped in half. So my guess is they’ve seen it.
Bottom line though – no globe yet… We’ll see at the end of the day…
Oh, and they started at 7:30 today… Now I probably should be up getting ready for work anyway, but it’s the principle of the matter. It’s going to be a loooooong week.