Yay! Repair People!!

                Good afternoon everyone! I am happy to report that the leak in my roof (that has been there FOREVER, at least since we moved in, a year ago..) was finally fixed today! (Hopefully!) And it only took months of calling to report it!! See, normally when people have home problems or issues they either take care of it themselves or call a professional who gets there in a reasonable amount of time and does the job to fix the issue.. BORING! I like the thrill of the WAIT.. Like with our leak that causes water to drip inside the house in the hallway when it rains.. You see the upcoming weather forecast.. THUNDERSTORMS... RAIN RAIN RAIN!!!! Woo-hoo!!! Who likes to gamble? Here in my house, it's not gambling where you get money.. Instead, it's walking in the hall and seeing if the puddle will make you slip and fall on your butt. Does that not sound like fun? And that's just walking.. Throw in a running child in that area and you get a bonus loud crash and probably tons of tears!!! WINNER!! I mean, I WAS expecting someone to come right out when I called the first time back in October.. Or even again in late November... But, instead of "hounding" them, I would place a fun towel or bucket to soak up or catch the free falling drips whenever it rained. I assumed they MUST have thousands of other things going on and MY situation wasn't THAT big of deal.. I mean.. I had a bucket and plenty of towels so... what more could I ask for really? In December some time (And we moved here in August...) WHILE IT WAS RAINING, they DID send a guy out here to check out the leak.. "There might be a misplaced shingle or hole near the pipe up there on the roof" Why thank you ever so much Mr. Fix It! Here I thought the whole time I had gremlins taking turns peeing in that one spot when it rained to not be suspicious or something. Wherever was my head! "I can't get up there now obviously with it raining and all but I'll come by after it stops in the next few days." That would be swell! The rain stopped the very next day and you know what.. Nobody came. Maybe it's still wet up there... The next day.. Nobody came.. Uh.. Maybe he was almost here and forgot his ladder... The next day.. Nobody came... Well.. He probably.. umm.. forgot where I lived? Then a week went by.. And another.. A few more (with calls made every other one..) went by.. And nobody.. Back to the bucket I went.. Almost four weeks ago a lot of stuff REALLY started to pile up.. We had our lawnmower and weed whacker stolen, lots of work, family was coming for a visit and to top it off.. It rained for almost a week.. Drip.. Drip.. Drip.. The routine part of me went to get a towel to put in the middle of the floor but when I got there.. I looked at the floor and watched as the drops formed a small puddle that I knew would continue to grow if I left it.. One drop.. three.. nine drops.. I snapped out of and grabbed my phone off the counter. Dialed the number.. Secretary answers.. (the same one who has taken my name, number and complaint many times before..) And I give it to her. "Hi, I have called you several times over the months and have even been into the office to let you all know that we have a leak in our roof that lets water drip freely onto our hallway floor. You have sent ONE man out to "inspect" this leak back in December WHILE IT WAS RAINING and he has YET TO RETURN.. And we both know it's August... I have laid down countless towels and used a bucket multiple times to "control the issue" but seriously, I'm done. Now obviously you won't be able to send someone out now because, you guessed it, it's raining. However, some day within this next week it would be nice to have someone up BEFORE the next time it rains. Please take my name and number, this is my address, thank you." She replies.. "Oh yes, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience, we'll get someone out there right away. (Remember when I said this happened four weeks ago.. and I just got it "fixed" today.. yeah...) I called to "check in" every week. We also had some crappy weather during that time.. of course.. Last week rolls around.. I call, again.. Get a line.. AGAIN.. My weekend goes by and yesterday I go in there, stand at her desk, give her my info and waits there in front of her until I SEE her calling the "roofing specialist" they use... Voice mail... I tell her to call me when he calls back or give him my number for him to call. He ended up calling when I made it just about two miles down the road telling me he would be at my house Tuesday, today at 9am. Well it was nice to hear SOMETHING from someone directly for a change! It wasn't even the same Mr. Fix It and I was thinking that was OK to me. Last night I set my alarm for 8 (but ended up getting and staying awake when my husband left for work at 7:30). Got up, got dressed and by 8:30 I was ready for a nap.. But no.. Thirty minutes and he would be here to fix my roof.. then twenty.. ten.. five.. It's 9:00 and he's... not here.. five minutes later.. ten... twenty.. thirty five... fifty.. and finally at 9:57 I see his truck pulling in to my driveway.. Keep calm.. stay calm.. the fun of the wait.. the thrill of the wait... GAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Screw the wait! I'm so tired of the WAITING!!! If you're going to TELL me something then just DO WHAT YOU SAY!!! Keeping my melt down on the inside.. I greet him with a nice look that also says "get up that ladder.. like now." He does.. After a trip to the hardware store for him to get his extra needed stuff to fix the hole that was indeed by a vent pipe fitting on the roof, he took about thirty more minutes and he was done. "That should fix it" he says.. Of course I won't really KNOW until the next time it rains... But I guess the IDEA of not having to use MY temporary fixes will have to be good enough to get me to the next storm. Obviously everything in the beginning of this was a total crock.. I mean.. This month makes it A YEAR of being here and means that if called the first time in OCTOBER.. They have had TEN MONTHS of excuses, misplaced work orders and who knows what else that I have to deal with.. Some peoples kids... I mean waiting for the cable guy is a gamble too but that's ONE DAY! Sure it may be one of those "we'll be there between 8 and 5" kind of days where you really can't PLAN to do anything... But ten freaking months!!! My oh my... I don't see their BBB stamp coming any time soon! Calming chants... The roof is fixed.. (Maybe..) The roof is fixed.. (possibly..) Ahhh.... Bring on the rain! :) I hope that not all of you have experiences like THIS.. I'm actually surprised I kept my cool and didn't gouge a hole in my ceiling to really see if there were peeing gremlins up there for real after all this time... May your problems be fixed within a reasonable time frame!!! Until next time.. -Super Mom