A Week FULL of Adventures - not really the fun kind though...

Adventure #1: Things have been topsy-turvy in my world since last Friday evening.  That's when the incessant beeping of my apartment alarm pad began at 7pm - a consistent beep every 10 seconds.  After trying everything under the sun to fix it myself - pressing the (*), using a default code 0000, flipping the switches on the circuit breaker, and trying to remove the plastic cover to see if a battery needed to be replaced - no luck - and pressing the buttons on the keypad only worked for random time periods ranging from 5 minutes to 2 hours.  By the time Saturday morning rolled around, (after minimal sleep the night before), I called the maintenance line at 8am.  And recognizing that this is not an "emergency" issue like a water leak or a broken A/C, I patiently waited until 3pm to call the maintenance line again.  However, by this time I was a little peeved, and let them know that I need this fixed today or I'm going to rip it out of the wall - and yes you can quote me with that on the work order, thank you!  Two more hours pass, and at 5pm I marched down to the office to make sure they had received my work order and that the maintenance person would come to fix it that day.  By the time I went to girls' night at 7:30pm that evening, no maintenance worker had shown up, and when I got home later that evening - the beeping was still there!  So I endured another night of beeping...went by the office again after church on Sunday, and complained to the same lady as before and she called the maintenance man right there as I fed her all of the ways in which I'd tried to take care of this myself (as he was apparently making those suggestions to her - I've already tried those, thank you!)  The maintenance man finally came around 5pm on Sunday and completely disconnected the alarm pad from the electrical wires, so it should not make any noise EVER again while I'm there - woohoo!

Adventure #2: On Wednesday of this week (yesterday), I took my car to a dealership near the office for a recall repair.  I set up the appointment last week online for 7am, and they have a shuttle service - so I figured I'd still get to work at least close to my 7:30am start time.  I got to the dealership on time - only to find out from my service advisor that the techs don't actually come in until 7:30am/8am, and the shuttle service doesn't start until 8am.  However, I could put my name down and be first on the list.  Shuttle didn't leave until 8:20am, and I didn't get into the office until 8:45am.  Then the pick-up shuttle didn't come til 5:30pm (an hour after I'd requested), so I didn't get home until 6:30pm - and considering I left at 6:30am - it was a LONG day...awesome.  Does sound ridiculous to anyone else, that you would be allowed to make a 7am appointment, but they're not actually going to have people there to do anything at that time? I mean, there is an option to drop-off your car and keys, but I didn't choose that option - so if the 7am appointment time isn't going to actually be an "appointment" for anything and the shuttle service isn't going to be available until 8am - then why not just have the first appointment start at 8am or 7:45am at the earliest!

Adventure #3: This morning I took my dog for a walk per usual.  It's early so I was basically in my pj's and just had my keys on me.  I always take her on a quick little walk to do her business before getting ready for work, usually takes no more than five minutes.  One of my neighbors who also has a dog was chatting with me, and as I was raising my hand to say good-bye and cross the street, my keys fly off my finger, hit the cement and slide into the storm drain - it was like watching a bad movie happen in slow motion....my neighbor lets me use his phone to call maintenance, who acknowledge that this is an emergency and say they'll send the on-call person.  (But as you can tell from my earlier story - I don't have a LOT of faith in the maintenance line or the people themselves).  This is at about 6:15am.  My neighbor has to leave to go drive the school bus at 6:30am, so then I go sit on my apartment stoop and wait.  I make a couple of trips down to the maintenance office to see if maybe one of the regular maintenance guys have come.  As I watch all my neighbors leave for work, and the sun is out now, I get fed up. I know that my balcony window is unlocked, so I kick off my flip-flops and use my bottom neighbor's wrought iron fence around her patio to boost myself up to climb up to my balcony like a monkey.  I remove the cheap screen and enter my apartment via my unlocked window like a burglar, and then go back down to get my dog (who I'd tied up to my stairwell railing).  At this point, it is now 7:30am.  I have a copy of all my keys except my mailbox key and my office key, so I'm in fairly good shape in that realm (praise Jesus!)  I quickly change, feed my dog, and road rage it to the office.  Oh, but still got into work earlier than yesterday - came squeaking in at 8:15am today. 

Side note: One of my new neighbors totally saw me climbing up to my apartment as he took his dogs out for a walk.  And then I saw a maintenance guy as I was driving out of my apartment complex at 7:45am.  I let him know that I'd put in a request to have someone open my apartment for me, but that I didn't need it anymore since I'd climbed up to my balcony and let myself in.  Not sure that he really understood what I was saying, since his English wasn't so great - but he confusedly told me the other maintenance people would be there at 8am.  And around 9:30am, I got an automated email saying my work order was complete....awesome, no response to either of my work orders over the weekend about the obnoxious, infernal alarm, but to this one where they did NOTHING - they let me know it's complete.

As you can see, it's been a lovely week in my world.  Definitely an adventure - that's for sure!

Lesson learned - always keep my keys in my pocket when walking Suzie, as well as my cell phone.  And find a new place to live because the maintenance line at my place is ridiculous.

Pretty sure, stuff like this only happens to me ;-) And gotta say a little nervous about driving out of town this weekend after all of this!