@%#*&%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’ll have to excuse me.
I’m pissed.
I’m really pissed.
I probably shouldn’t be making an entry right now.
I probably should be cooling off first.
takes a deep breath
But I’m going with the moment here. I have momentum. I have a good head of steam going. I am royally P.O.’d.
I just got home about half an hour ago, and had a “What the Fuck!?” moment. You know what those are, of course, dear reader. It’s one of those memorable points in time where you walk in, don’t recognize the situation for what it is for one brief second, and then it hits you what’s happening. It’s that existential state of being where you realize exactly what your place is in the world. It’s when it hits you. You’ve been screwed.
Oh, it isn’t that I didn’t get any notice this was coming down. “We’re going to be redoing your patios,” the management said. “We may be redoing your porches too.”
“Please remove all furniture and other items from these areas,” the management said.
So we did. All the patio furniture got put in the storage area out back. Now we don’t really have a porch, but there is that cement area in front of our doors, with the cement steps leading up to it. We didn’t have that much out there, but the couple of things I did have I moved into the enclosed garden area.
Do you see where this is going, gentle reader? Because I sure as hell didn’t.
BEFORE
AFTER
THEY’VE TORN OUT MY WALLED GARDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!
I drove in. It was dusk. Things looked a little strange. My first clue was that I couldn’t figure out where my parking space is. My marker was gone. My marker was the corner of our walled garden. Our walled garden was gone!
We, of course, hadn’t moved anything out of the walled garden area, because they never said they were doing anything in there. Indeed, we used that area to store things that were going to be in their way out on the “porch” area. This wasn’t a problem though. The construction crew found a place to put all our stuff.
My little colorful front garden has been trash-compactered. If something was in their way, they got it out of their way by putting it in my garden. The hose was perhaps the biggest sticking point with me. I didn’t want it in the walled garden area to begin with. The Socialist stored it there between car washings because it was inconvenient to put it away. He didn’t want to be dragging it through the apartment while it was wet, and by the time it dried he was ready to wash the car again. He wouldn’t let me buy a hose reel for it either. That too would have been inconvenient. I went with the flow. I didn’t want to inconvenience him. I nearly left it in our parking space, I was so pissed, but that would have inconvenienced him too. I compromised, and left it on the parking lot in front of his space. I picked everything else up and found a place to put it away, but I’ll be damned if I put the hose away.
Of course, I can understand why the construction crew dumped everything in the garden. I’m sure they didn’t want to clutter up the nice, clean cement porch area. OK, granted, they did move the tables and roses there. That took up most of the room anyhow. I’m sure they couldn’t have fit a single thing more there.
The missing section of fence was dumped next door on the grass. My thermometer and two brass lanterns were still attached. I’m glad nobody hurt themselves on those brackets sticking out that held the lanterns. I’d have felt terrible about that.
But I shouldn’t be too rough on the guys. After all, they did try to save the plants I had planted in the enclosed garden area. Notice the nice root ball they left on the coleus:
Send some nice, warm, fuzzy thoughts towards the Socialist this evening. He’s teaching an evening class, and has no idea what he’s going to be walking into upon his return home.
Damn, I’m pissed.
Happy to share your M with you. Congrats.
I really was wondering what that was all about. I wonder how many entries I have. I forgot how to figure that out, really. :o)
Congrats! Hopefully we will be able to read many-many thousand more of your entries.
Alli
Happy Thousandth Entry!
For some reason our word thousand comes from Old English, while our word million comes from Latin. If English were closer to French, we might use mille for 1,000; million for million (which is, of course, a thousand thousands); and milliard for thousand million. It’s all part of the charm of our muddly language 🙂
It’s a privilege being one of your friends.
Congrats on your 1000th entry. It’s been fun following along.
🙂
"Thousand" is a Germanic word deriving from Anglo-Saxon, as has been mentioned. I believe numbers from "thousand" downward were used commonly enough by the masses that the Norman invasion failed to dislodge it from their vocabulary. However, numbers such as "million" and upward were of little use in those relatively simple times. Most peasant folk had no use for them, or else were wholly unaware of them. Only the upper echelons of society would tend to need big numbers to account for its possessions, and these upper classes tended to be erudite French-speakers who wrote in Latin. So "thousand thousand" gave way to "million", and so on. After all, by the time you get to "billion", saying "thousand thousand thousand" sounds ridiculous. I don’t think Anglo-Saxon had specific words for such quantities.
