Wednesday - February 04, 2009
SPEAKING OF POL.CORRECTNESS. KEYSTONE COPS FLY QUEER FLAG IN PLACE OF NATIONAL FLAG.
There’s an official transgender history month?
What’ll they think of next. Maybe I don’t wanna know.
Outrage as police station ditches Union Jack… for a
gayhomosexual rights flag
By Stephen WrightA Union Flag at a police station was replaced by a
gayqueer rights flag in a move that has triggered a fresh row over political correctness.The rainbow flag was hoisted outside Limehouse police station in East London to mark Lesbian
GayBisexual odd and Transgender history month in February.Sir Paul Stephenson is said to have demanded the flag be removed from Limehouse police station immediately
Metropolitan Police rules state that only the Union Flag and its own flag can fly from force buildings.Sir Paul Stephenson, the new Met commissioner, angrily ordered the flag to be taken down after being told of the controversy it had caused.
One officer said: ‘I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it.
‘The police are playing politics again. I can understand the need to show acceptance to people of all sexualities - but the Union Jack should never be taken down.’
A Scotland Yard spokesman said the decision to display the rainbow flag for the first day of LGBT history month had been taken by the borough commander, Chief Superintendent Paul Rickett.
But he added: ‘The Met policy is that only two flags should be flown: the Union Flag or the Met flag. The commissioner reaffirmed that he expects all staff to adhere to this policy.
Tory MP David Jones has waded into the debate describing the
gayrights flag flying outside the police station as ‘political tokenism’‘It would appear someone, albeit with good intentions, decided to fly the rainbow flag over a police building in suppolice-port of Lesbian
GayBisexual, queer and Transgender history month.’The spokesman went on: ‘The Met is supporting LGBT history month this year through a number of events and activities aimed at encouraging victims of hate crime to report incidents to police, and to celebrate the contribution made by LGBT people in the Met.’
Earlier this week the ’
gaypride’ flag was flown at the North Wales headquarters of Britain’s most controversial chief, Richard Brunstromto mark LGBT historyDavid Jones, Tory MP for Clwyd West, said: ‘This is tokenism and posturing. People want to see their police force focus on fighting crime, not getting involved in political tokenism and gestures.’
Critics believe the London flag row is a legacy of Sir Ian Blair’s stint as Met chief, when he was often accused of being obsessed with political correctness.
At one stage he asked officers to declare whether they were homosexual - a first step to quotas for numbers of
gayand lesbian officers in the Met.And officers at an exam for prospective chief superintendents were once asked how they would react if they realized a male colleague was a transvestite after seeing him dressed as a woman in a pub.
Sir Paul, keen to portray himself as a more traditional leader, has said he has no intention of being a ‘celebrity’ commissioner and his main focus is to fight crime and not bow to a PC agenda.
Posted by peiper
on 02/04/2009 at 01:16 PM
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Permalink • Friday - January 16, 2009
A REALLY HUGE AND MAJOR MOONBAT ALERT AND AWARD. WHERE DO THEY FIND PPL LIKE THIS?
They have to live someplace.
What brain thinks up this dumb and even embarrassing sort of nonsense?
Granted it’s funny but how can something so stupid and over the top not be funny.
You’ll want to remember this one.
Strike threat as librarian title changed to ‘audience development officer’
By Andrew Picken
IT would be difficult to find a more appropriate title for someone who works in a library.But city council chiefs appear to have decided the term “librarian” does not fit the bill any more.
As part of a major shake-up of the city’s library service, staff are set to be re-branded as “audience development officers”.
It is one of many changes which have infuriated staff and led to the prospect of strike action.
Source: Edinburgh Evening News
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
MOONBAT AWARD TO: City Council Chiefs, Edinburgh.
Posted by peiper
on 01/16/2009 at 10:00 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - November 02, 2008
Sounds fair to me!
From His Rottiness Emperor Misha I
Dear Fellow Business Owners,
As a business owner who employs 30 people, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama will be our next president, and that my taxes and fees will go up in a BIG way.
To compensate for these increases, I figure that the Customer will have to see an increase in my fees to them of about 8 to 10%. I will also have to lay off six of my employees. This really bothered me as I believe we are family here and didn’t know how to choose who will have to go. So, this is what I did.
