blood is compulsory
Jul. 20th, 2021 05:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitAfter a(nother) long silence, I have returned with a tale of woe.
Please note that nothing is Seriously Wrong, and no assistance is needed. I just wanted to vent to people who aren't physically present. For reasons you will shortly learn, if you click on the cut.
Note: discussion of insect pests. No pictures or gory details, but still.
About a month ago, I got a call from the management company of my apartment complex. I was at work, but their name coming up on my phone fills me with dread, so I answered.
Management Company Person: Hi, we're calling about the bedbugs.
Me: You WHAT? Bedbugs? Who has bedbugs? Do the neighbors have bedbugs?
MCP, confused: One of our maintenance team said that while they were installing the new shower heads yesterday, you told them you'd been getting bitten and you thought it was bedbugs.
Me: Um, no. I was at work all day yesterday. I didn't even see the maintenance people. [NB: Though they were indeed in my apartment, installing a new shower head. This may be relevant.]
MCP: That's weird. Okay, I'll try to figure out what's going on.
And I thought no more about it, in the sense that I thought about it obsessively for days because I have been horrified of bedbugs ever since the resurgence thereof became a thing in the early 2000s, when I was living in Washington DC in what was, shall we say, not a great apartment.
A couple of weeks went by, and then I got another call.
MCP: Hi, we're calling to set up a time to treat your apartment for bedbugs.
Me: Nope, no bedbugs. This was a mistake, the maintenance person got the apartment number wrong.
I got home that evening to find a notice on my door saying that my apartment would be treated for bedbugs the next day. So the next morning I went to the office in a state of some exasperation, explaining that we had discussed this multiple times already and that I did NOT have bedbugs, I have not seen any bedbugs, I had not been bitten by any bedbugs, and that if I noticed any bedbugs in my apartment I would definitely tell them, but in the mean time, please don't be spraying insecticides in my apartment.
I probably seemed like a loon, but they said, fine, no bedbugs, no spraying.
And all went well, for a while.
A few days ago, I woke up with some mysterious bites.
I managed to spend a few days in the denial and bargaining stages of grief, but alas, no, they are definitely bedbug bites. I still haven't seen any bugs or any sign of the bugs that I can recognize, but something's biting me every night, often in the classic bedbug pattern (3 bites in a line).
I've lived in one shitty apartment or another for 30 years, and I honestly was beginning to wonder if I was one of those people who just doesn't react to bedbug bites. Hahahahahahahahaha no. Biiiiiiig red welts. And the ITCH, my god. (If you should be unlucky enough that this ever happens to you, my advice is that hydrocortisone cream barely does a damn thing. A diphenhydramine cream such as the Benadryl brand works better. Still not great. Try to refrain from scratching because that makes the itching worse.)
After some brief, horrified musings about whether the maintenance person might be bedbug-clairvoyant, the most logical explanation finally occurred to me: they did indeed get the apartment number wrong. But that means someone else in the building, probably nearby, has bedbugs. And they either traveled to my apartment through the walls (this is a thing; I've looked at a lot of websites about bedbugs and they all say it's a thing) or else the maintenance team brought them in on their boots or clothes. Choice A is probably more likely.
I've been throwing a lot of stuff out. Goodbye, sweaters I don't really like anymore and random papers and ugly old rug. Also my Christmas ornaments and a piece of driftwood I picked up during a trip to Lake Superior with my mother, before her dementia symptoms started. (I'm glad that my procrastination habit means that I haven't yet bought the new bed I've been thinking about.) Otherwise, I'm just trying not to freak out. Bedbugs don't spread human diseases as far as anyone knows, though strong allergic reactions like mine can be very unpleasant and scratching can lead to infection. I'm trying to think of the little fuckers as wingless mosquitos.
Nevertheless I feel incredibly contaminated and ashamed. And itchy, including in places where there are no bites. It's partly psychological, I'm sure, and partly that reacting strongly to bedbug bits can apparently trigger your immune system to react, hopefully temporarily, to every damn thing.
