Thank goodness for hot coffee

It seems like I have been working my entire life. Of course I haven't been, but sometimes it seems like it. Mostly I like working, but there are times when I really, really hate getting up in the mornings and facing another long day at the office. I have fantasies of working at Starbucks or Dillard's. In these fantasies I am perfectly dressed, makeup spot on, hair beautifully styled. The customers are delightful and easy to please and I am cheerful, helpful, welcoming and very well salaried. Sigh. It's a pretty good fantasy. Most days I show up, am capable, accommodating and pretty good at my job. 

And then there are days like today. My office has an ongoing battle with a furnace. We have two furnaces, one that covers the back offices and one that is dedicated to the front offices. Due to the nature of the real estate business and the whole covid thing, for the most part I am alone in the front office area. So guess which furnace blows out nice, comforting, warm air and which one groans with an attempt to grind out heat? It's 27 degrees outside and 64 at my desk. The sun is streaming thru the big bank of windows right next to me and it is still 64. My little space heater is pushing out heat like a champ and it is still 64. I recently began writing down things for which I am grateful. So this is me writing down I am grateful I haven't frozen to death. Grateful that none of the agents will walk in this afternoon and find a Susan-shaped popsicle sitting at the computer. I am grateful for a functioning Keurig that can keep me in hot coffee. Grateful for the local loan officer who just dropped off a box of cookies to go with that coffee and remarked "Wow, it's chilly in here". 

You know what I am not grateful for? The company that said they fixed it. It took them the better part of 3 very cold days for a guy to come out who couldn't look at it because he didn't bring the right ladder. A couple of days later another guy came with a different ladder. He looked at it. Ordered a part. A week later discovered it was the wrong part. Ordered a new one. Another cold week later and nope, that one doesn't work, we need another part. A bigger part. Ordered that part. Finally, after a month of looking and ordering and banging about in the furnace room, they declared it fixed, took their ladder and left. And now, a week later, it is 64 degrees in my office.

I feel your pain, Jack.