this old house
So, part of my job is maintaining a house which has had 14 people living in it for 10 years. If you ever doubt how much fun this is, let me put it in perspective. Since noon today, I have discovered and more or less addressed:
-a clogged toilet
-a water damaged floor
-a broken oven
-a flaming burner
-a leaking radiator
-a failing boiler
-a broken doorknob
-a collapsing shelf in the tools shed
-a clogged bathroom sink
-a leaking solar powered hot water system
And we ran out of trashbags on cleaning night.
DEAR GOD.
It's funny how everything seems to happen at once, isn't it?
I haven't updated in millenia.
Summaries? Too much to summarize, really. We lost a member in the other house, turns out she had already done too many AmeriCorps programs (one of which my program didn't find out about until a month into the year), so she was ineligible and had to leave. We brought in a new member, one of the girls from last year actually. This caused loads of drama, but seems to be settling down, and is more than anything affecting the other house, not mine.
As can be seen from my list, I'm slowly becoming handier around the house by necessity. I still need a lot of help, but at least I'm getting more creative.
Service is going well. I've got all of November scheduled out for my house, and some interesting things coming up. Building this effing greenhouse is still going to be the death of me.... I managed to lose the only copy of notes left for my by the guy who worked on it last year, so now we're kind of working blindly. AND we have to move the whole thing across the street for absurd reasons.
My personal drama has been resolved (after many more twists and turns) and I am now pretty much the happiest I've been in a long while. The busiest I've been pretty much ever, but content. Thank God, because if I was still in angsty-town, dealing with this house would probably kill me. (which it still might... the members also tell me they smelled gas in the basement yesterday, and we've got some asbestos covered pipes that need to be repaired as well. yeehaw!)
Pre-halloween festivities were fun (Friday party at an alum's house), though on the actual day of, I 'celebrated' by cozy-ing in at a friend's house, watching a bad movie and then a better movie, and handing out halloween candy to trick or treaters. Sounds kind of lame, but was kind of fabulous.
Who wants to know my dumb moment of the week? SO. I didn't go to service with the members today because... yesterday, while doing nothing at all strenuous, unusual, or even interesting, I fell over and hurt my ankle. Lamest thing ever, I was literally just walking, stepped into the tiniest of holes, and BAM. It's ok, not broken and the swelling is pretty much gone, but I just couldn't stand on it all day at outdoor service, so I went in the the office (and subsequently home to deal with the decaying house).
One sad thing.... my favorite partner in crime (aka Christin, my supervisor from last year) is moving from 2 miles down the street to 2 hours away, up on the North Shore. While I am jealous of her kickass job at an Audubon Sanctuary and excited to visit, I also am about to lose my only non-americorps friend within a short drive, just as winter is approaching. Sad news bears.
At least Thanksgiving is soon, and it is going to be a grand old year 10 reunion!!! People flying and driving in from all sorts of crazy places. I can't wait.... I think this might be the most fun, least stressful thanksgiving weekend in recent/total memory!
OOOOOOOK. I'm off to write letters and then check up on whether people did their chores.... and then maybe catch up on some Office? Oh, the exciting life I lead!!!
-a clogged toilet
-a water damaged floor
-a broken oven
-a flaming burner
-a leaking radiator
-a failing boiler
-a broken doorknob
-a collapsing shelf in the tools shed
-a clogged bathroom sink
-a leaking solar powered hot water system
And we ran out of trashbags on cleaning night.
DEAR GOD.
It's funny how everything seems to happen at once, isn't it?
I haven't updated in millenia.
Summaries? Too much to summarize, really. We lost a member in the other house, turns out she had already done too many AmeriCorps programs (one of which my program didn't find out about until a month into the year), so she was ineligible and had to leave. We brought in a new member, one of the girls from last year actually. This caused loads of drama, but seems to be settling down, and is more than anything affecting the other house, not mine.
As can be seen from my list, I'm slowly becoming handier around the house by necessity. I still need a lot of help, but at least I'm getting more creative.
Service is going well. I've got all of November scheduled out for my house, and some interesting things coming up. Building this effing greenhouse is still going to be the death of me.... I managed to lose the only copy of notes left for my by the guy who worked on it last year, so now we're kind of working blindly. AND we have to move the whole thing across the street for absurd reasons.
My personal drama has been resolved (after many more twists and turns) and I am now pretty much the happiest I've been in a long while. The busiest I've been pretty much ever, but content. Thank God, because if I was still in angsty-town, dealing with this house would probably kill me. (which it still might... the members also tell me they smelled gas in the basement yesterday, and we've got some asbestos covered pipes that need to be repaired as well. yeehaw!)
Pre-halloween festivities were fun (Friday party at an alum's house), though on the actual day of, I 'celebrated' by cozy-ing in at a friend's house, watching a bad movie and then a better movie, and handing out halloween candy to trick or treaters. Sounds kind of lame, but was kind of fabulous.
Who wants to know my dumb moment of the week? SO. I didn't go to service with the members today because... yesterday, while doing nothing at all strenuous, unusual, or even interesting, I fell over and hurt my ankle. Lamest thing ever, I was literally just walking, stepped into the tiniest of holes, and BAM. It's ok, not broken and the swelling is pretty much gone, but I just couldn't stand on it all day at outdoor service, so I went in the the office (and subsequently home to deal with the decaying house).
One sad thing.... my favorite partner in crime (aka Christin, my supervisor from last year) is moving from 2 miles down the street to 2 hours away, up on the North Shore. While I am jealous of her kickass job at an Audubon Sanctuary and excited to visit, I also am about to lose my only non-americorps friend within a short drive, just as winter is approaching. Sad news bears.
At least Thanksgiving is soon, and it is going to be a grand old year 10 reunion!!! People flying and driving in from all sorts of crazy places. I can't wait.... I think this might be the most fun, least stressful thanksgiving weekend in recent/total memory!
OOOOOOOK. I'm off to write letters and then check up on whether people did their chores.... and then maybe catch up on some Office? Oh, the exciting life I lead!!!