One of the best parts, naturally, was having to call the management company and say, "Hey, guess what? I do have bedbugs after all." I didn't like the thought of seeming even more like a loon, or like I had initially been lying for some reason known only to myself.
I called today, and the woman I spoke with sighed the sigh of someone who has been taking many reports of bedbugs. Then she told me that a pest control company would be in tomorrow to evaluate my apartment, and if they found bedbugs, the cost of treatment for a studio apartment is $190.
Me: Wait, what? You're going to charge me? They came in from another apartment in the building, through the walls.
MCP: No, they don't do that. They come in on furniture, or on animals or peoples clothes.
Me: They do do that. Also, I haven't been anywhere, I haven't brought in any furniture, I don't have pets and I haven't had any guests.
This got me nowhere. I suspect the "they don't move through the walls" thing is a deliberate lie, so that the MC can avoid paying to do what they should do, which is have the whole building treated. Instead they'll do it one apartment at a time, charging each tenant, and the problem will never actually go away. (New Mexico does not have any laws/regulations about bedbugs specifically; some other states legally make them the landlord's responsibility.)
I should probably try to stand up to them, but they are basically federally-funded slumlords and I don't think I'm up to it, especially in the absence of actual law in my favor. I just want to not have bedbugs.
Also I very much want to move away as soon as my lease expires next March, but I don't know if it's going to be possible. Rents are high in Santa Fe, the rental vacancy rate is less than 1%, and I don't have good credit.
If this was the old days, when anybody with a month's rent in hand could get an apartment, I would be very tempted to just abandon everything and flee. But these days you practically have to be vetted by the
FBI to rent even the worst places.
And thus concludes, for the moment, my tale of woe.
In re: not being around, I am actually reading DW almost every day, and occasionally commenting. I just don't have much to say. My life is as dull as everyone else's in these pandemic times, and my fannish involvement is deliberately minimal. (I love Rusty Quill and all its works, but I don't love the Discourse that's almost everywhere. My own conflicted impulses don't help, because I do occasionally want to critique, with love, but that is tantamount to wading in the waters of Discourse, and I don't want the piranhas to get me.)
I post more often on Twitter (@/gavestonsfrolic, remove the /) because Tweets don't feel like they need to be important or meaningful. My Twitter posts are mostly about trans stuff, or political in the broad sense, with only a little fannish content.
So: still here. Still care very much about all of you. Suck at communicating. Will once again attempt to communicate more. And less woefully next time.
Please note that nothing is Seriously Wrong, and no assistance is needed. I just wanted to vent to people who aren't physically present. For reasons you will shortly learn, if you click on the cut.
Note: discussion of insect pests. No pictures or gory details, but still.
About a month ago, I got a call from the management company of my apartment complex. I was at work, but their name coming up on my phone fills me with dread, so I answered.
Management Company Person: Hi, we're calling about the bedbugs.
Me: You WHAT? Bedbugs? Who has bedbugs? Do the neighbors have bedbugs?
MCP, confused: One of our maintenance team said that while they were installing the new shower heads yesterday, you told them you'd been getting bitten and you thought it was bedbugs.
Me: Um, no. I was at work all day yesterday. I didn't even see the maintenance people. [NB: Though they were indeed in my apartment, installing a new shower head. This may be relevant.]
MCP: That's weird. Okay, I'll try to figure out what's going on.
And I thought no more about it, in the sense that I thought about it obsessively for days because I have been horrified of bedbugs ever since the resurgence thereof became a thing in the early 2000s, when I was living in Washington DC in what was, shall we say, not a great apartment.
A couple of weeks went by, and then I got another call.
MCP: Hi, we're calling to set up a time to treat your apartment for bedbugs.
Me: Nope, no bedbugs. This was a mistake, the maintenance person got the apartment number wrong.
