work

Rain date

It rained today. Boy, did it ever. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It was a pretty normal day, if incredibly hot and sunny. Rumor has it, it got up to about 100°F today, and I can believe it. That lasted until the early afternoon, around 3 o’clock, when I headed downtown to Wall Street, to take part in a focus group at Shutterstock my boss had recommended. She had been there herself this morning and said it was actually fairly interesting, kind of neat to see stock photos from the perspective of the people who provide them, and to offer them some perspective on how we use them. Plus, they were offering a $50 Amazon gift card in exchange for taking part, and for half an hour’s effort (plus the subway trip downtown) that seemed like a pretty good deal. (Plus, I could take part during the work day, with my boss’ blessing.)

The focus group itself was interesting: one woman asking me questions and a couple of others following along. I felt like I maybe wasn’t providing them with the answers they wanted, or explaining myself as thoroughly as I could. There were, of course, “no right or wrong answers,” but it’s been a little while since I’ve actively gone stock-photo shopping, and not once since taking on my current development job. But they were really friendly, and the session didn’t last much longer than the half hour advertised. (The chairs in their lobby, though? Genuinely uncomfortable. And I think my ears may have actually popped going up to the 30th floor.)

I knew I probably was going to miss my regular train home, the 4:54. I still had to go back to the office and pick up my bag (with my train ticket inside it), then get the subway back downtown again to Penn Station. A twenty-minute ride uptown, the elevator back up to my desk, then a fifteen-minute ride down to Penn. It was already about 4:15 when I came back down to their building’s lobby. But maybe I could do it, if I caught a subway right away and the traffic lights outside Grand Central were with me. I just needed to…

By that point, it had started to rain. I hadn’t brought an umbrella with me, which in retrospect is what we call a Very Stupid Move. There’s about a block between the Shutterstock offices and my subway line, and I got soaked running that short distance. I had a brief respite while the train took me back uptown, but then it was right back into the deluge at Grand Central.

I hung out under the awning at the exit on Lexington until the traffic light had changed, then raced through the bucketing downpour to the Duane Reade drugstore on the corner. Where I bought what turned out to be a pretty decent umbrella — albeit one that maybe came a couple of city blocks too late. I was thoroughly soaked — or so I thought, until I stepped ankle-deep into a puddle at the next corner and got even wetter.

I’m sure I looked a fright to my co-workers when I trudged back up to my desk. The only positive is that I was by that point too soaked to even care.

I headed back out into the rain, which by that point had not remotely let up. Bright flashes of lightning, loud cracking booms of thunder, wind thrashing the rain at you left and right, and giant puddles everywhere you step. Luckily, though, our office is only a block from Grand Central, and my umbrella was still holding up, so I got to my subway without too much more trouble.

I had some trouble finding my MetroCard, of course, and I most certainly did miss my original train out of Penn, but by that point those were just minor annoyances. I’m actually amazed that the Long Island Railroad didn’t collapse under the pressure of this afternoon’s storm. (I wish I could say the same for our home phone line; even with all of yesterday’s work, it went out again in the downpour.)

With luck, the rain — which actually stopped altogether around 7 — will cool things of a little. I’d hate to think all of this was for nothing.

Still, I did get a $50 gift card out of it, so that’s something.

Something in the air

I woke up this morning around 8 o’clock and called the air conditioner repair service I’d scheduled for today, as I’d been told to, in order to get a two-hour estimate on when they’d be arriving. That estimate turned out to be between 8 and 10, and they were here well before 9 and gone not too long after. They took the air conditioner unit with them, which means we’re in for a handful of warmish days (at least in part of the house) and leaving fans on for the dog. But a broken condenser blade — which is apparently the problem — isn’t going to fix itself, not in this heat.

Of course, later in the day, the first repair service I’d called, and who I’d booked for next Tuesday (but planned to cancel) — they showed up too. Sorry, fellas, but your head office told you the wrong date, and there’s nothing left here for you to repair. My cup runneth over with air conditioner repairmen. And on today of all days: air conditioning’s 110th birthday!

Also showing up at the door today: a Verizon repairmen, here to fix the phone lines yet again. We had the latest of many service appointments last week, but that guy had given me no reason to suspect anyone else was actually coming back. Today’s guy told me essentially the same thing as everybody else, that Verizon is not going to re-invest in the copper lines and is not going to repair them. They want all of their customers on FIOS, whether their customers want it or not. (It’s my parents’ decision ultimately, but FIOS doesn’t have any better reputation for speed, price, or availability.)

To this repair guy’s credit, though, he was here in the backyard and up the block for most of the afternoon, well into the early evening, and the phone does seem to be sounding slightly better, less crackly and impossible to hear anything. That may only last until the next big rainstorm, if that long, but we’ll see.

It’s actually kind of amazing that I got any work done today. If only I was working on a textbook for phone and air conditioner repair instead of social psychology. I might have more luck finding reviewers.

Again with the Monday!

I didn’t sleep too great last night. Which is weird, because you’d think after thirty-something years of nightly practice, I’d have gotten the hang of it.

It felt very much like a Monday from the get-go, a feeling that hasn’t let up all day. I’m working from home tomorrow, which is good, because the air conditioner downstairs is busted and somebody’s coming to (hopefully) repair it. I can also keep an eye on the dog, who usually spends his days in the kitchen, and make sure he doesn’t overheat.

Right now, though, I’m just enjoying the fact that the air conditioner in my bedroom is not busted. I grow less enamored of summer with each sweaty day.

Thursday

For whatever reason, this seems to be the week of authors visiting our office. We had a nice lunch — the book’s commissioning editor, our sales manager, the author, and me — and then we were joined later by two members of our marketing team. (My own boss, who likely would have joined us, is currently out of the office.) And our discussions went well, I think.

Though I’m still glad tomorrow’s Friday.

Tuesday

Today was not what I would call an eventful day. A Verizon tech stopped by, though mostly to say he couldn’t do anything to fix the line, would have to send a team out, and that Verizon was unlikely to offer any kind of permanent fix, basically because they want everybody off the old copper land lines, regardless of what their customers want. Which, I have to say, has sort of been my experience with them thus far.

All that, however, only took a few short minutes out of my day. Even a short trip to the library over lunch — to pick up a couple of competing textbooks I’d been hoping to have for Monday’s author meeting — didn’t do much to break up the day.

Still, it wasn’t too terrible, as far as Tuesdays go.