marcicat | is this a trick question?

REPAIR UPDATE TIME!

Yesterday afternoon, there was a knock on the door, and it was the repair guy. (There was just... a LOT about this that was so, so weird, but I'll skip to the funny part.)

(And the context for this is that every apartment has a balcony, and the balcony has a closet-type area on each end. One end is open to the renter for storage; the other is locked and has important apartment-related stuff in it. I guess? I think the repair person who fixed my AC years back went in there, because when I got home all the plants in front of that door had been moved. The point is, this was the first time I've actually been around when anything HVAC-related was getting repaired, and IT SHOWED.)

Repair-person-who-I-think-is-called-Tim (pointing at the locked door): "Is the furnace in there?"

Me (panicking): "I don't know! The door is always locked!"

(In retrospect, he was clearly trying to confirm *which* end of the balcony had the furnace -- the doors look identical, and the apartments mirror-image each other in layout, so it's entirely possible that the furnace end varies as well. In the moment, all I could think was 'he doesn't know where the furnace is! I've never seen the furnace! I'm failing this test! ACTIVATE PANIC MODE!' Which wasn't helpful. At all.)

Repair person: "I'll need to go see if I have a key for this. I'll bring a new filter too; they really should be replaced every six months. Unless you've done that recently."

Me (looooooong pause while I thought to myself 'is he really asking if I've broken into a locked room that I've already confessed I have no idea what's inside to replace a filter I've never heard about before today?' and also watched him try to jimmy the lock using a screwdriver): "No. But thank you!"

ANYWAY.

I was technically supposed to be working, and also it's not a big space, so I confess I have STILL not seen the inside of the maintenance closet. But the repair person didn't leave without one final baffling exchange.

Repair person: "Do you know who's in the apartment above you?"

Me (honestly, still panicking): "I've never met them."
(This is sort of true. I have a vague idea of who they are, and we've exchanged hellos, but it's not like we converse regularly. I don't know their names or anything.)

Repair person: "Because there's some leaking happening. Gonna have to fix that, or there will be mildew, and you don't want that."

Me: "Right, no. Okay. Thank you."

(I can't reiterate enough, THE DOOR IS LOCKED AND I DON'T HAVE A KEY. Presumably, the people in the apartment upstairs ALSO do not have a key to their locked maintenance closet. Because WE'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO MAINTENANCE. So if there's leaking, I'm pretty sure that's a property management company issue. Maybe they can use that 17% increase in my rent to do something about it!)

It was a rollercoaster from start to finish, is what I'm saying. And he'll be back on Tuesday! Because despite me saying clearly in my ticket that it was a thermostat issue, he did not come prepared to replace the thermostat. (They don't have any right now, apparently. Though to be fair, in no way did I impress with my absolute zero knowledge of how anything in the apartment works. I also would not believe me if I said I thought it was the thermostat and not the furnace.)