I strolled thru the parking lot and found eight Obama bumper stickers on my employees’ cars. I have decided these folks will be the first to be laid off.
I can’t think of another fair way to approach this problem. If you have a better idea, let me know.
Posted by Christopher
on 11/02/2008 at 12:02 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - October 23, 2008
Banned from using Hoover or hot water under health and safety rules. (ere we go again matey)
Well, I guess this young feller won’t ever be able to work for Drew at this tender age. Jeesh, were she alive today, I could probably sue me own dear mum for making us help with housework on the wkends. Elf ‘N’ Safety yer knows.
This govt. really does take cradle to grave protection quite literally.
Boy, 16, banned from using Hoover or hot water under health and safety rules
A boy of 16 was told he could not work as a cleaner because he is too young to use a Hoover without health and safety clearance.
By Alastair Jamieson
Last Updated: 7:49AM BST 23 Oct 2008Karl Walker was told by a cleaning firm that he is not old enough to use hot water, washing up liquid and furniture polish or to empty bins.
The AS-level student and a friend were hired by Apollo Cleaning and worked in offices in Chippenham, Wiltshire, for a week until a regional manager ordered them to stop. The firm says it is following government guidelines by insisting on safety clearance.At 16, Karl is old enough to join the Army and fire a gun, play the lottery, have sex legally and get married, but the firm said he required special permission to use cleaning equipment, including vacuum cleaners.
Karl, who is studying for four AS levels, said: “I just don’t understand what is going on. How can I be too young to use a vacuum cleaner? It is so stupid. I want to earn a living.”His mother Susan, 47, said: “My son is legally old enough to get married or join the Army yet these people think he is too young to be able to hoover up. The entire situation is a joke.”
Paul Lundy, boss of London-based Apollo Cleaning, said: “When an employee is only 16 we have to be very careful with the tasks we set them as their bodies are not yet fully formed.
“But I am sure once the proper checks have been completed there will be no problem in re-employing these young people.”
Posted by Drew458
on 10/23/2008 at 09:34 AM
Filed Under: • Nanny State • Stoopid-People • UK • work and the workplace •
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Permalink • Thursday - October 09, 2008
Next Squeegee Project
I knew this was going to happen. I’ve got to run up to Chester tomorrow afternoon to give an estimate. That’s a long drive. Lady wants her windows washed. Only on the outside, thanks. Oh, and do the screens too. Can you give me a written estimate?
So now I have to figure out a per window cost. Heck, I need to figure out a per side of window cost. Plus screens. And I should make up a sales blurb. And have it all done tonight.
The way I figure it, her house, which has 40 windows, ought to make me about $320 for both sides. Plus a couple bucks per storm, both sides. The 37 screens should run another $125. But just doing the outside is hard part, especially if I’m coming in after the painters. That usually means a lot of scraping. And the outside is always the dirtiest side. So I want to set my prices so that just the outside costs about 70% of doing the whole thing. $350 for the whole job, get done in a day and a half? Sounds right to me. No, must remember to not sell myself short. I do premium work with premium tools. Let’s add another $75. Yup, $425 sounds better. I gotta make $30 an hour or else it isn’t worth the hour to drive up there.
I guess I have no time to be having this damn cold.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/09/2008 at 04:43 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - October 07, 2008
Ultimate Squeegee Project, Day 5
And now we are done. I finished off the last of the windows by early this afternoon. I left the half-moon transom window over the wrought iron balcony for last. Had to maneuver a small ladder in there at an angle, but I managed to do it without falling over backwards, splat. Which I appreciate! Spent the latter half of the afternoon restoring the lamps that hang beside the doors. Big old pieces of iron and glass, with an age of goo grit and grime inside. You know what makes a superb glass cleaner when you really have to cut through the built up crap? Brake cleaner. Just spray it on, rub it around with a paper towel, and let it evaporate. Then go over it with the Windex. Bada-bing, clean glass. Even removes roasted bugs!