I got home that evening to find a notice on my door saying that my apartment would be treated for bedbugs the next day. So the next morning I went to the office in a state of some exasperation, explaining that we had discussed this multiple times already and that I did NOT have bedbugs, I have not seen any bedbugs, I had not been bitten by any bedbugs, and that if I noticed any bedbugs in my apartment I would definitely tell them, but in the mean time, please don't be spraying insecticides in my apartment.
I probably seemed like a loon, but they said, fine, no bedbugs, no spraying.
And all went well, for a while.
A few days ago, I woke up with some mysterious bites.
I managed to spend a few days in the denial and bargaining stages of grief, but alas, no, they are definitely bedbug bites. I still haven't seen any bugs or any sign of the bugs that I can recognize, but something's biting me every night, often in the classic bedbug pattern (3 bites in a line).
I've lived in one shitty apartment or another for 30 years, and I honestly was beginning to wonder if I was one of those people who just doesn't react to bedbug bites. Hahahahahahahahaha no. Biiiiiiig red welts. And the ITCH, my god. (If you should be unlucky enough that this ever happens to you, my advice is that hydrocortisone cream barely does a damn thing. A diphenhydramine cream such as the Benadryl brand works better. Still not great. Try to refrain from scratching because that makes the itching worse.)
After some brief, horrified musings about whether the maintenance person might be bedbug-clairvoyant, the most logical explanation finally occurred to me: they did indeed get the apartment number wrong. But that means someone else in the building, probably nearby, has bedbugs. And they either traveled to my apartment through the walls (this is a thing; I've looked at a lot of websites about bedbugs and they all say it's a thing) or else the maintenance team brought them in on their boots or clothes. Choice A is probably more likely.
I've been throwing a lot of stuff out. Goodbye, sweaters I don't really like anymore and random papers and ugly old rug. Also my Christmas ornaments and a piece of driftwood I picked up during a trip to Lake Superior with my mother, before her dementia symptoms started. (I'm glad that my procrastination habit means that I haven't yet bought the new bed I've been thinking about.) Otherwise, I'm just trying not to freak out. Bedbugs don't spread human diseases as far as anyone knows, though strong allergic reactions like mine can be very unpleasant and scratching can lead to infection. I'm trying to think of the little fuckers as wingless mosquitos.
Nevertheless I feel incredibly contaminated and ashamed. And itchy, including in places where there are no bites. It's partly psychological, I'm sure, and partly that reacting strongly to bedbug bits can apparently trigger your immune system to react, hopefully temporarily, to every damn thing.
One of the best parts, naturally, was having to call the management company and say, "Hey, guess what? I do have bedbugs after all." I didn't like the thought of seeming even more like a loon, or like I had initially been lying for some reason known only to myself.
I called today, and the woman I spoke with sighed the sigh of someone who has been taking many reports of bedbugs. Then she told me that a pest control company would be in tomorrow to evaluate my apartment, and if they found bedbugs, the cost of treatment for a studio apartment is $190.
Me: Wait, what? You're going to charge me? They came in from another apartment in the building, through the walls.
MCP: No, they don't do that. They come in on furniture, or on animals or peoples clothes.
Me: They do do that. Also, I haven't been anywhere, I haven't brought in any furniture, I don't have pets and I haven't had any guests.
This got me nowhere. I suspect the "they don't move through the walls" thing is a deliberate lie, so that the MC can avoid paying to do what they should do, which is have the whole building treated. Instead they'll do it one apartment at a time, charging each tenant, and the problem will never actually go away. (New Mexico does not have any laws/regulations about bedbugs specifically; some other states legally make them the landlord's responsibility.)
I should probably try to stand up to them, but they are basically federally-funded slumlords and I don't think I'm up to it, especially in the absence of actual law in my favor. I just want to not have bedbugs.
Also I very much want to move away as soon as my lease expires next March, but I don't know if it's going to be possible. Rents are high in Santa Fe, the rental vacancy rate is less than 1%, and I don't have good credit.
If this was the old days, when anybody with a month's rent in hand could get an apartment, I would be very tempted to just abandon everything and flee. But these days you practically have to be vetted by the
FBI to rent even the worst places.
