This week*, anything that requires leaving the condo is being stringently assessed to determine if it is worth the candle: that is, do I want or need to do it enough to deal with five flights of stairs? Yes, it's finally elevator repair week, part two, in the building, and to me, very little is worth five flights down and five flights back up.**
*Really hoping it's only this week, which is their goal, but I'm not holding my breath.
**Supposedly, Monday and Tuesday nights, the elevator will be working, and in fact it did work late Monday afternoon. Again, though, not holding my breath; one doesn't want to count on that.
Now, mind you, does the elevator need fixing? Absolutely. Ask my mother, who was briefly stuck in it yesterday. Ask me a few weeks ago, when I got home from water aerobics to learn it was out (five flights on top of an exercise class SUCKED). Ask our neighbor, who has to carry her elderly, short-legged dog down five flights and back up when it's out. But still.
- So I won't be going to water aerobics this week. (Well, I wouldn't have gone today anyway, what with the period and the cramps oh my god when will this stop, but that's a rant for another day. Possibly tomorrow.)
- We stocked up on heavy groceries yesterday--no one wants to carry a gallon of milk, etc., up five flights.
- If this goes into next week, there are a couple of social things I'll skip--sorry, y'all, I don't want to see you five-flights-worth.
- I really, really hope it will be back by the end of next week, because that's when I'm leaving for a short trip up to Boston to see friends (first time on a plane in 2.5 years, ahhhhh, exciting and scary), and I'd hate to start off by having to carry my luggage down.
One thing I will be going down for, cheerfully, is when Katherine Addison's new book, The Grief of Stones, is delivered tomorrow, as it had better be! I am so excited to read it. That one is worth the candle.
Getting stuck in an elevator is a huge fear for me. What if I had to pee? Then what?
ReplyDeleteHope it gets fixed quickly - your poor neighbour, I feel for her carrying her dog down the stairs. I have never heard the term "not worth the candle" before, and I'm going to be using that from now on!
Oh, man, if I had a dog, I would try everything I could to live on the ground floor because carrying a dog up and down stairs sounds absolutely terrible! Good luck with repairs - may they be quick and well-done!
ReplyDeleteI am on the board of directors for our local community center and, after human resources, the elevator is our number one expense. It just has never worked right and there's something really horrific about the idea of someone's grandmother getting stuck in the elevator at a wedding!
My folks retired to an 11th floor condo and they had both theirs go out, too. Dad went up and down--once. And said that was it. Mom's reaction was, Oh good, I get some stairs exercise again! (She'd missed the stairs to the laundry of the house they'd sold after forty-some-odd years.)
ReplyDeleteBut then my mom has always put the best face to everything. I aspire to be more like her when I grow up. Me, I'd be saying to the condo association, Can't we throw some overtime pay at these guys so they get it done a lot faster?