So I’m hoping this job will lead to others. The very fussy paint crew boss likes my work, and says he will promote me to his customers. And I hope I’m developing an “in” with the truly posh set up there ... because the place I just spent a week working on is just about a “starter mansion” in that neighborhood. So I’m putting together an advertisement for that area. Not sure what I should say ... “Speaks English. Arrives on time every day, happy, clean, and sober. Does really good work at a decent pace. “ That might do it. I’ve got to figure it out, but I gather at least half of the contractors and “Rent a Dad” guys are undependable bums who take the money and run. I always figured they were the exception, but homeowners are telling me they’re more the rule.
Ok, so to the bank, send a slice to the gov., sit down and watch the next Big Debate. Hope somebody gives McCain some uppers so he has a little bit of bounce and energy.
Posted by Drew458
on 10/07/2008 at 08:18 PM
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Permalink • Monday - October 06, 2008
Ultimate Squeegee Project, Day 4
I still live.
Bear witness all ye fellow sgueegee men and strip washer wielders. Today I am one with the best of you. I have faced the mighty Skylight of Doom upon the Roof of Small Traction. At least 4, nearly 5 full stories off the ground. Upon the treacherous Rickety Stairs I did ascend, through the guardian Bilko Door I passed, and into the ethereal heights did I emerge. Falling not, failing not, fearing not (Ok, quite a bit, but I did it anyway), I have breathed the rarified air where few pigeons dare to fly, looked down upon the chimney pots, walked unsupported across the open peaks and scrubbed away generations of dirt and dead stink bugs. I have left cleanliness in my wake. And no streaks or smudges either.
Friday I was able to stick my head out the roof hatch and look around, but that’s as far as I got. Today I just went up there, out there, and got the job done. Granted, I didn’t waste any time turning cartwheels up on the roof, and I did keep my center of gravity as low as possible the whole time. But I did it, and it really did feel like some kind of rite of passage. And it was a loooooong way down with no railing, no safety harness, no nothing. Thankfully, it was also no wind, so that made it much easier mentally.
I also did the skylights in the bathrooms, which are interesting, in that they are secondary skylights. They are in wells in the attic floor, and get light from the main skylight in the attic roof 2 stories above. I’ve never seen anything like that. So I had to remove the safety screens in the floor, lean down below the floorboards, and give things a good scrub. I could have gone up through the bathroom ceilings, but that part of the house was closed off to me today. Funny, these sheets of frosted glass are not mounted. They just sit there, lose in the wood framing. I guess that lets excess steam out. But it also lets bugs and dust and stuff in. Odd.
So the attic is finished. I got all the removable storm windows off the lower floor, except one, got the inside surfaces clean, and got them back on. One left, and there is a small stained glass window to scrub underneath that. I would have got it done, but some whizzo who was painting the sills came along some time ago and filled all the screw holes with putty. I just didn’t have the energy left to deal with that, so I went down into the basement and scrubbed a few of those little windows. The basement windows can’t be cleaned from the outside, since there are iron bars across them. And the basement is very very large, and not always very well lit. So I was down there with a ladder and a flashlight, doing my best to scrub away more filth than you can imagine. I don’t think those windows haven’t been washed in 30 or 40 years. Triple washing on both sides, even with a scrubbie pad, and the dirt was still coming off in chunks. Yikes. Fortunately, the building manager thinks that this is beyond the call, so I did only 4 of the ... maybe 18? ... before she had me call it a night. Sun up to sun down. Another day’s work for the window guy.
Tomorrow I will do the rest of the downstairs inside. It’s about 1/4 done already. After that I have a few (10) hanging lamps to clean, and I’ll be done. 6 days, max. Hopefully 5.
Time for dinner. Shower first, and start more laundry. I am filthy. And I smell like Easy-Glide. Soapalicious!
Posted by Drew458
on 10/06/2008 at 06:40 PM
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Permalink • Friday - October 03, 2008
Ultimate Squeegee Project, Day 3
First off, I’d really like to thank Peiper for putting up lots of interesting posts in my absence. Well done old boy! I couldn’t keep this place running without you. But right now I’m mining gold as fast as I can swing a pick. Um, I mean wield a squeegee. I’m plugging away, making good progress, but let me clue you in. This is not easy work. I am exhausted. My feet ache, my hands are numb, my legs are all bruised from leaning on ladders. And I probably got scorched today too, as it was a bit chilly out and they had the heat on. Steam radiators under every window, right where I have to lean.
