Been a While

Wheweee, what a summer it has been! It has been a little while since I've been around this corner of the blogosphere. I've been busy, busy lately, man. After the wedding and honeymoon, we finally started getting caught up on life when we were unexpectedly pulled away for another week. And this was in the midst of a complete soup-to-nuts refurbish of the backyard. Marnie and I have taken the cement-and-chain-link-fence-lined yard and turned it into a wooden oasis complete with candles, plants, and a 6x9 cedar shed. And the coolest feature of the shed is the fact that it has a porch.

Oh how I've longed for the days of having a porch. I have pretended that my fire escape, front stoop, and yard were my porch, but they are alll rather half-assed substitutes. Now, I can honestly, earnestly, and full of gusto say, "I'm going out to sit on the back porch."

While it isn't quite totally finished, the backyard project was quite an adventure. Marnie and I did the vast majority of the work ourselves. This meant many many trips to the hell-in-Brooklyn that is an urban Home Depot. I think I'd much rather a trip to Rikers. It is impossible to get help from any employees. If you do find some shitbag in an orange pinney, well, it's not their department, so they can't help you...and it is waaaaaayyyyy beyond the protocol to actually help a customer find an employee who does work in that department.

I don't quite know why--and maybe it is just the NYC or maybe it's a sign of the times--but it is virtually impossible to get good, efficient, knowledgeable service anymore. Sure, if you go to a fancy restaurant you still get good service. But otherwise, it's pretty much a crap shoot at best, with crap being the operative word. In Hipsterville, Turdburg, Brooklyn, most of the time the level of service ranges from "what the fuck do you want?" to the downright pleasant "why are you bothering me with your presence?" Why is it that these sorts make you feel like they are doing you a huge favor by just barely doing their job?

It is endless and endless and endless occassions like those laid out that have made me really really appreciate good service. Whether it was the guy at the nursery who actually knew his shit about plants or the cool Japanese restaurant that has a call button on the table and whose waitresses respond within 10 seconds (I counted), it seems like such a treat to get the service you deserve for forking over your hard-earned loot.... Or is that loot actually hard-earned? Do you wait tables in my neighborhood or work at the Bed-Stuy Home Depot?