the continuing saga of Liz and the downtown rental office

Things I did at work today:

1. Some more document scanning at the downtown office between 9am and 10am.

2. Answered inquiry emails.

3. Did final turnover inspections on two apartments.

4. Un-staged a two-bedroom apartment and carried all the staging materials across the street to my new office. I was told there would be adequate storage bins in a closet to fit everything.

There were not adequate storage bins.

Fortunately, I had a lot of empty cardboard boxes from the various office supply deliveries I've been receiving, so I reconstituted a bunch of those and ferried everything over one box at a time. *sigh*

I have claimed a selection of the staging materials for my own use, while the balance will return to the downtown office for use in staging apartments in the two properties on South Hill.

5. Began the simple yet tedious task of converting architectural blueprints into uncluttered floor plans clearly legible to prospective tenants. This is going to take a while. Fortunately this isn't immediately necessary for the majority of apartments, though it's good to have such images on hand.

6. Began working out a procedure for apartment turnover final inspections, in partnership with various other employees.

And now I am home, almost done with dinner (roast asparagus and Gorton fish patties), and ready to unwind a bit before falling into bed.

(Also, I would like to make it known that I remembered to make tea in my thermos this morning, AND to bring my thermos with me to work! (I have been known to forget that second step. As previously mentioned, while I can do a reasonable imitation of a morning person when required, I am not actually 100% awake and am doing a surprising amount of stuff on autopilot.) This should not be necessary forever, but until my shiny new electric kettle arrives, I have to bring my morning caffeine with me. *sigh* It's like working at Not the IRS all over again, which is, of course, the reason I have a thermos in the first place. (As with most American workplaces, Not the IRS offices tend to have coffee makers and no kettles. The Collegetown rental office has spoiled me, because we're all tea-drinkers so there's a kettle and no coffee maker. *wry*))

wherein Liz has fun with electricity

In the "how is this my life?" department, I had an interesting experience last night.

I was out sprinkling crushed eggshells on my garden, as one does (plants need calcium to bear fruit!), and as I climbed the stairs to my back door, there was a sudden vrrrrrr-fzzzsht! noise and a small cascade of sparks from the electric cable that runs (inside a metal casing) up the side of the house right beside my back door.

And the light over the door went out.

Both my kitchen overhead lights were also out, as were the outlets in my bedroom.

I texted Landlord Dude, who came over within fifteen minutes. We verified that it was indeed a tripped breaker, and that the power still worked, but given the dramatic nature of the short circuit (you can see the singed paint where the sparks showered out), we decided it was best not to actually turn that circuit back on until he'd had a chance to investigate what had happened.

So I have been maneuvering around my kitchen with the unsatisfactory light of a pole lamp in the corner (plugged into an outlet on a different circuit), my bathroom lights, the light attached to my stove vent fan, and my living room lights. Also sometimes a couple candles. I can see what I'm doing, but my color sense is shot and it's not really sustainable long-term.

I also rigged up my bedroom fan and lamp to an outlet in my living room via judicious use of extension cords, but again, that's not a long-term solution.

Landlord Dude wasn't able to come over and investigate today, but he will try again tomorrow and hopefully I'll have my lights and outlets back.

...

The whole thing reminds me oddly of the time a few years back when I happened to look up at the right moment to see a power line rubbing against the sycamore next door and sending showers of sparks up against the bark, whereupon I called 911 and they sent out the fire department and NYSEG who re-insulated the line. It's weird to see one glitter-spark power failure by looking in a random direction at exactly the right time. It's really weird to see two, you know?

I already know I have dead mouse karma. Do I now have shower-of-sparks electric problem karma as well?