Well, the whole outside is done, except for behind a dozen storm windows I have to wait for the Mexicans to help me remove. They’re the size of a pool table, and weigh nearly as much. And the whole upstairs is done inside. All 11 thousand rooms. I didn’t make as much progress today as I wanted, because I put my foot down a little. The painters who did the windows didn’t do such a hot job of edging the paint. And they splattered a bit too. So now I have to do the glass scraping they should have done. But the customer is happy that I’m willing to do it, and is willing to pay me extra for that as well. So my guess is another 2 solid days of work, but between the scraping, the sill cleaning, and some detail work cleaning the outside lamps I can earn another few hundred bucks. Hey, the sun is shining, so it’s time to make hay!
I came home high today. Is it possible to fall in love with architecture? Because this house makes me giddy. Not only is the place utterly charming inside, it’s built like a damn fortress. The walls are at least two feet thick, solid stone. I bet there are 100 doors in the home, and each has a turn of the century brass lockset, in perfect working order, but with a 100 year patina you simply can not get at Home Depot. I went up into the attic late this afternoon. I climbed up the back stairs central servant’s stairs ( it turns out that there is another staircase that goes from the end of the servant’s wing straight down to the laundry room and kitchen at the back of the house. Who knew? But it wouldn’t surprise me at all if I found a 4th staircase somewhere. This place is immense!) to the attic door, went in, turned on the light, and was magically transformed into a 7 year old boy in an instant. Wow. Stunning. What a sense of wonder. And this is the attic! For starters, it’s fully floored. And the roof is held up with post-and-beam woodwork. The old style “upside down peace sign” kind of framing you usually only see in old barns. No trusses thank you. It’s made from baulks of timber - 8x8 and 10x10 hardwood framing. Oak? Maple? Maybe Chestnut. Certainly not pine. And the beams are in lengths that defy the imagination. It takes some seriously strong lumber to hold up a slate roof, and the roof itself is immense. I swear the attic is the size of a football field. The lower part, over the servant’s wing, is your standard steeply pitched roof, so the peak is about 14 feet overhead. Varnished barrel stave joinery lines the 2 foot diameter half pipes that make the horizontal shafts of the dozen or so eyebrow windows. Head on over towards the main part of the house, go up four steps, and you’ve just entered another world. The main part is Mansard roofed. Which means the attic is over two stories tall. Inside. There’s a staircase with two landings that zig zags up to the hatch by the skylight. It’s 22 steps up to the hatch. Amazing. I wish I could take pictures. It’s beyond belief. If there was any stained glass around I’d swear I was inside Notre Dame.
You could fit a standard suburban home in the attic. Heck, you could fit half the neighborhood in with it. I’m just blown away by it all. There’s a fire supression system. In the attic. Old style: if you’re old enough, remember those folded up fire hoses behind the glass doors at school? Several of these up there. And of course all the wires, plumbing, A/C pipes and equipment. Two or three TV antennas hanging from the ceiling. Bronze plated iron radiators with fancy scrollwork. So the attic doesn’t get too cold you know. Cedar closets for storing the furs I guess, all around each of the 4 or 6 chimneys. Over the back portico, an area that could be a theater; half round, raised stage, lighting, even a seating area. It’s a trip. What did they use it for? Over here, the machinery for an electric dumbwaiter. Cool, but where did it come out? I’ve been through almost the whole house now, and I haven’t seen any ... well, maybe that sliding glass thing in the Indian Room. But why? The kitchen is on the same floor as the dining room; all the cook needed to do was trolley the meals over. It’s a mystery. And a museum.
And of course, the stuff of generations. Nothing worthwhile every got thrown away. No, I wasn’t snooping. But it’s hard not to notice. Entire rooms worth of furniture under cloth. Arranged, not stacked. Artwork. Statuary. Knick-nacks. Steamer trunks. Rooms full of clothing. An entire library of books. All nice and clean and dry. A first edition of Uncle Remus. Just sitting on one of the bookshelves. In the attic. One of the front rooms up there is the toybox. Every toy the son ever had, from his wooden rocking horse and his Big Chief tricycle right up to his hunting and fishing gear and his Army uniforms. I really wasn’t snooping. I was working. But it’s impossible not to notice. Especially when every time I turned around I was “hey, I had that toy! Cool, the Tolkien Beastiary! And look, another book I’ve read!” Son and I must be close in age. It was a time warp experience for me. But I felt bad for the kid. He is an only child. In that great enormous house set back way in the woods on the sparsely populated end of town. No wonder there are so many books. Poor little rich kid must have been awfully lonely.
