Window Paine
As I finished typing up my entry yesterday I was startled by the sound of a ball hitting my window. And glass breaking. And then the headache came rushing in and all I could think was “no no no”. Because breaking glass means dealing with things and people and why won’t you leave me alone?
I probably sat there for several minutes with my head in my hands, hoping the world would quietly slip away and stop bothering me. But the world staid in place. And my window is broken. The outer part. It’s some kind of thermo window with two sets of glass. The outer set has a nice ball-sized hole and cracks all along the way. At least the inner set of glass is intact.
Today I called the operating office of the housinge corporation. Told them about the broken window. The nice lady said she’d call the… whatyoucallem? The people what repairs windows. Glaziers? Glasers? Glass Repair Men? Anyway, those guys. So all day today I have been waiting for them. And they have not come. I guess it was wrong of me to assume they’d be here so fast. What a waste of time. I hope they’ll come tomorrow. Not that getting the window fixed is so urgent. But I just want to get it over with. Dealing with all this make my stomach ache. It makes my phobia shout and scream and dance and compose illiterate symphonies. Knowing there are strangers coming, that I have to talk to them and let them in my apartment and everything.. it makes me unhappy. And I know, rationally, that it won’t be that bad. It never is. They’ll do their job and be on their way and I will have worried for nothing. But I can’t help the worrying. So if I could just have it over with, kthanxbye.
I’m just glad the whole window wasn’t broken. The ball hit almost exactly where I was sitting, just higher up. Imagine all the glass everywhere and the scare and the cold, cold air. The operating office is closed on Sunday too, I wonder if a completely broken window is emergency enough to call the emergency line? Would glassing people have come urgently then? Or would I have had to go days with no window? No point in wondering about that I guess.
One of the things I did to waste time while waiting in vain was watching a rerun of an ALF episode on the telly. You remember Alf, don’t you? I thought it was funny in the intro sequence when he films into the mirror you see him holding this gigantic camera. If they made a remake of that today he’d be holding this tiny little cellphone. In fact everyone would be holding tiny little cell phones. And there would be lots more sex and violence, of course.
And who wouldn’t want that?
September 23rd, 2008 at 0:01
Hmmm. . . I guess a ball is better than a brick! I would imagine if the whole window was broken out, someone from maintenance would have to come put a piece of plywood over the window until it was fixed.
Could you call back and ask if they knew when the glass repair people were coming? That way you wouldn’t have to stay at home and worry.
Tell the office you have a very important client to meet for some good reason (to save the universe) and you need to know when the repairs will be done.
The only thing I never liked about ALF was his love of cats. That is, his love of eating cats! hee, hee
September 23rd, 2008 at 0:21
Debster – Well, I gave them permission to enter my apartment if I’m not there, so I don’t theoretically have to wait at home. It’s just.. I don’t like the idea of strangers in my apartment when I’m not around! So I’m damned if I do, and I’m damned if I don’t… but I’ll wait tomorrow and if they haven’t been around then I’ll call the office and ask if they have any idea how long it’ll take. I’m like an ostrich, I prefer to stick my head in the ground and hope everything turns out ok.
I think the whole cat thing was probably a joke, I mean he never could get himself to eat Lucky!
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:08
Oh my god, I seriously said about 15 hours ago “I really feel like watching ALF”.
Sorry about the window drama.
September 23rd, 2008 at 5:42
Man, that’s scary. Thank goodness no one got hurt! Plus, it’s never easy having stangers in your house. You can always hide your valuables. That’s what I do.
September 23rd, 2008 at 23:35
Belinda – We oughta have ourselves an ALF party. A marathon, if you like. We could dress up as Alf and eats cats. Well, maybe not eat cats. But we could bake cat-shaped cookies.
Hmm, too much work.
LuisLemmings – I get paranoid that they see I have two computers and they note down my address and come back later to rob me. Maybe if I throw some old sheets over the computers they’ll think it’s just old furniture. Yes.
September 24th, 2008 at 0:11
LuisLemmings: where do you hide your valuables? And what are they? We have valuable goats, but I don’t think we could hide them! Well, they’re valuable to us anyway, maybe not to anyone else. Frankie is priceless.
Plume: now the ostriches we see all have their heads up, up very high in the air, they’re always looking around to make sure no lions creep up on them. Or glass repair guys!