The Russians are coming!

[vulgarweed]

No, actually, they were already here. My landlord's work crew, to fix the two (2!) separate leaks in my apartment. (One over the bathtub that dripped when the upstairs neighbors took a shower and one in the front room that dripped when it rained.) OK guys, worked fast, got the new drywall up and it looks pretty much the same (to my jaded eye that has no particular concern for interior visuals).

The one who spoke a little English was even a cat lover and bonded with Madimi, so I knew he wouldn't be reckless about letting her out. For her part, for the first half hour she was all like, "Who's that! What's that noise!" doing her little meerkat pose. Then she went to sleep.

For my part, I bristle cause I'm territorial and don't like strange men in my very small living space, but the worst part was the timing.

8:00 in the goddamn morning? Is that shit really necessary? Why are construction workers so obsessed with the crack of dawn? (Insert "carpenter crack" joke here.)

I'm tempted to study the trades just so I can show up to work during my own peak hours of alertness and talent and the hours of most of my work for pay: roughly 10 PM to 3 AM. Hey, it's just a belt sander, don't mind me. Just gotta knock out this moldy drywall, just go about your business! What, you're asleep? In your jammies at this hour? You're wasting the best part of the day! **disapproving look, subtle implication that you must not have to really work for a living.**

They were nice guys. I'd drink vodka with 'em any day. But I'm discovering tonight that two of my windows leak too, and I'm not going to tell my landlord for another month or two. I need to recover.

Comments

[tyellas.livejournal.com]

For a few months, my temporary flatmate was a construction worker. If you think having them come over at 8 AM is fun, try having them leaving for work from your abode in their steel-toed boots at 5:45 AM.

They're obsessed with "crack of dawn" for three reasons.

1. A lot of the time they work crazy long days. 10, 11 hours.
2. Why, yes, they are loud, and because of that, in some areas, they're not allowed to work at night.
3. For a lot of people, if they show up right on time at 8, it means you only have to take a half day off of work, or can get on with your day reasonably soon.

I'd rather deal with someone at 8 AM on a Saturday, who arrives on time, than someone who's late, or doesn't show. And I have to admit I'd rather deal with a construction worker as a visitor than as a flatmate, and have to deal with that every morning...

[hopita.livejournal.com]

I *still* tell the story about the time that our Polish-speaking handyman tried to install a new dryer in the basement and ended up ripping a giant hole in our wall with the gas line. If you didn't actually twist his ear and lead him up the stairs to our apartment, it sure as heck seemed like you did. :)

[semyaza.livejournal.com]

Workmen always come first thing in the morning. Someone must have their drywalling or whatever done at 3 in the afternoon, but it's never been me. Unless workmen are like Santa Claus and can be everywhere at precisely 8am.

[debbyl65.livejournal.com]

You should have had Sarah Palin negotiate a better time for you. She GETS Russians!

[maggiehoneybite.livejournal.com]

Once a plumber came to fix our bathroom sink while I was in the bathroom taking a shower at 8:30 am. I had to boot it out of there because I didn't want to wait another week for him to come again. They like early mornings!

[schwap23.livejournal.com]

Back in the day, when I had first been released into the wild from anti-rot, I worked briefly on an electrical contractor crew. We started at *7*, which when the jobsite is in unmapped Outer Slobovia, means you have to get up at about 5am. Let me just say that again, for the horror effect: Get up. At 5 am. [shudder]

When I asked one of the guys why in the name of all that was holy did we start at 7 in the godamn morning, he just looked puzzled and said 'So we can get off at 3!'

I tried to point out that this was basic mathematics, not an actual reason, and if we wanted to get off really early in the morning, we should try starting at midnight. "We'd get off at 8 in the morning! Think of how much you could get done if you got off work when everyone else was just getting started!" Sarcasm is underappreciated on the jobsite.

Really, they do it because that's when everyone else in trades does it. It's a very old fashioned field, and doing things certain ways because that's how it's always been done is the best reason they have. The fact that this basic scheduling ghetto-izes them is, I think, a perverse point of pride.

However, in this you case, you are at least partially the customer, and you should be able to dictate their schedule somewhat. Even as a tenant, your landlord has to give you 24 hours notice, and you can throw some weight at your landlord about timing. Try implying that they are just afraid of trying something different...

[divinetailor.livejournal.com]

Heh. Try living with a carpenter. Actually, it's not so much the tradespeople themselves who are obsessed with the crack-o-dawn--it's the job bosses and foremen who do the frakking scheduling! Rupert wouldn't be such a morning person if he wasn't forced to be.

Then again, I count myself lucky I'm already in the habit of getting up around 4 or 5 in the morning. It makes getting to my 8 a.m. classes (with the hour-plus CTA commute) just a tad easier. If "easy" has any place at all in that sentence...

I'm glad you got stuff fixed, though, and that it was relatively...er...painless. It's cool having work guys that understand cats, too. So Madimi didn't try to "help," I take it?