My babies and air conditioning worries
Little James has been feeling sick today and it's made me really worried that there's something in my apartment here that's bad for my babies. He's had diarrhea a number of times, and just isn't his little James-self at all. On the good side, little Emma seems to be all well and is her sweet little Emma-self, and she was having diarrhea all Friday morning. So I hope it's just a little something that she passed to him and that he'll be back to normal tomorrow. But I hate seeing him sick and being so lethargic!
Today I've just stayed in my apartment and done some cleaning and took an afternoon nap and called my grandpa and dad for father's day, and talked to The German and MWFB.
7:15 Monday morning now
I saw little James heading towards the bathroom last night so I stalked him down the hall and waited until he was in the litter pan and then spied in to see what was coming out - it was more diarrhea but from what I could see in there it looked to have a slight bit of form maybe, whereas before there was no form, and I thought maybe there wasn't quite as much mucus (sorry!). I cleaned his little butt for him and then he was more bright-eyed for a little while and then was accepting cuddling and wanting his belly rubbed, so I of course laid on the bed with him and cuddled a lot. And he cuddled into my side when I got under the covers for bed, and he also woke me up sometime during the night for cuddling. So that's a very sign! I don't know if he's had any more diarrhea.
Oh - a good sign - he just came out of the bedroom crying his hyper cry and tried to jump on Emma's back, which is what he does when he's hyper! And hyper is good cause it means he's feeling better!
On Saturday night I bought a window air conditioning and The German installed it into one of my living room windows for me. It works so so so well! And even has a remote - how cute is that!? Of course, it means that the companies know Americans are lazy and don't like to get up from their couch, but I admit that it's kind of true in my case and the remote fucking kicks ass! But here's the little thing - I'm terrified of my landlord calling to tell me it's not allowed. Yesterday when I heard a lot of activity on the stairs I actually turned the TV (with World Cup on!) volume down really low so if someone knocked on my door I could not answer. I hate getting in trouble!
The reason I'm so nervous is because when looking at all the places on my building, I only see one other AC! But what the fuck, are these other people all scorching in the crazy Chicago summer heat? In my view, a place is not habitable if it doesn't have AC during the summer! The provision in my lease that they could point to, and which they would be correct in arguing for no window AC, reads "Lessee shall not place nor permit any article or antenna outside of the window, on exterior walls, or on the roof of the building...." I conferred with MWFB and he agreed that they could point to that provision. And the fact that my apartment is one of the few that's right out front on the street is even more worrisome. (So many words that I'm typing right now look misspelled. I'm not sure if they are or not but am not going to take the time to check so please ignore any misspellings.)
But one more thing in the lease - an earlier provision reads, "Lessee shall not install or operate any machinery, refrigeration or heating devices...which may be hazardous to life or property." Now I read that as them in some way anticipating that tenants may use AC or heaters, and are just in this provision limiting it to safe devices. Oh and they also use the word "install" there, and the only way an AC device could be installed in this apartment is in the window. And the lease does not specifically say that window AC units are not permitted, and if they really really really cared, they would put that language in the lease or at least should put it in. Of course, this is just a boilerplate, form lease that they're using, but still!
Well so anyway, you can see that I'm very much overanalyzing and worrying about this, and I can't take the stress of waiting for a phone call and I think if I got a call that was telling me I couldn't do it, I would start crying. So I'm going to call the landlord's office this morning and tell them that I put one in and ask whether that's a problem as I don't see any other AC units. And if they say it is, I'll talk them into letting me put it in the bedroom in the window curved away from the street (and I want an AC in my bedroom as it is - I didn't get two right off the bat in case there was a problem). But then for the living room I'll have to get one of the portable units that are almost $400, which is a shitload of money to spend on an AC! It would still have to be ventilated out the window but there's some hose and at least one of them comes with some fitted thing to put in the window, some sleeve or something. But I really hope I don't have to spend all that money. Because I absolutely must have AC, or I would just lay on my couch and not be able to move all during the summer. And most importantly, I won't allow no AC because I will not allow my sweet babies to suffer in the heat. I already gave them summer hair trims by trimming all their belly fur, but they have a ton more fur on them!
Okay, that's that. I need to get ready for work! Tonight I'll write about my fun Saturday and post pictures!