And today, when I asked about some of the unusual detailing - not only do all the main windows have interior shutters that bi-fold away into little side niches in the walls, all the windows also have slide out, hardened steel locking gates that come out behind each window. Slabs of steel the lateral dimensions of a Snickers bar, built like those expanding criss-cross wood gates you put across the kitchen doorway to keep the puppy or the toddler from running amuck. What the hell for? I found out today: security. (well, duh!) Because this was really only the summer cottage. They only lived there 3 or 4 months a year, and then went back to the main house the rest of the time. So the place locks up tighter than a typical prison to deter thieves.
Speaking of detailing ... if you happen to have a whole pile of money and nothing to spend it on, and you happen to have amazingly high ceilings, I saw the greatest thing today in the Indian Room. Actually, it’s the library. A library. But the whole room is done up in a Native American motif, so the name fits. Anyway, picture Atlas Supporting The World. Now transform Atlas into a Quetxicoatcocktail pre-Columbian Atzec statuette. Carve a whole shitload of them, each about 4” tall. Out of ivory or marble or something fine like that. In the Indian Room a flat topped bit of fancy crown molding runs around the walls, and on top of it every foot or so is one of these Quetxi-Atlas little statues, and together they support the next layer of crown molding up by the ceiling. It’s humorous, beautiful, and artistic all at the same time. I mentioned that this place sort of feels like a museum. But it’s also very much a home, some place where families were raised and lives lived. You can feel it. So I want to respect that, and not gossip about too much that would be personal to the owners. I find the place enchanting though. Everything ... everything is done right. Done better than right. It’s all done the best way. So yeah, I’m in love.
Oh, and I was wrong. This is not merely a house that George B. Post designed. It’s his actual home, where he lived and died. See page 10 of this link. Claremont is actually a modest home for that era and area. But “modest” is a flexible definition that a good architect can play with. This house is much bigger than it appears to be, because everything is built to a grand scale: the windowsills below the windows on the upper floor are 21 feet off the ground. The eyebrow windows up in the roof are about 2 feet across. The battlements over the front door are long gone, though the stone lions still remain. They are life sized:
Posted by Drew458
on 10/03/2008 at 09:30 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - October 02, 2008
Ultimate Squeegee Project, Day 2
Today I had an epiphany. I now know how Dr. Guillotine came up with his invention. I bet he was cleaning the windows one day, and saw a smudge on the outside of a double hung he wanted to get. He undid the latch, but nobody told him that the sash weight cords had rotted away ages ago. The latch opened and the entire upper pane - 3x4 feet - dropped like a lightning bolt. BAM! Huge shards of glass went flying in every direction. “Sacre merde!” he exclaimed in gutter fwench, “I could have lot mon head! ... ... ... ... ... AH HA!!” And thus history was made.
A similar thing happened to me today. Scared the crap outta me, lemme tell ya. Luckily, the lower inner window was down, and the outer storm window was in place. So all the broken shards stayed between those two windows. At first I figured I was fired. This window was big, and the ancient glass was nearly a half inch thick. So I gathered up all my stuff and went and told the property manager. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.
“Did you get cut?” “No, I’m fine.”
“Is there glass all over the place?” “No, it’s all between the other two windows.”
“Ok. Don’t worry about it. These things happen.”
Phew! I mean, come on, I’m working for a seriously old money rich person here. I expected at least a little flogging, you know? Throw me to the hounds a bit. Even one hound maybe? But I met the heir today. She’s in her mid-70s I think. She’s clean, she’s dressed well, her hairstyle looks very nice. She sits in a chair under a lap blanket, sort of facing the television, and smiles. And that’s about it. Early onset dimentia, poor old thing. So the property manager doesn’t really care; my piece is just a tiny slice (oops, a broken glass pun) of the latest million dollar renovation. So what’s another window when the bill is that big?
