Windemere

        Usually starting an enty is pretty easy for me. Some recent event has made my eyball twitch and my hands can barely keep up with the torrent of frustration poring through my mind. But this week, there have been so many things that I am virtually at a loss for where to start.

        To give a quick overview, no heat, another tree fell, then there was snow, still no heat, laundry room in progress, still no heat.

        Ok, we'll start this alphabetically by order of pissoffitudiness. No heat. This has been an ongoing drama and does not seem to want to end. A couple of weeks ago I called the home warranty company and had them come out to repair the boiler (details of that adventure are here) The poked some things and made heat happen. All was good. Then the heat stopped working. I poked the boiler and got heat to work again.... for about 12 hours. Then I poked again in a different spot and got the heat to work agin.... for about 12 hours. As of last night I poked it in the last reasonably pokable place and only got a few hours of heat before it cut out again. My plan was to call the warranty company today to get someone schedule to come out and make things right. When lo and behold they called me this morning instead. But they weren't calling because they've got Miss Cleo working for them. No they were calling to inform me that the flue damper they changed out last week wasn't actually going to be covered by my warranty because they don't cover "electronic energy management systems" To which I replied. Umm... Bullshit.

        First off the damper is part of the boiler system. The boiler is designed so that if there is a flue damper connected it will not work without it or if the damper is malfunctioning. Secondly the boiler is just a tank of hot water, and you know what makes that water actually get hot. AN ELECTRICAL CONTROL SYSTEM that turns the gas on and off to make hot water. So I very elegantly explained this to the warranty company. And backed it up with the fact that the service guy they sent out called back into his office to have the warranty company confirm that the flue damper was a covered item. And they confirmed for him that it was indeed covered. At this point she had the good sense to tell me that she'd look into it and call me back. She could probably hear the eye twitching over the phone. About 15 minutes later she did in fact call back to let me know that they'd cover the part "this time". As if I were trying to pull a fast one on them. Their contractor checked in with them and said this thing was covered. NOT MY PROBLEM.

        Now that we had the first service call resolved it was time to once again poke the bear. Now you're never supposed to poke the bear. Because the bear is big and poking the bear makes it mad. But that's the fun. I called again this afternoon and reported that I once again had no heat. They decided to re-open the existing ticket. Which is good for me because I've already paid the deductible. Despite my grousing at the idiosyncrasies of navigating through the warranty process everyone has been pretty pleasant and helpful. I may have spent half a day on hold to get through to someone, but that person did actually make things happen. Although things are not yet resolved and it has taken longer than I'd like. They are actually working in earnest to make things right and have been good about scheduling and following up etc.

        The service contractor called me this afternoon and we talked through a couple of things. Yup, checked that. Yup, checked that. Yup, checked that. In the end, the service guy and I came to the same conclusion. The boiler is busted and needs some new control parts. Electrical control parts. I can't wait to see what they say about this item when he submits it. These boiler control things are of course only made by left handed aboriginal midgets in the heartland of Sudan on alternate Tuesdays when it isn't the rainy season. Which means they won't be able to get parts until at least Monday. So I will be stuck without heat for the weekend. Stay tuned for more news on this developing story.

        The second drama of the week was the major wind storms we had at the beginning of the week. I came home one evening to find a 20' tall tree lying sprawled along the curb and my front sidewalk. Just as I was about to start making calls to friends and family for chainsaws and pickup trucks it dawned on me. Wait a minute that's not really my tree.

        The tree is right in front of my house. And technically may-be on my property. But it was planted in the narrow band of grass between the curb and the sidewalk. Here is where the magic begins. For those who may not know, the land directly at the edge of your property really isn't yours. Most any municipality reserves these border spaces as rights of way for whatever they'd like to do. Be it a sidewalk, gas line, sewer pipe, utility pole, whatever. This first 5 or 10 foot strip technically belongs to the city, and is generally it is referred to as a setback. As a homeowner you're not really allowed to do much in this right of way zone, but you are required to maintain it. But you aren't required to maintain what the city puts there. If they put in a gas line, it isn't your problem to take care of it. It is their gas line. In this case, the tree was planted directly in what I will deem the "not my problem" zone.

        Since I had so cleverly determined that this was not, as it might at first appear, my problem and was in fact "somebody else's problem". All that remained was to find out who's problem it was and let them know that they should come take care of their fallen tree. To the Web!!

        Baltimore City has a really decent online presence and a top notch city services site. The best part is they have an online work ticket submission system called CitiTrack. Plain old ordinary city dwellers like myself can go online and pick from a menu of different things that the various city public works departments take care of and submit a work request. As luck would have it, right there in bold shiny Verdana text was the listing for "Forestry Tree Road Hazard" and "Forestry Tree Removal" Huzzah! A couple of quick clicks later and my request was submitted.

        One of the things I like most about the CityTrack system is that I don't have to wait on hold for someone. I don't have to talk to any disgruntled city employees. I can get my requests in in the middle of the night instead of having to deal with this stuff during the two hour window on alternate Thursdays when their people actually answer phones. The other great thing? The system works beautifully. The very next day I arrived home to find 90% of the tree had been cut up and hauled away. The remaining large trunk of the tree was laid neatly at the curb and marked with a cone. And the following day they came and dealt with the trunk. I never saw anyone. I never talked to anyone. And within 48 hours they completely dealt with the problem. As long as I don't see a bill for this I will gleefully pay my tax bill.

        This is not the first time I've dealt with CityTrack with similarly amazing results. During my sewage issue I also used CitiTrack to get the dept of sanitation out to check out their lines. And similarly I was able to submit a request at 10pm on a Sunday night while sitting on my couch and bright and early Monday morning they were out taking care of things. I don't care very much which city administration made this happen but I am exceedingly greatful for the service and can happily report that at least one thing the city government is doing is great and is very well done. I just wish they had some mechanism on their site to allow me to let them know how much I like their system.

        Our last tale of drama for the week is the snow. There actually wasn't much in the way of drama associated specifically with the snow event, except that it happened right in the middle of having no heat and the tree falling so it somewhat complicated the process for the other dramas. But it did make everything look nice. A nice blanket of snow really makes it feel like winter. It also really helps with the whole holiday spirit. Christmas just isn't quite the same without some snow.

        Since I had no heat at home I took advantage of the heater and heated seats in the car to warm up and go drive over to Hampden to see the Miracle on 34th St. Every year this one-block section of Hampden goes completely over the top with oudoor lighting. It is both the the tackiest, most overwhelmingly ostentatious display of Christmas lighting exuberance and a truly heartwarmingly beautiful and inspiring sight.