[Update, 12:05 p.m. - I feel soooooooooooooooooooooooo relieved. I just called and spoke with the nice receptionist lady and told her that I bought an AC this weekend but was so nervous because I only see one other person having an AC, and asked whether they cared about us getting them and she said, "oh, no, not at all." I told her she made me so happy because I was so worried about someone coming and knocking on my door and telling me I was breaking the rules! I'm so relieved!!!!]
Today I've just stayed in my apartment and done some cleaning and took an afternoon nap and called my grandpa and dad for father's day, and talked to The German and MWFB.
7:15 Monday morning now
I saw little James heading towards the bathroom last night so I stalked him down the hall and waited until he was in the litter pan and then spied in to see what was coming out - it was more diarrhea but from what I could see in there it looked to have a slight bit of form maybe, whereas before there was no form, and I thought maybe there wasn't quite as much mucus (sorry!). I cleaned his little butt for him and then he was more bright-eyed for a little while and then was accepting cuddling and wanting his belly rubbed, so I of course laid on the bed with him and cuddled a lot. And he cuddled into my side when I got under the covers for bed, and he also woke me up sometime during the night for cuddling. So that's a very sign! I don't know if he's had any more diarrhea.
Oh - a good sign - he just came out of the bedroom crying his hyper cry and tried to jump on Emma's back, which is what he does when he's hyper! And hyper is good cause it means he's feeling better!
On Saturday night I bought a window air conditioning and The German installed it into one of my living room windows for me. It works so so so well! And even has a remote - how cute is that!? Of course, it means that the companies know Americans are lazy and don't like to get up from their couch, but I admit that it's kind of true in my case and the remote fucking kicks ass! But here's the little thing - I'm terrified of my landlord calling to tell me it's not allowed. Yesterday when I heard a lot of activity on the stairs I actually turned the TV (with World Cup on!) volume down really low so if someone knocked on my door I could not answer. I hate getting in trouble!
The reason I'm so nervous is because when looking at all the places on my building, I only see one other AC! But what the fuck, are these other people all scorching in the crazy Chicago summer heat? In my view, a place is not habitable if it doesn't have AC during the summer! The provision in my lease that they could point to, and which they would be correct in arguing for no window AC, reads "Lessee shall not place nor permit any article or antenna outside of the window, on exterior walls, or on the roof of the building...." I conferred with MWFB and he agreed that they could point to that provision. And the fact that my apartment is one of the few that's right out front on the street is even more worrisome. (So many words that I'm typing right now look misspelled. I'm not sure if they are or not but am not going to take the time to check so please ignore any misspellings.)
But one more thing in the lease - an earlier provision reads, "Lessee shall not install or operate any machinery, refrigeration or heating devices...which may be hazardous to life or property." Now I read that as them in some way anticipating that tenants may use AC or heaters, and are just in this provision limiting it to safe devices. Oh and they also use the word "install" there, and the only way an AC device could be installed in this apartment is in the window. And the lease does not specifically say that window AC units are not permitted, and if they really really really cared, they would put that language in the lease or at least should put it in. Of course, this is just a boilerplate, form lease that they're using, but still!
Well so anyway, you can see that I'm very much overanalyzing and worrying about this, and I can't take the stress of waiting for a phone call and I think if I got a call that was telling me I couldn't do it, I would start crying. So I'm going to call the landlord's office this morning and tell them that I put one in and ask whether that's a problem as I don't see any other AC units. And if they say it is, I'll talk them into letting me put it in the bedroom in the window curved away from the street (and I want an AC in my bedroom as it is - I didn't get two right off the bat in case there was a problem). But then for the living room I'll have to get one of the portable units that are almost $400, which is a shitload of money to spend on an AC! It would still have to be ventilated out the window but there's some hose and at least one of them comes with some fitted thing to put in the window, some sleeve or something. But I really hope I don't have to spend all that money. Because I absolutely must have AC, or I would just lay on my couch and not be able to move all during the summer. And most importantly, I won't allow no AC because I will not allow my sweet babies to suffer in the heat. I already gave them summer hair trims by trimming all their belly fur, but they have a ton more fur on them!
Okay, that's that. I need to get ready for work! Tonight I'll write about my fun Saturday and post pictures!
[Update, 12:05 p.m. - I feel soooooooooooooooooooooooo relieved. I just called and spoke with the nice receptionist lady and told her that I bought an AC this weekend but was so nervous because I only see one other person having an AC, and asked whether they cared about us getting them and she said, "oh, no, not at all." I told her she made me so happy because I was so worried about someone coming and knocking on my door and telling me I was breaking the rules! I'm so relieved!!!!]