Then I figured, maybe they’re gonna go after my insurance. But I can fight that if they try. Nobody said a word about any of the windows not working or being dysfunctional. And it’s obvious that the only thing that made this one break was opening the latch. Opening and closing the window is part of it’s normal use expectation. So I think I’m Ok.
Good grief, this place is the size of a freakin hotel. Milady’s bedroom connects to her bathroom which connects to a dressing room which connects to m’lords bedroom which connects to his bathroom and to the eldest offspring’s bedroom, which connects to the middle children’s room which connects to the younger children’s room which connects to the nursery. And all these rooms connect to their own bathroom. You can walk around most of the upstairs of the house without even using the central hallway. At this point I’m keeping a lookout for secret passages. It’s a trip.
Tomorrow I hit the upstairs servant’s quarters. There’s about 5 rooms of them. Maybe more up in the attic? I haven’t been up there, but I know somewhere up on the roof there are at least two huge skylights, since all the bathrooms on the family wing have glass brick panels in the ceilings, and you can tell the light is coming in through another window somewhere up above. The back stairs - the servant’s stairs of course - are solid, but narrow, dark and steep. Not sure how I’m going to horse a ladder all the way up to the attic through there, with a flash light in the other hand. The main staircase on the family side - think Tara from Gone With The Wind, only this one has wall to wall plush carpet - only goes from the grand entrance way up to the second floor.
So at this point, the whole outside is cleaned, except for under the back portico because the Mexicans still aren’t done painting and fixing up the iron scroll worked balcony. I’ve got about half the upstairs inside done. So tomorrow I’ll finish the upstairs inside, go up and do the attic and go down and do the cellar (I can do them both together, Cinderella) windows, and hopefully get the portico done. I need to show up real early because I also have my regular Friday night office cleaning to do. So I’ll be there at least 2 days next week too. Then of course, there is the barn. Well, they call it a barn. I think it’s more of an actual carriage house - I looked in one of the windows and saw an actual carriage! - but no horses any more. But all the stalls and stuff are still there, and they’ve converted the upstairs into a couple of apartments for some of the caretakers. And the 8 black angus cows that keep the grass short in the front yard sleep somewhere else. (the front yard on the other side of the forest at the other end of the driveway. Actual cows in the actual front yard? I don’t think so!) But I look at it at 75 more windows, large, with mullions. Which need cleaning. $1000 please.
I’m winding down here with a rum and bottled tea. I’m living off of bottled tea lately, glugging down about a gallon a day of the stuff. Plus, the Arizona brand comes in really sturdy plastic jugs that are great for holding more window cleaning solution. So part of that wind down is watching the grand VP debate. It’s about 10:15 now, and I think Palin is finally getting her feet. She sounded like a chirpy idiot during the first part. OTOH, Biden just about oozes slime out of his pores, so even if he comes off better he’s still hard to watch and even harder to listen to, much less believe. So I’ll turn it over to the wise and fair media to tell me who wins this one.
Maybe tomorrow I’ll tell you about the dogs. They’re all my pals now. And they had a puppy party today. But I haven’t met the cats yet, though I have made peace with the parrot. He lives in a cage a little smaller than my first apartment. I have to go past that about 30 times a day, and he was shrieking at me and lunging against the bars the whole time. So I slipped him a bit of my sandwich, and now he just sits there and looks at me. So it’s either peace or heartburn. Parrots can eat salami and cheese can’t they? 
Posted by Drew458
on 10/02/2008 at 08:40 PM
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Permalink • Wednesday - October 01, 2008
The Ultimate Squeegee Project, Day 1
Hey, I’m still alive! My feet are killing me from standing on a ladder all day, and I had to leave at a normal time because it started to rain. But I got about 32 windows done on the outside. And I got them perfectly clean. That ate up 2 squeegee rubbers, 2 gallons of cleaning water, and several dozen rags and microfiber polishing cloths. I have already been invited back for next year, and they want me to do more things this time and add that to the bill. I guess they notice good work?
Well, they notice bad work, that’s for sure. The crew that did the glass last year was, for reals, a bunch of hippies who showed up with Windex spray bottles and a whole Goodwill Box full of rags. Needless to say they didn’t do a very good job. I was pulling their rag threads from the mullions all day.
