02-VIII-2004.
Lacking notes, I'm writing this mostly from the photos.
And once I wrote it, found that I did write to dad... on 13th, when we got internet. So I interspersed that, but expect some mess in the sequence, things written twice... I got bumblebees in my head trying to sort it out.
This is how we spent first few nights. The 12" (or was it 16") wide carpet didn't quite reach the other wall, so we lined it up the window wall and will patch the other side later. Under the carpet there's a 12mm layer of ground sponge, visible there in the closet, so those american carpets feel soft, and aren't really.
zmajček is on the floor, the monitor is on the old desk, we brought it in one piece. My corner desk had to be dismantled, will reassemble it someday. The amp and speakers (from Burt) are downstairs, with a mrz player plugged in. The first day we didn't even have that, but ran the sound through the little radio we bought last september to hear the news when hurricane hit (and heard none, it only caught commercials and some ultra fascist talk radio, some Michael Savage guy, who was so convincing that within a minute of listening I got the visceral urge to line up all his teeth between his tonsils).
The bathroom is convenient, has a door to the hall and to the big bedroom, but we still have to go to pee downstairs, because the upper crapper leaks everywhere. I wondered how do they seal it at all, I don't see the rubber between the seat and the floor. Turns out there's a wax ring, which you just lay in its groove, and and screwing the crapper to the floor just squeezes it. At least the upstarirs basin works, we can wash our hands.
The room was horribly hot, but we had the two big fans we bought for the summer 2000. We aimed them at ourselves and kept them on all night, so we made it through the night. And a few nights more.
And, so, in #1 there's Les; #2 is empty, being readied to rent. From time to time a majstor appears to do something, haven't seen one yet.
In #4 is some black lady with two daughters, he said she works on the base (and later I saw a pass sticker on her tank and truck), but never found what job. Never saw her in uniform, so civilian job. We later started calling her Juliška, because the same ghost haunts both.
Various black people in #5 to 7, one of them some priest. I'd say christian, the tags on his tank mention Jesus, but also civilian, never saw him in any uniform either.
The ground floor is a krtlog (v. house dictionary). The big box by the door is the washer/dryer, i.e. a fridge, because it's Frigidaire*. The boxes between that and the door are the speakers. There's light under the front door, that's gonna blow when winter comes.
The tubes on the floor are rolled-up carpets and the underlays. The partition wall is one third gone. Were it still whole, it would take another meter and a quarter. The circle leaned on the stairs is the deck table, still disassembled. It may be chinese junk, but it's underwent three assemblies (and will two more, and will last at least 20 years). The white box on the left is the fridge (some other brand, not Frigidaire).
The kitchen we improvised. We used the mirko mostly, the gas burner (bought for hurricane) for frying, and the bicycles are still in the kitchen until we find them a better place. At least we were able to make coffee, heat up the Maruchan soups and cook something from time to time, could live. In a couple of days the lack of bath will become a problem, but at least it's summer, we can go to the beach, or just splash in the backyard.
Today (tuesday, 3rd) I mounted the ground floor vukašin (v. house dictionary). American standard** - the screw holes on its bottom are spread some 5mm wider than those on the seat. So I had to screw them slanted, and of course some of the rubber gaskets didn't sit right and it leaked. Then I unscrewed, made it symmetrical so to spread the slant (with a level), but no. And everything's new - I first replaced the mechanism in the old vukašin, then the gaskets, still nothing, and eventually found that the ceramics cracked somewhere slightly, so this morning (or yesterday) I went and bought a new one. Added a couple of conical rubber gaskets intended for something else, and there it is, still awry but no more leaks.
She took the trouble with the ceiling in Lena's room today. A section of it was lower a few millimeters than the rest, because it leaked once upon a time. The leak was fixed long ago, but this section was an obvous rough patch, with a halfhearted attempt to cover it up with some kind of fuzzy gypsum surface, so she sanded it today (power sander, of course). We actually cut out the piece first, nailed the slats above, into which it was screwed, and then put it back. We noticed we cut some wires... ouch, that was, wait for it, the in-ceiling electrical heating system. It must eat energy and still leave your feet cold. Later we found that it still works only in the big bedroom and the little bathroom. We left the room thermostats intact, they look interesting.
She had a mask for nose and mouth, but her goggles, hair and the rest were caked with the dust. Later in the afternoon, after all today's showers (looked like it'd flood), went to the neighbor lady to make a few phone calls (to order a trash can and a big dumpster, a phone line, internet and the cable from Cox, because Verizon did nothing by today), to call the office and to check out their place - all seven houses in the row being identical. Well they were so once upon a time, and by the looks of it, ours will look the best, once done.
Now I see there are no handrests on my chair. Mounted them later. Got the job done as it was now, and since we still had no internet, didn't need it for work yet.
The neighbor lady stuff went like this (as per email to dad):
„We actually got the internet done quickly. I asked the neighbor to phone from him to Verizon and to fuck their dear mother. He said come sit, let's have a beer, get to know each other. Said his name was Les, a former navy stamp/seadog*** (never knew them navy ranks, even when I should have), and said screw Verizon, let's call Cox, you get everything in three days, cable, phone, internet. Okay, let's. Though, that Verizon's guy said they'd send somebody else, but I've just decided to dump them, because in these thirteen months I had accumulated nothing nice to say about them. And if they do send somebody else, I'll just say the guy promised three days, that's passed, I found others, ciao. Did not happen that way. [Instead, they sent me a bill. Phone bill. For a line that never worked. Because that guy just filled his work order, stated he went in the field on that date, and did nothing, wrong maps. Nobody read what he wrote, but found the order was signed, so it's done and let's start charging for it. I did fuck their dear mother from the new, Cox's, number, and „I am not your customer nor will ever be again, and if you try to send me another bill, my lawyer will be happy to make it attempted fraud.“]
So we had that beer (and it looks like she's drinking something stiffer), call these guys, they say technically it's quite feasible to have it all working today, but they have to respect the legal distance of three days, in case I turn to be a victim of some quick scheme, to have time to change my mind. Great, at Verizon the same legal interval was seven days for phone, and once more for internet“.
