Day 12 - What a long day

Well, today they decided to power wash our walls and prep the building for painting, all at 7am. Now keep in mind that maddie goes to sleep at 1am and usually sleeps till 11am. She did not find this amusing at 7am. Thus, neither did Kacey find this amusing when she was awoken by power washing through the monitor and then seconds later by the wailing of my small child. So then, the only interesting part of the day happens.

This young, 20 something white male is laughing and joking outside my condo. So i go outside to ask them to start with another part of the condo. He looks at me and starts to feign some foreign language and fakes like he can't understand me. So I then explain to him that his boisterous voice carried through the wall like nails on a chalkboard, that I am not stupid, and that my wife understands multiple eastern European languages and his crude mixture of words he has heard his grandma say is not going to pass for a language barrier.

So this guy won't drop the ignorance. I get really pissed off and unplug his power washer, I figured that was a language he could understand. So then he gets all tough and makes some menacing gestures and still has this great accent that seems to have migrated from Eastern European to Spanish, and now sounds like Ali G. So then I motion that if he doesn't stop, that I am going to throw the power washer off the third floor to the parking lot below. So he gives me the finger and turns it back on.

Now, I knew I was in the right, otherwise I might not have pushed it this far. I politely return the gesture and go back in my condo. My wife is interested in what I will do next. Anyone who knows me and my wife knows this best, is that I won't drop something like this. I will not let it go and I will figure out a way to return the friendly wake up that I have gotten.

Being down here last year, I remember that Clearwater has an ordinance against starting anything before 8am. Old people don't like to be woken up and I am not sure what that has to do with age as I think i hate it more. They can usually sleep in all day so they should be more forgiving. Anyway, I remember this great statute and decide to act.

So I call the Police. Yes, I know this is drastic, but I am hoping that they will bring a translator for my foreign friend. They show up and this guy scurries to shut the machinery down. I love watching this from my window. So I decide that I would be of great assistance to the officer if I could offer my wife's translation services. I know how much of a struggle I had in communicating with this guy, so i am sure the officer will struggle just the same.

I go downstairs and introduce myself. I start out by offering my translation services to a confused officer. He tells me that the guy speaks English. To my astonishment, he actually does. I go into my confused state in my explanation of why he seemed to lack the oratory skills to communicate with me before. I then ask him why he couldn't understand me before. How I am so sorry to waste the officer's time, as I had already tried to explain to the nice man power washing my walls at 7am that it was against the law and that he should shut it off before someone called the police.

What a shame, he got a ticket, couldn't resume working until the ticket was taken care of at city hall, and we had to put our tax dollars to work. I offered him tutoring in the language he was attempting to mimic. He told me where he thought I should go. I wished him good luck taking care of his ticket. I went back to bed. While it took me a while to fall back asleep, I felt satisfied in preserving the sanctity of a beautiful, quiet morning in Clearwater.