Chilling to the Chiller

Ah, the joys of co-op living....

My caddy-corner neighbor is engineering a takeover of our co-op board, slowly but surely.  So last night he hosted a meet and greet for new, approved, nominees at his apartment - which is lovely and renovated.  I arrived late to the meeting.  But at some point talk turned to my terrace.  To which my neighbor said something along the lines of "She has the terrace that I want." A nice compliment, sort of.  I am not sure whether he means he just wants my space, or if he actually likes what I've done with the space (he has seen it from above; he is one of the board members and has had access to the roof and, apparently, has peered over).

I had a conversation with folks about what I grow, or try to grow, about how much has died, about how the weeds have just taken off this year.  Whatever the conditions are that are most favorable to weeds, I feel like we had them this year.

And then, having met the new folks, who seem normal, and signed over my proxy, subject to taking it back at the meeting, I got up to excuse myself.  Took the short walk down the hall to my apartment, settled in to relax.  And then I heard a water sound - water hitting the terrace.  But, oddly, out the living room windows, nada.  I stepped out onto the terrace, and, like clockwork, water was cascading down the chiller.  It was the first day of air conditioning; the cascade is an annual ritual.  It gushes forth, sometimes with such force that it hits the parapet above the terrace, bounces, and lands onto the terrace.  Good thing I wasn't thinking to sit over there.  But that entire side of the terrace was soaked; the swing cushion - soaked.

So I marched back over to announce to my neighbor that the annual cascade was happening, and, hoping to avoid having anyone enter my messy abode, asked whether my neighbor could access the roof - no key, he said.  I referred to it as the "annual waterfall" - one of the new candidates, who just moved in a month ago, asked, alarmedly, "This is an annual thing?!"  My neighbor just shook his head, and asked me to send an email, which he would forward to the board, so there would be a paper trail.

So I did, and came back to try to take photos and video.  Very dark this year.  I'll find some photos from prior years...

 



The white noise from the chiller - I've gotten used to that.  Someone's got to be underneath the thing.  Of course, I never even noticed it when I was looking at the apartment.  I don't know that it would have affected my decision.  But now, well, I do have a bit of fear that the monstrous thing might come through the roof some day.  The white noise is not so bad, the shadow that it casts over my terrace - I can deal with it.  But the erratic aquatic spillage - not so great.  Luckily, my furnishings are all on the crappy side - so not so much damage, but still.  Not fun.  I shouldn't bear the brunt, my terrace shouldn't bear the brunt, for the building's having air conditioning.

Maybe the new board can do something about this.  I'll keep bothering my caddy-corner neighbor.

Not sure how that forceful water from above affects the few planters caught in the deluge; seems it can't be good.  But the plants have always survived.  And, during dry spells, I suppose they come out ahead of the other plants not in the deluge.  We shall see what becomes of all this.