there's always something

Last summer when I was working midnights for some crap trucking company (and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy before I got my job with Canada Post) I found my sleep schedule challenged not only by the sound of the tennis club next door and the idiot upstairs, but also by the roadwork outside. But it all went away; the idiot moved, the roadwork was finished, and I got used to the tennis noise.

This summer the tennis sounds are back - I can hear one guy out there right now making noises that sound like he's getting close to having an orgasm - and I thought, oh well, if that's as bad as it's going to get, what the hell.

And then I saw them. I mean, them.

Last Thursday I came home from work and spotted a group of rough-looking types outside hovering around a pickup truck. They looked like workers, but in the absence of heavy machinery I figured they were doing a day job on pot holes or something. A couple hours later the banging started. They were on the roof of the building crashing around and smacking up great guardrails around the perimeter. I asked the building super what was going on and he told me it was a big job, this was going to take a while; the whole roof needed redoing. And then to make it even worse than anyone could have imagined, they set up this big boiling cauldron of TAR beside the building, almost right under my windows, so now my apartment reeks of the crap. I just put a table and chairs out on my balcony - they're covered in soot. It's almost 6 PM here and they are still making their noise up there. It's driving me nuts to have to sit through this, and to choke on the stench. And it's hot; and turning on the air conditioners only serves to suck more tar fumes inside.

It is just a good coincidence then that this all happened while my shift has been changed at work for the week, and while I am going to a training course next week. If I had to try to sleep through this all day I think I would have killed someone by now.

And speaking of work. I got in there this morning and found that the normally competant final sort supervisor covering for me didn't pay attention to what was going on last night and my operation suffered big time from a lack of people. So I spent most of my morning once I got there running around fixing things, and then I come home to... this.

I am really hoping for a better day tomorrow.

That is all.