Incompetence has landed at our apartment complex and cost us our swimming pool, courtyards, grills for the summer, and to top it off, I lost the use of my patio….or so I thought until I decided to be disobedient and reclaim one small thing….
IT’S THE SMALL THINGS…
I potted some flowers yesterday. I wasn’t going to do it.
We have been under orders from our apartment complex to clear our balconies and patios. So, I did. Last year I had a lush garden setting outside my door with flower boxes, pots, a Buddha water feature. Not this year.
Because…. well, chalk it up to incompetence.
It seems back when this complex was built the contractor didn’t put water sheathing up between the siding and interior wall structure. Over time water has started to make its way into units, in some at a rate that left and inch standing on the floors. A neighbor a few doors down has been flooded out.
It took a while for them to figure out what was going on. When they did they announced all the balconies and patios, from the ground up to the fourth floor – some 50 in all – would have to be torn off. Then the siding would have to be removed, the sheathing installed and all the balconies and patios rebuilt.
That meant the swimming pool, two courtyards, fire pit and cooking grills would be closed until work was going to be completed, and none of us could use balconies and patios. But not to worry, it would all be done before summer was up and we’d have some pool and grilling time.
So, they got to work. A monster crane with 80,000 pounds of counterweights was set up in a parking lot to carry containers over the roof and lower them into the courtyard so debris could be taken out and new materials brought in. Impressive, until..
One day the doors of the complex had orange signs on them. “Cease and Desist” from the Borough. It seems no one involved in this massive project ask a very basic question – “You think we need a building permit?” Duh. No one had gotten one. So work stopped.
Then, it started. But after almost five weeks the crew is still working on the small section of the courtyard it started on weeks ago. I don’t know when this work will be done. The staff here at the complex, who are very competent and nice, don’t know any more than we residents. Corporate isn’t talking. We keep hearing 90 days and at this point, we just laugh.
I figure the first snow flurries will be falling before they are done. Which is why I figured if I can’t have a swimming pool, grills, courtyards, then dammit, I will have my patio with flowers and Buddha and coffee in the morning and quiet reading late afternoons.
When they get to me, I will move it all back inside but I suspect I’m going to have many a morning before that happens.
But here is what is on my mind at the end of it all…it’s not the big things in life that matter sometimes. It’s the small things, like a quiet sunlit morning amid flowers, the gurgling of Buddha and the chirping of birds. I’ve got that back and will until the clown show comes to my part of the world and I have to take it all down.
Rich Heiland is a retired journalist and semi-retired consultant, trainer and public speaker. During his journalism career he was a reporter, editor, publisher, college instructor, part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team and a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year honoree. He also writes the intodementia.com blog about his family’s experience with dementia. He lives in West Chester, PA and can be reached at [email protected].