{"id":1055,"date":"2009-08-21T18:34:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T17:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/?p=1055"},"modified":"2009-08-21T18:34:44","modified_gmt":"2009-08-21T17:34:44","slug":"whats-with-the-doorbell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/2009\/08\/21\/whats-with-the-doorbell\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s with the doorbell?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"di0908021\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A vast expanse of lush, green grass is a beautiful sight when you are a tourist; not so much when you are a tenant with a manual lawnmower in need of sharpening.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today was neither rain nor thunder, even a little sun. So after I came home from work and ate half a liter of yogurt, I went out to mow lawn again. \u00c2\u00a0After a couple minutes the landlord arrived unannounced, with his uncle (?), mother and grandmother. \u00c2\u00a0They were, they told me, just looking at the shed and carport and such, to see what they could throw away.<\/p>\n

That is ominous. When you start clearing out the shed, it means you are planning to sell the house. \u00c2\u00a0Given how many houses the family already has, this is not really surprising, but it is a letdown for me. I love this place and I hate moving. \u00c2\u00a0Oh well. \u00c2\u00a0I should start throwing away more things myself, to prepare for my next move, I guess. \u00c2\u00a0But hopefully it is still some way off. \u00c2\u00a0The “pigsty project” has been hibernating through the summer, and I have only thrown away actual garbage. \u00c2\u00a0It is time to start getting rid of the two crates of comics that I was absolutely sure I would read again but have not blown the dust off since I came here three years ago, at which time I had not looked at them for some years either. Also, \u00c2\u00a0shirts missing buttons. \u00c2\u00a0Also, trousers with visible holes. Yes, I can wear them at home. \u00c2\u00a0But you only need one pair of trousers at home where no one sees them, because, obviously, no one will see that you have only one pair when no one sees them.<\/p>\n

Anyway! \u00c2\u00a0Since these people were hanging around, I mowed harder and longer than I do on an average day. \u00c2\u00a0I try to do some each day, as a kind of exercise, except when the weather forbids it. \u00c2\u00a0This summer there has been more days with some rain than usual, which I deeply appreciate. \u00c2\u00a0But it also means the lawns get a bit furry even by my standards. \u00c2\u00a0The landlord and family prefer them with crewcut at the most. \u00c2\u00a0And I suspect lawns are very important to them, since the house is surrounded by such vast expanses of the stuff. \u00c2\u00a0Thus, to forestall an immediate eviction caused by contempt for the court of lawn, I worked hard for half an hour, and was drenched in sweat.<\/p>\n

(Normally I don’t care what people think about me, but these are not people, they are my continued living at this nice place. Besides, usually I don’t need to care what people think because God sees me. But God loves grass, as evidenced by how much he has created of it and how he makes it grow; the landlord family hates grass. So usual rules do not apply.)<\/p>\n

The thing to do when drenched in sweat is to take clothes off and take a bath, in that order. However, in the interval between “clothes off” and “take a bath”, the doorbell rang. \u00c2\u00a0This was the landlord’s family wanting to give me a message. \u00c2\u00a0I reasoned, however, that they would probably not want to do so while I was naked, so I put on some clothes, at which point they were about to drive away.<\/p>\n

Usually people do just that, drive away after ringing my doorbell. \u00c2\u00a0This is not because people like to prank me by ringing my bell and running. It is because in 2 out of 3 times (or so) people ring the bell when I am either asleep, bathing or on the porcelain throne. \u00c2\u00a0This is out of proportion to the time I spend doing these things. \u00c2\u00a0It is as if the doorbell has some kind of indicator light that I can’t see, signaling to those outside that I am not in a position to answer. \u00c2\u00a0Except it is reversed so that they mainly ring it when I am otherwise occupied.<\/p>\n

Not always though. \u00c2\u00a0My old Christian friend who comes over a few times a year to pray with me and borrow my scientific magazines, somehow he manages to get through. \u00c2\u00a0Likewise the kids selling lotteries for local clubs. At least sometimes. \u00c2\u00a0I guess sometimes they may be among those who give up before I open. \u00c2\u00a0Hard to say, since I can’t see them either. And of course there are probably some ringing when I am at work as well, possibly when I’m out on a walk. \u00c2\u00a0Overall, I must be pretty hard to find. At least if you think a minute is an ocean of time to wait. \u00c2\u00a0In which case, don’t come to me and ask why time flies so fast and where did the years go. The years went while you were driving like a speed maniac from house to house, ringing the door bells and running away faster than I could button my trousers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A vast expanse of lush, green grass is a beautiful sight when you are a tourist; not so much when you are a tenant with a manual lawnmower in need of sharpening. Today was neither rain nor thunder, even a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-slice-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1055"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1062,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1055\/revisions\/1062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}