Telephones and email

Ronni Bennett has an interesting post about telephone culture. While I largely agree with her, sometimes I think I email are useful. I live in a duplex. For the past 2+ months the landlord has been renovating the other apartment. Mostly, it hasn't been a problem, but getting in and out of the driveway, which is the only entryway into the building, has become a huge problem. Last Friday I came home with bags of groceries and couldn't get past the two trucks in the driveway. My neighbor helped me, but I finally lost it, called and left an unpleasant message about entry and egress, all the dirt inside and outside the building, the light in my kitchen that no longer works, and so on. I really wanted to put all of this in an email. It probably would have been less sarcastic (I can be very bad) and generally more even tempered if he couldn't hear my voice. Emoticons don't have the same effect. I accused him of forgetting I was still here and paying rent.

When he finally called back he yelled at me--I guess, for complaining. I thought I was being wonderful. It took me a long time to finally complain (2 months). I don't like being yelled at, so I hung up. When he finally called back he said he thought we were cut off. I told him I hung up. He stopped yelling. I've never done anything quite like this, that is, being so forthright and not backing down. I'm rather proud of myself. And, I think he owes me an apology. This is supposed to be finished this week. I can only hope.

Oh, and he did some cleaning and the workmen are being more careful about the trucks.

Comments

[Grace]

Good for you, Ruthe. Being from NYC, I'm much more confrontational than you are, so two months seems like a century to me. He owes you an apology and a discount on your rent.

[Alice]

Atta girl, Ruthe! Sometimes we need to speak our minds, and I'm glad you found your voice.

(I tried leaving comments a couple times last week, but it didn't seem to work. This time things look different. Maybe it was my laptop. Let's see.)

[Alice]

I didn't notice the note from Grace above. Listen to her! I think she's right.