I rang in the new year at home, in yoga pants and a hoodie, reading a book. It was damn near perfect! I might have already been in bed reading; if I wasn’t curled up on the couch.
New Year’s Day was pretty productive. I made sure my planners [yes, all three of them] ready to go. I have my every day Erin Condren Life Planner, it goes with me everywhere. I have a hardbound planner that’s strictly for Scentsy, and a Deluxe Monthly ECLP that is for my budget.
Yes, I track a lot of my budget in my everyday planner, but I have decided to hit the Dave Ramsey plan hard this year. I took the class last fall, sort of followed his ways for the last quarter of the year, but I’m committed this year! Keeping a budget isn’t the most fun, but it’s nice to keep track of your money; know where it goes.
I’m one of the few who was a bit excited to head back to work; not for the work part of it, but more for the routine. Except… I had a hard time falling asleep Monday; and I didn’t nap at all during the day.
Last night after I came home and had some dinner, was working along in my office and all the sudden it was 10 PM! Not long after that, I heard what I thought was a car alarm going off. Great; just what I wanted to hear when I’m attempting to fall asleep. Just as I was getting finished up in my office I decided to look out the window and see which car it was; only it wasn’t a car. I could see the fire alarm on the outside of the building that’s just below my deck and to the left.
I went up to the third floor to see if there was anything, no smoke, the noise was a bit fainter. I went down to first floor [I’m sandwiched right in the middle on second]. I opened the door to the outside to see; that it was the alarm, but when I turned around to go back upstairs, I saw water coming from under the door from the entrance to the hallway to the first floor apartments and water just gushing down the hall. The entire floor was wet / covered. It was about 10:45 by this time, so I went back to my condo, called the landlord. This, I thought was something worth calling late at night for. No answer. I thought about it for a few minutes, then called the non-emergency police department line; I was terrified that I’d be in some sort of trouble if I called 911.
I explained the situation, they took my info, and the dispatcher assured me I should have called 911. I saw the cop come, I had to let him in our LOCKED building… He found the source, a busted sprinkler system, which triggered the outside alarm.
Not long after that I let the Fire Department in… again, our building is locked; why don’t they have some sort of way to access this other than a tenant letting them in!?
The only two neighbors I really know, both on first floor, were up. The older lady, Shirley didn’t seem too phased by it, “just a little water”… uhh lady its up to my ankles!
I was walking around barefoot in it, not smart, but my feet were already wet. I helped Tracy, the other neighbor find on of her kitties – a new little one, and brought him up to my condo; her other cat was spooked and hiding somewhere. About 1am they had the sprinkler turned off, and the water squeegeed out – which went all over the entry way steps… and froze Tracy’s car to the ground; because it was a in the negative teens – before the windchill.
No one could get a hold of the owner / property manager; not real shocking, they don’t seem to care much about their property and get to it when they get to it. I heard they were going to go knock on her door.
My feet were frozen, so I hopped in the bath; hoping to warm up and maybe get kinda sleepy, it wasn’t til about 2 when I fell asleep! All that adrenaline!
I went in to work, we had water still… unsure of what will come of it all.
I’m mostly curious of a few things, 1- Why didn’t the alarm trigger all the fire alarms throughout the building, we have three hardwired ones on each floor? 2- Why wasn’t the fire department alerted when our hardwired alarm was going off… why only the outside one on the opposite end of the sprinkler pipe burst? 3- Why was I the only one who heard it!? The rest didn’t seem phased by it.
I’m not shocked at how lazy the landlord is about responding to it. Someone said I should contact the city and find out what the laws are, and that I could easily break my lease with no repercussions if I wanted.
Ugh, I’d love to get away from this owner / property manager, but I love my location, and the condo works great for me. I wish my garage was in a different spot – just not the end one at the lowest point on the property. I love love love being on a dead end, with corn on two sides of the building. And, who the hell wants to go through the hassle of moving again; paying another deposit, and all the expenses that come with moving. I’d like to think my next move will be to a place I buy.
I’ve decided to try to write every Wednesday; and even though I was about to get up from the computer and crawl in bed, I thought I’d better stick to my goal and not skip the first Wednesday of the year! It’s now 9:30 and I’m straight up pooped. I’m not even sure I’ll read before going to sleep.
everyday jess 