And it’s stinkbug season. The little bastards are everywhere. They congregate on the windowsills in the fall, I don’t know why. It’s not just this place, it’s all over New Jersey. And it’s a new thing too; 3 years ago we never saw one. Must be that damned Global Warming. Personally, I blame Bush.
The glass in this mansion is 100 years old. I know firsthand, and then some, how old glass deteriorates. It gets pitted and rough from air pollution and weather, etc. But this glass also has waves in it. And air bubbles. And thin spots. It’s a challenge. Glass is actually a frozen liquid, and over a long time a big window will actually be noticeably thicker at the bottom as the glass slowly slumps down. Which means the glass at the top gets thinner, and if the house settles a bit then it’s the thin glass that takes the pressure first. In the worst cases it can be like eggshells.
My wife always notices when I complain about things not being properly made. Let me build something, and I’ll make it heavy duty enough to last 10 lifetimes. Most things are built to fall apart after 3 years - go take a look at your plastic vacuum cleaner and you’ll see my point. Anyway, her word for things made really well is that they’re built to “Drewspec”. Hey, I appreciate that ... but today I found something that exceeds Drewspec beyond my wildest dreams. The windowsills on this house are solid marble slabs. Solid. Marble. They stick out from the windows a foot and a half and are as thick as a coffee mug is tall. That’s about 4 inches thick I think. More than sturdy enough to stand on, and no worries at all resting a ladder up against one. I’ve seen thinner marble used on tombstones. Try leaning a big extension ladder against the 3/32” thick vinyl siding on one of today’s homes, and then climbing up it. Goodbye siding! Or play it safe, and tuck the ladder ends against the base of the windowsill. That’s when you’ll find it’s made out of 22 gauge anodized aluminum. You know why they sell all these ladder stand-offs with great big padded feet on them? It’s because they have to! No, the way to do it is to get a bloody huge ladder, a big standoff, and rest the end up on the roof. That’s the only part of a modern home sturdy enough to take any pressure. Not this house. I think this place would stand up to moderate artillery. Sweet!
Posted by Drew458
on 10/01/2008 at 05:33 PM
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Permalink • Tuesday - September 09, 2008
Cleaner demands compensation claiming lack of English is disability.
OK, So far she hasn’t won her case. I very much doubt anyone here at BMEWS would condone cheating ppl on honest labor or taking advantage of same.
But this story really smacks of lawyer(s).
Lack of English? ah huh.
Does this sound like an immigrant with poor English skills?
“I was fed up with being cheated out of my wages, being lied to, being treated like a child or a half-whit, and being part of a scheme obviously circumventing the minimum wage legislature.” Or does it sound like lawyerspeak?
Oh but wait, she didn’t know how long it took to clean a room and so she was cheated. huh?
A Polish cleaner claimed her lack of English should be classed as a disability as she tried to sue her employers for alleged discrimination.
By Ben Farmer
Last Updated: 9:51AM BST 09 Sep 2008Izabela Smolarek, 30, was seeking £5,000 in damages from cleaning firm ISS Facility Services Ltd on the grounds of disability discrimination.
She claimed they exploited her inability to understand her job contract by paying her less than the minimum wage for cleaning rooms at a Travelodge in Luton, Beds.
However her case has now been thrown out before reaching an employment tribunal after a judge ruled Miss Smolarek had no physical or mental impairment.
Miss Smolarek, from Hatfield, Herts, said she had agreed to be paid £1.24 for each hotel room she cleaned, but said it was impossible to clean the three rooms an hour necessary to earn the £5.52 national minimum wage.
She claimed her Polish supervisor at the Travelodge, Krizistof Kowalik, had lied to her and the other female Polish employees about how long it took to clean a room.
In her claim statement, she said: “Not speaking and not understanding the language is a disability. It’s like being deaf and mute and illiterate.
“My employer exploited this disability to pay less than the minimum wage.”
Miss Smolarek arrived in England from Poland on October 25 2007 and started work at the Travelodge on November 24. She lasted just over a month at the job and has also claimed she was unfairly dismissed.
Her statement added: “I was fed up with being cheated out of my wages, being lied to, being treated like a child or a half-whit, and being part of a scheme obviously circumventing the minimum wage legislature.
