Now is as good a time as any to tell you that we do not have central heat...and it is getting cold...and we live in a poorly insulated concrete house. (Any sliver of hope I was holding onto that my mother might visit has just vanished with the typing of that last sentence) So we plan on using our fireplace in the living room and the bucari (think wood stove) in our bedroom along with two electric heaters we have purchased. This is what people who were here last year did, so we followed their lead. Yes, we are nervous (I am honestly quite terrified) but the average low here is 35 (every Midwesterner is thinking that sounds pretty great, aren't you?) and we are hearty Midwestern folks so I am hoping we can survive with all fingers and toes in place and a still-solid marriage. I will keep you posted.
Then came the email from the head of maintenance saying we could not use our electric heaters, that they use up way to much electricity and that the grid/generator cannot handle them thus they are banned. People were outraged. They fired off angry responses, contacted the board, held meetings with the principal. Not only has everyone spent a great deal of money on these heaters, but some people will truly NEED them as some apartments have no primary heat source. One friend who is a dorm parent says she has no bucari, no fireplace, no means of heating her place up. So what is she supposed to do? People who were here last year said the same email went out and that they (very covertly) still used their electric heaters. So we all agreed to keep using our heaters, generator be damned. We will see how that works out for us all. I am going to have to use something during the day, I cannot see myself keeping a fire going for the few hours we are here in the morning, then putting it out to go to school, then restarting it when we come back. I was up for roughing it and for an adventure, but by no means am I a pioneer. I need to be WARM. I will be plugging in my heater and layering. We will have fires at night, try to save electricity, but during the day that is going to be a very daunting task for me to continuously tend to a fire while I also deal with Oliver.
Then today I very stupidly tried to put an earring in while standing over the bathroom sink. It didn't go down the drain, but it bounced it's way down to the drain in our floor and sunk down deep. I panicked. These earrings were a present from my mom (the black pearls, Mom!) and beyond how much I like them, I am very sentimental about them. I threw Oliver into his Johnny Jump Up (oh boy, that kid loves to jump!) and got out my head lamp, wooden spoon and duct tape. I got the pipe that runs from the sink to the drain in the floor out of the drain so I could see down this larger whole. There was my earring. I tried to get it to stick to a roll of duct tape on the end of the spoon, but there was some standing water down there so it wouldn't stick. I went and grabbed a fork and tried to scoop it out but my visibility was so low I couldn't tell where to put it and I was afraid to push it down the pipe further. I sat on my bathroom floor and cried. Oliver was happily bouncing away, not questioning at all why his mother was sitting on the bathroom floor, wearing a flashlight on her head, holding a fork and crying.
I decided I needed professional help. I put Oliver in his carrier and walked to school to ask maintenance if they could recommend a tool for me. The whole walk down I thought about all the work these men do. Repair pipes, replace water heaters, build fences, repair wiring. I was surely going to be laughed at and told my earring retrieval was a waste of their time, or be told they could get to it in three weeks. When I walked into their offices, the man at the desk stood to great me and offered me a seat. I explained how embarrassed and stupid I felt but that I also really needed their help because I really REALLY want my earring back. The man took me to find his partners and very seriously explained the situation. When it was determined that neither a magnet nor a wire was going to help me one of the men grabbed two tiny pick axes and jumped on another's scooter. I was told to walk back home, they would meet me there. The men pounded at the cement seal around the drain until it popped out. The man with smaller hands then reached down and dug around. He pulled out bits of cement, buts of shear yuckiness and lint. I was heartbroken. Surely he had pushed it further, he even said "no good, Ma'am". Then he reached down one more time and pulled out my precious pearl. I cried. They got embarrassed and left in a hurry. I was overwhelmed with relief and so grateful to them for their help.
I have since composed an email to the head of the maintenance department, the man who helped me and the principal. I thanked them profusely and told them how much they are appreciated. I hope it sunk in. I know they took A LOT of heat when their "no heaters" email went out. I know they were just doing their job. But we are still going to use our heaters.
Then came the email from the head of maintenance saying we could not use our electric heaters, that they use up way to much electricity and that the grid/generator cannot handle them thus they are banned. People were outraged. They fired off angry responses, contacted the board, held meetings with the principal. Not only has everyone spent a great deal of money on these heaters, but some people will truly NEED them as some apartments have no primary heat source. One friend who is a dorm parent says she has no bucari, no fireplace, no means of heating her place up. So what is she supposed to do? People who were here last year said the same email went out and that they (very covertly) still used their electric heaters. So we all agreed to keep using our heaters, generator be damned. We will see how that works out for us all. I am going to have to use something during the day, I cannot see myself keeping a fire going for the few hours we are here in the morning, then putting it out to go to school, then restarting it when we come back. I was up for roughing it and for an adventure, but by no means am I a pioneer. I need to be WARM. I will be plugging in my heater and layering. We will have fires at night, try to save electricity, but during the day that is going to be a very daunting task for me to continuously tend to a fire while I also deal with Oliver.
Then today I very stupidly tried to put an earring in while standing over the bathroom sink. It didn't go down the drain, but it bounced it's way down to the drain in our floor and sunk down deep. I panicked. These earrings were a present from my mom (the black pearls, Mom!) and beyond how much I like them, I am very sentimental about them. I threw Oliver into his Johnny Jump Up (oh boy, that kid loves to jump!) and got out my head lamp, wooden spoon and duct tape. I got the pipe that runs from the sink to the drain in the floor out of the drain so I could see down this larger whole. There was my earring. I tried to get it to stick to a roll of duct tape on the end of the spoon, but there was some standing water down there so it wouldn't stick. I went and grabbed a fork and tried to scoop it out but my visibility was so low I couldn't tell where to put it and I was afraid to push it down the pipe further. I sat on my bathroom floor and cried. Oliver was happily bouncing away, not questioning at all why his mother was sitting on the bathroom floor, wearing a flashlight on her head, holding a fork and crying.
I decided I needed professional help. I put Oliver in his carrier and walked to school to ask maintenance if they could recommend a tool for me. The whole walk down I thought about all the work these men do. Repair pipes, replace water heaters, build fences, repair wiring. I was surely going to be laughed at and told my earring retrieval was a waste of their time, or be told they could get to it in three weeks. When I walked into their offices, the man at the desk stood to great me and offered me a seat. I explained how embarrassed and stupid I felt but that I also really needed their help because I really REALLY want my earring back. The man took me to find his partners and very seriously explained the situation. When it was determined that neither a magnet nor a wire was going to help me one of the men grabbed two tiny pick axes and jumped on another's scooter. I was told to walk back home, they would meet me there. The men pounded at the cement seal around the drain until it popped out. The man with smaller hands then reached down and dug around. He pulled out bits of cement, buts of shear yuckiness and lint. I was heartbroken. Surely he had pushed it further, he even said "no good, Ma'am". Then he reached down one more time and pulled out my precious pearl. I cried. They got embarrassed and left in a hurry. I was overwhelmed with relief and so grateful to them for their help.
I have since composed an email to the head of the maintenance department, the man who helped me and the principal. I thanked them profusely and told them how much they are appreciated. I hope it sunk in. I know they took A LOT of heat when their "no heaters" email went out. I know they were just doing their job. But we are still going to use our heaters.
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