And thus concludes, for the moment, my tale of woe.
In re: not being around, I am actually reading DW almost every day, and occasionally commenting. I just don't have much to say. My life is as dull as everyone else's in these pandemic times, and my fannish involvement is deliberately minimal. (I love Rusty Quill and all its works, but I don't love the Discourse that's almost everywhere. My own conflicted impulses don't help, because I do occasionally want to critique, with love, but that is tantamount to wading in the waters of Discourse, and I don't want the piranhas to get me.)
I post more often on Twitter (@/gavestonsfrolic, remove the /) because Tweets don't feel like they need to be important or meaningful. My Twitter posts are mostly about trans stuff, or political in the broad sense, with only a little fannish content.
So: still here. Still care very much about all of you. Suck at communicating. Will once again attempt to communicate more. And less woefully next time.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 12:16 am (UTC)I am very glad to hear from you, and not at all glad to hear about the bedbugs, and you have my household's serious sympathy on the inability to flee at the drop of a month's rent; we'd have done it this year if we could.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 12:22 am (UTC)Like you I haven't posted, but am reading and commenting. I'm thinking of doing some of those daily question things just to get back into posting, because most of my posts would be photo ones of places and events, and I can't be arsed to muck around with photos; so much easier on FB.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 12:40 am (UTC)Do you know of any good daily questions memes around? It might help me get back into the habit of posting, too.
It's ridiculously hard to post pictures on here. A few months ago I read something somewhere about how different fannish history might have gone if DW had just gotten its act together and made pics and video posting easy. The mass migration to Tumblr, with all the weirdness that created, might never have happened.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 04:44 am (UTC)I'm on Tumblr - went there for a fic challenge - but I don't like the platform at all. I'm not crazy about Facebook either (even though it's made bearable by using the FP Purity app) but posting photos and videos is so easy.
July questions
1. Have there been any periods in your life that could be described as being chaotic?
2. What was the last thing you bought used?
3. Has anyone ever told you that you're getting too competitive over minor things?
4. What was the first thing you ever saved up to buy with your own money?
5. After high school – straight to college or straight to work?
6. If I looked in your fridge right now, what would I find?
7. If you had to move to a new city, where would you move?
8. What did your parents do when you were growing up?
9. When someone knocks on the door, who do you think it is?
10. Did your parents live in a different country before you were born?
11. What's something you've experienced that very few others have?
12. Do you have to wear an identification badge at your job?
13. Do you like when friends stop by unexpectedly?
14. How old were you when you moved to your current home?
15. If you apply your makeup, do you do it in a specific order?
16. Were you born with naturally straight teeth?
17. Do you like going to museums? Any particular type?
18. What time do you usually go to bed at on weekends?
19. How often do you re-watch / re-read things or are you more ‘once only’?
20. If you could marry any celebrity today who would it be?
21. Do you own anything that's an antique?
22. Do you let your hair air dry or do you blow dry it?
23. How long does it take for you to fall asleep at night?
24. What's the first thing you do when you get on the computer?
25. What's one item that you wish you owned right now?
26. Do you like makeup?
27. What celebrity death(s) affected you the most?
28. Musician you would like to see live if you had the chance?
29. Have you ever met an online friend in real life?
30. What would you miss most if you moved from the area you currently live in?
31. Have you ever cried in school?
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 01:23 am (UTC)Hope you get the pests issue resolved. It sounds frustrating!!!
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 04:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 07:50 am (UTC)Not to cast aspertions on the maintenance person, but they've clearly been in both the initially infected apartment and yours...has it occurred to the maintenance company that one of their staff has just been puttering round the complex fixing things and unknowingly trailling bedbugs? (I mean, maybe it has and that's why they're being so cagey? Not that maintenance companies ever need a reason to be cheapskates.) Urgh bugs, I hope they get resolved as painlessly as possible.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 09:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-07-21 10:50 pm (UTC)So nice of them, too, to charge you for the privilege of having a pest-free place.
no subject
Date: 2021-07-23 12:51 am (UTC)