Wow! Congratulations! What an entry, both a celebration and an etymology lesson. Talk about two birds with one stone, good work. I know what you mean about the friends being the best part. I feel the same way. I’m so glad I set up my blog here at DD rather than anywhere else. There are a few stinkers, but the vast majority of people here are kind and supportive. I’m really glad to call you friend, too.
~Cali
🙂 happy thousandth! The friends I’ve made on here are the main reason I’ve stuck with DearDiary. Thanks for being one of the special people I’ve gotten to know. 😀
M…sounded like a codename from a James Bond movie. But 1000 entries. WOW! Congratulations!
a M more entries, and friends, to you, palimpsest!
Congrats on your thousandth entry!!
awesome and wonderful. a pretty impressive list…thanks for sharing yourself with us.
I can’t wait for the next thousand. By the way, the socialist sounds quite intelligent – it must be a good match!!
~QE
I’m so glad that I happened to leave a comment in your diary one day quite some time ago. It has been a pleasure :). I sincerely hope there’ll be thousands of more entries in your diary.
Love, cur
PS Yes, a tea-ball. That sounds like a perfectly good word for the tea thingy. I’m just about to have a cup of cherry tea and test my tea-ball.
That picture is too funny, but I have a sneaking suspicion that you are correct about the "once in a lifetime shot".
OK, we’ve seen him post for you. We’ve seen him comment to you. Now, when is The Socialist going to get his own diary?
Alli
Whoever took that picture must be in a lot of pain.
Happy 100th!
I was one zero short in my congrats. Happy 1000th!
!! his legs look broken and he’s wearing someone’s underthings on his horn! looks doctored to me. i pity the cameraperson if it isn’t.
~~
flowers are always nice to have in your office. i’ve got a plant and a bouquet of dried roses in a vase.
*peers out from oyster shell*
Holy cow, What a picture! Scared the mother of pearl right out of me.
Kudos on your 1000 entry. Good enough reason to have a party =)
One thousand Congradulations.
*tosses Pali an O’Douls*
I stole a few bottles from Miracle.
*hic*
What the? Why? What could they possibly have hoped to accomplish?
{{{you}}}
What the…?!!!
Unbelievable. Bring the photos to the management office.
Apartment painters once speckled my patio furniture with paint. I had paid way more than I should have for the furniture, too. I got them to pay me for the whole thing, though.
Damn!!! I’d be going balistic right about now. I cannot believe that!! Grrrr
I would have been totally pissed at that also. I hope you have strong words with the management regarding this. Maybe if there is a next time they can be a little more informative about upcoming projects.
Alli
OMG – That’s awful and I just can’t believe in my eye when they plopped your stuffs in your garden!!! I think they should wait till next spring so that way, it will not ruin your flowers and your money..
I just can’t believe this.. When I saw your pictures, I said.. WTF??? You and sisters worked so hard to make everything look real good…
Hugs, AO
OMG, I would be absolutely furious. I am furious from cross country. Just looking at the pictures is heartbreaking, even more so after reading and looking at the pictures as it all grew. How terrible of them. The poor plants.
(On a side note, I loaded up the digital camera picture, what a shot, too much!!)
I’d be so damned mad I’d be crying over my beautiful lost garden. The expense doesn’t out weigh the time and care you put in =(
Just keep thinking about winter and snow coming, think about aphids, think about moles, gophers, or the landlord getting a big red boil on his backside.
The hose: buy the socialist one of those large plastic terra cotta bowls specially made for hiding garden hoses.
The poor kittys probably thought the small servant would blame them for sure.
(((((((BIG HUGS)))))))
all i can think of saying is make heads roll.
OMG, what eejits!!!! Your poor garden! 🙁
Argh! That’s appalling!
I agree with the TexanElf: show those pictures to Management. They have damaged your property. But wait till your blood pressure is back to normal. 🙂