Thursday, June 09, 2011
exterminator
The electric in this neighborhood is screwed up. I turned off the PC while the thunderstorms came through, booted up & went online when they passed, & then the electric shut off for 15 minutes. I looked out the window & saw street & house lights over on the next block, but my corner of the city was out.
***
I try to be polite to the exterminator guy. He has a crappy job. All day long he goes from apt building to apt building, apt to apt spending maybe two minutes in each, squirting chemicals under sinks as required by the city. That's all he does. I've seen his beat up company car parked in front of lousy apt buildings & in front of the better ones that attract airline employees & young professionals. I'm certain he's contemptuous of us all; it leaks through his personality: Affluent people for their taste in furniture or for not owning a house; the poor for taking rental assistance; seniors for being forgetful or slow to open the door. The interesting exterminating jobs, trapping mammals, getting rid of bees & termites, are for the better paid specialists in his company. My guess is that he doesn't have that kind of job because he's not very smart & he has a big mouth not suited for work that would bring him into contact with people for more than two minutes & which sometimes calls for discretion: Even "nice" people get bedbugs these days; carry them home from expensive hotels.
Today he comes in for his monthly spritz & immediately starts griping because I haven't yet installed the 50 lb 8000 BTU a/c in the window, I just have a fan blowing warm air around. I wasn't feeling so comfortable myself, but I knew the heat wave was breaking this evening. I blurted out, "Mind your own fuckin' business." That really surprised him, & he went out of here muttering about immigrants, taxes, etc. If I had been ready to put the a/c in, I would've said, "You're right, help me lift this thing & carry it to the window."
***
I try to be polite to the exterminator guy. He has a crappy job. All day long he goes from apt building to apt building, apt to apt spending maybe two minutes in each, squirting chemicals under sinks as required by the city. That's all he does. I've seen his beat up company car parked in front of lousy apt buildings & in front of the better ones that attract airline employees & young professionals. I'm certain he's contemptuous of us all; it leaks through his personality: Affluent people for their taste in furniture or for not owning a house; the poor for taking rental assistance; seniors for being forgetful or slow to open the door. The interesting exterminating jobs, trapping mammals, getting rid of bees & termites, are for the better paid specialists in his company. My guess is that he doesn't have that kind of job because he's not very smart & he has a big mouth not suited for work that would bring him into contact with people for more than two minutes & which sometimes calls for discretion: Even "nice" people get bedbugs these days; carry them home from expensive hotels.
Today he comes in for his monthly spritz & immediately starts griping because I haven't yet installed the 50 lb 8000 BTU a/c in the window, I just have a fan blowing warm air around. I wasn't feeling so comfortable myself, but I knew the heat wave was breaking this evening. I blurted out, "Mind your own fuckin' business." That really surprised him, & he went out of here muttering about immigrants, taxes, etc. If I had been ready to put the a/c in, I would've said, "You're right, help me lift this thing & carry it to the window."
Labels: Elizabeth NJ, weather
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