“Brutal or subtle, such discrimination is always dangerous to the principal of equality, a principal so dear to the British soul.”
Her representative, Thomas Klarecki, told the hearing: “The law says you do not have to discuss the reasons for a disability, just the effects of the disability.
“It is not necessary to consider how an impairment is caused. Why Miss Smolarek cannot speak English is irrelevant.”
However, Judge Valentine Adamson dismissed the claim at the hearing in Bedford.
He said: “In the absence of any identifiable impairment, the only point being that the claimant was born in Poland and not a country where English is the first language, I find the claimant’s language difficulties are not capable of being classed as an impairment within the meaning of the Disability Discrimination Act.
“That complaint will be struck off.”
Miss Smolarek continues to claim she was unfairly dismissed by the London-based cleaning firm.
Another pre-hearing review has been scheduled for January 12.
Miss Smolarek is also claiming £981 for unpaid wages, holiday pay and notice pay.
A spokesman for ISS said the company denied the allegations but would not comment further.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/09/2008 at 05:09 AM
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • News-Briefs • work and the workplace •
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Permalink • Tuesday - July 22, 2008
Still here, just busy
It’s 10pm Tuesday night. I’m cooking dinner. That’s about how busy I’ve been the past 3 days. Sunday was a big carpet removal job, made even worse because it was in a really small house that was packed with furniture. And mess. Stuff everywhere, piled nearly waist high. We spent more time moving stuff so we could move furniture than getting the rugs out. I thought they said they’d clean up beforehand. Arrgh. Still, I get paid by the hour, so whatever!
Monday I had tons of personal things to do. Housework, shopping, you know the drill. Can’t put it off forever or you wind up like the carpet folks above. But I didn’t have time to even check my email.
Today, and likely for the rest of the week, I’ve got this handyman project. Lady calls me up; “I need a handyman. We have this rotten board in the overhang over the front door that needs replacing.” And yes, it sure was rotten. But it’s one of those projects that just cascades. To get to the board you have to remove the moulding. To remove the moulding you have to get up under the gutters where you find the fascia and the valences are rotted too. And to get at them you have to remove the gutter. Which means taking off the downspouts. And the front of this home is solid bees nests. I killed at least 4 today, either paper wasps or hornets actually. And under the rotted wood were ants. Nasty little bitty black ants, but they bite! Carpenter ants maybe? I thought they were bigger. So it’s turning into a huge project, but the homeowner doesn’t care. “do what needs doing”. I love the sound of that. Naturally, it’s nearly 100 degrees out, so I’m out there getting another sunburn and sweating buckets, as pounds of dirty grit and sawdust rain down on me. Fun fun fun!
So, what’s new? How is our wonderboy doing over in Iraq and on his fact-finding tour? I haven’t even flipped the radio on, much less watched any TV. And right now I’ve got to get a load of laundry in, so I have something clean, and more importantly DRY, to wear tomorrow.
Be good.
Thank Peiper for posting so much in my absence. I’ll be back!
Posted by Drew458
on 07/22/2008 at 09:00 PM
Filed Under: • work and the workplace •
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Permalink • Monday - June 23, 2008
Confessions of a wild squeegee
So I got down to this small business that was in dire need of having clean windows. The shop looked like it was hit by a mud tornado. Almost. It’s part of a shopping center, and the parking lot and sidewalk maintenance crew had come around and powerwashed the sidewalks. Which sprayed all the dirt up on the windows, and glued it there with the dried up remains of their washing solution.
Good thing I did the windows as soon as I did. There are concrete cleaning solutions that are really, really nasty. Nasty enough to etch glass. Nasty enough to destroy the rubber molding that the window glass rides in. So it took one of my custom double cleanings, but the results are typical: glass so clean it’s absolutely invisible. I know, it will only last for a few days before it gets dusty again, but that’s $50 in my pocket for an hour’s work and half an hour’s drive. And it was a smart call, to get that mess off the glass ASAP.
Homeowner power wash detergents aren’t usually that strong, but it is a very good idea to rinse your windows generously after doing a power wash. And then of course get out your own squeegee and make them perfectly clean. Plus, it’s fun.
Posted by Drew458
on 06/23/2008 at 04:48 PM
Filed Under: • work and the workplace •
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