Exterminator coming #5K 26 August

Another copy of an email to Isabel Williams (<iwilliams@stillmanmanagement.com>) at Stillman Management Company regarding bedbugs.

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Isabel,

I just got a call from Anthony Glen at Veganix. He says he will come by to do a treatment (the sixth one, in fact) of our apartment. We've scheduled this visit for August 26 at 11am.

Anthony says that he is going to treat our apartment area with a product called diatomaceous earth. This is finely-ground fossilized remains of diatoms, a kind of hard-shelled algae. We have been treating our apartment on our own with diatomaceous earth that we purchased on May 4th 2009- so for a little over 3 months now. I showed this product to Anthony the first time he came to treat our apartment: he was not aware of it before then.

I wonder what Veganix think they will be able to accomplish by using the same product that we are already using.

I asked Anthony how I should prepare for his visit Wednesday. He requested that we pull everything away from the walls so he can have access. Isabel, we got so tired of pulling things away from the walls for the extermination visits that we have had everything pulled 8-12" out for the past two months.

As you can see, we are complying with the extermination efforts of Veganix, and we are obviously taking every precaution that we can to prevent their spread into and beyond our apartment.

I had hoped to get a more substantive response from you, or from our unit owner, regarding my last email than simply a phone call from Veganix. Perhaps you have no response regarding my questioning the continued relevance of our lease?

Sincerely etc

Belden Lyman

More bedbugs #5K

The following is a copy of a letter I sent to Isabel Williams at Stillman Management Company.

We rent our unit in White Plains through them.

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Isabel, I just cleaned out my wallet and found a bedbug in there. I
keep my wallet on my desk at night. As you remember, I work from home:
this is my work desk.

I have had itchy elbows these past few days. I thought it was the
humidity. Now it turns out this pest has been biting me while I work.

Isabel, this is simply too much. I expect that after 5 treatments of
our unit, we would be bedbug free. But the extermination visits seem
little more than pro forma efforts to assuage me and other tenants who
have bedbugs.

My wife and I have been living with this problem since January 2009.
We didn't realize we were part of a larger bedbug infestation until
March 2009. (This is when we first reported the problem to our management company.)

I know this problem was first reported to Jon DeRosa in December 2008
by the tenants of #3J.

It is now mid-August. You know that we have been livng with this
situation- sometimes better, sometimes worse- for 5 months now. We
have always paid our rent on time, and have tried to work with you on
this.

But the bedbugs are still spreading within the west half (our half) of
the building. Our friend in #4O did not have bedbugs in May, but does
have them now. The so-called mandatory treatment of every unit on July
11 and July 16 did not achieve 100% coverage of each of the sixty-odd
apartments on the west side.

And how could it? Veganix only sent 2 men those days. 2 men working 8,
or 10, or even 12 hour days cannot possibly effectively treat 60
different units.

I spoke to the superintendant's wife about bedbugs yesterday. She told
me that the board is soliciting another round of bids to rid the
building of bedbugs: apparently I am not the only one who knows the
current exterminator is (a) not thorough, and therefore (b)
ineffective.

New tenants have moved in to units #5J, #5M, and #5P on my floor. None
of them were informed that they were moving into this situation. I am
surprised that anyone would mislead another person like this.

Isabel, I'd like you to put me directly in touch with the owner of our
unit. I no longer feel we should be held to our lease agreement. The
warranty of habitability for someone who works from home seems fairly
weak at this point.

Sincerely etc.
Belden Lyman

Maybe I'm trying to learn something different.

I'm learning a new programming language. I'm not sure why.

Maybe I'm starting to be bored at work. Maybe I want to leave my job. Maybe I hope to find some new ways of thinking about problems. Maybe it's because expanding my skill-set is just a smart thing to do in a downward-turning economy.

I don't think any of these is the reason for me learning a new language. I like my company, my coworkers, our software project, our development process. I feel that I already approach problems from different angles. My company feels secure, as does my position within it.

I think maybe I'm just getting tired of being a programmer. Don't get me wrong: the paycheck is nice- we couldn't afford to live in New York, max our our retirement plans, and put money towards the sailing kitty without the paycheck, that's for darn sure. Hell, the paycheck is alluring, addictive.

Yet I'm not doing anything all that important. A few weeks ago I was back at the mother ship in California, and commented that I'd happily take a cut in pay if people would say "thank you" more often. The guys I was out to lunch with thought I was talking about my current job. "Tell you what, give 30% of your paycheck to me from now on, and I'll say 'thank you' to you every day," joked one friend.

I'm starting to ask myself questions like this: "How much of a pay cut can we afford for me to take and still be able to meet our savings targets?" I'm starting to wonder, "Who are the people that I always think of with gratitude? And how come I'm not doing one of those jobs?" And frighteningly, "How do I know that what I am doing is worthwhile?" Twists on the old, "If you won 500 million dollars in the lottery, what would you do with your life? And why aren't you doing that now?"

I'm 33. I'm not ancient, but I'm not getting any younger. Running in the winter is becoming painful. My joints are starting to ache if I don't stretch properly, and I don't stretch properly because I'm only 33, not 43. My time is limited: so how do I know that what I am doing now is worth my while?

I feel like this: if I'm not interested in programming any more, then it'll be pretty obvious when I start learning this new language. My disinterest will manifest like this: I won't bother learning the new language. I'll spend an hour writing blog posts instead.

So maybe I'm not trying to learn a new programming language. Maybe I'm trying to learn something different.

It's all relative

Almost a year ago now Donald came and visited us in White Plains. We both had our hair cut short- normal for D (he dislikes his curls), abnormal for me (I love the #2, but all the women in my life hate it). We took a tour of Blue Sky.

Venece shares a large cube with Jen. We met her, and she looked up in surprise. "There's two of him!" she told Venece. Donald and I looked at each other, then at Jen. "Oh my god, there's two of him!" She was convinced that we're identical twins. Our smiles got bigger as Venece said, "Actually, they're half brothers. They don't even have the same dad." Jen's reply was endearing: "Oh Venece, sweety, don't believe them. They're lying. They're twins, anyone can see that."

----

When I was twelve, we visited Hawaii for the first time. Relatives and Dave's friends kept telling me how much I looked like him. I didn't believe them, so we devised a test. Dave charred a cork with a lighter, and drew a handlebar mustache on me, and lent me one of his hats. We went to the local grocery store and went to separate aisles.

In the dairy section, I said to a lady, "Excuse me, have you seen my dad?" She looked down at me. Yes, she thought she'd seen him over by the vegetables.

----

In May I went home to spend a working week with my parents- my mom had a small surgery, and I was there ostensibly to cook for my dad. I went and visited him at the clinic.

At the nurse's station, I asked for Dr. Harris. Just then he turned the corner, saw me, and came up. The nurses looked at me, and looked at him, and said, "We didn't know you have two sons. You two look exactly alike!"

We smiled at each other, sharing a secret that we would never tell those nurses.

What if we don't come back?

Back in December 2007 I said to Venece that I wanted to start sailing around the world by the time I'm 40. That was 7 years away. We were in Honolulu for the marathon. 7 years, I think, will be enough time to do what we need. Professionally, she's just at the start of her new career.

"You know what scares me about this?" I asked her in the kitchen one day. "What if we don't want to come back? That's what scares me. How about you- what scares you?" What if I end up not wanting to go, she said, and you do. That's what scares me.

It's such a selfish thing, a dream. If it were a separate entity- if it existed outside of you- it would demand all of your effort, all of your attention. It would haunt you by day and night, an aching tooth in your mind.