By dusk (on 5th of august) we all took turns in the third bathroom (hose in the backyard), though we first washed our hairs in the basin (we have hot water, the heater is a real dragon, heats up those 120 liters in ten minutes). Some clear sky appeared, hope it lasts until tomorrow.
Then we sat in the patio and fired up the barbecue. The two potted plants, behind her, are the leander and the grapefruit (or, on the legendary price label shot by Škrba, gayfurf). The leander we grew from a sapling we snatched fom the Dejzin yard during the 2001 vacation [Dejzin - Daisy's, that's what we called the Days Inn hotel], and after a while it came back home. The grapefruit Lena grew from a seed back in 2000 and it's doing fine. It will get a larger pot, and we'll take it in during winters for a while, and then not.
The Cox guy came around three. Took him about two hours to find which cables, but managed, so we have phone (nice number, all divisible by three, alone or in twos, the rest is zeros) and that's through Cox's coaxial, we have cable (in the unfinished rooms upstairs, will leave checking the channels later). While he was at it, the neighboring apartment was visited by an AC majstor, and we told him to drop by when done. He said if he goes through that door, that's 75$ an hour for just diagnose. No, just asking - it blows, doesn't cool. It's probably the attic unit, we'd need to clean the cool tubes, which are impossible to reach thoroughly without dismantling, and replacement of the whole unit is around 2500$, thanks. Or you could try with a spray, a friend of my sells it on Diamond Springs road (prefer steel for springs, myself), just 35$ a can, which would clean it. And she recalled that she saw a guy spray the tubes at Squire Hill back there and was done.
The internet took about ten days, as they ran out of modems, which they send by mail [actually could have got one in twenty minutes, if I only knew they had a shop nearby]. I still had Verizon's DSL modem, unusable for cable.
Talked with Go when the majstors were gone, will visit her tomorrow and chat more.
And I did some work the same day. Nothing on disk yet, but I have my work notes, I worked by the agreed plan. Didn't talk with David until 14th (the modem arrived on 13th). He was on the vacation, and nobody else from the office had anything to ask me, they mostly forgot I existed. It's not that I wasn't working, just was offline.
The hot water valve under the sink is still dripping, and can't be screwed better. We put a bucket, but since we turned on the heater, it drips at speed of four buckets a day. I screwed on the tiny hose which would lead to the faucet, so at least it drips from higher up, easier to put the bucket under, and I thought of leading that hose into the sink's drainpipe, but there's the missing cork on the bottom, no good.
In the evening we went to Glotz and Lowe's for more contraption pieces, including that cork. The paper on which I recorded (by pressing against the hole) the cork's diameter got lost, so I eyeballed it at the shop and of course got it wrong, took a 1" instead of 3/4 (yup, she was right). In the morning, for recreation's sake, I'll ride those mile and a bit on my bike and get the right size.
After dinner (good barbecue jučetina [v. house dictionary], some left for tomorrow's breakfast) I felt like taking a nap, so not to go to bed to early, I took to peeling the plastic sheathing that someone glued over the tiles around the bathtub. When I finished one side, I saw why they put it: the lower four rows of tiles (about 10x10cm, i.e. 4"x4") were actually hanging on that plastic sheet, because there was almost no support from behind. They were once glued to the gypsum board, which was nailed to the slats. That's supposed to last a hundred years, if the tiles were properly glued, but water got in somewhere, the sheet crumbled, the tiles dangled, and someone protected them with this plastic sheet. Except it wasn't caulked properly, so the base problem wasn't fixed at all.
Now we're in a trilemma, whether to replace the wall, the tub (which looks immaculate from above, but is somewhat rusty under), or to remove the wall altogether and take some space from the big closet (which is too big anyway, a tall basketball player can sleep in it), or to do something in the small bathroom, turn into a shower cabin... morning is smarter than the evening.
On friday we moved the bikes elsewhere and she went on with the floor tiles in the kitchen, grouted them on saturday and so at least one thing is complete.
Found a good alarm clock, something of 8$, with big enough digits and contrast. All clocks are now quartz, but someone got it thickly into their head that people prefer clocks with hands. Which, of course, takes more power, but fuckit. So when we found this, I just took it in my hands and checked whether it was made aware that the day has 24 hours. And, yesss, there's a switch in the back to convince it of the fact. I have a dick full of their firm conviction that the day doesn't have 24 hours, but rather twice twelve, and of their AM/PM scheme (why is midnight before the noon, and the noon after the noon?). Now this is more like it. And we also drank the rest of the Negra Modelo.
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* in serbian, the word for the fridge is hladnjak (cooler) but everyone uses the brand name frižider (which is a misheard word, of fake french origins, should be fridžider).
** it really was of the „American standard“ brand, so if anyone asks what is american standard, it's a crapper.
*** seal, but I used serbian expressions for both meanings in the email
Mentions: David Krakovski, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), house dictionary, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Juliška, Les Paul, majstor, mirko, Reginald Burton Cape (Burt), zmajček, in serbian