I have one and do use to screen “visitors”. While the optics of peepholes are made to favor looking out from inside, the person outside can tell if someone is on the other side due to the light being blocked. I have noticed sometimes when I look through it the “visitor” is waving at me and displaying an overly friendly doofus-y look on their face. As if to say, “Hi there! I see you there and I can tell that someone is indeed home. Gotcha!”. Often it’s a small group of well-dressed people, 3 max.
At least that’s my take on that behavior. Then minutes later I’ll open my door to find “ads” for local churches wedged between the door and the jamb seal or on a hang tag from the door knob.
Our condo complex is trying to open the pool for the first time since Labor Day of 2019. They’re having trouble finding a lifeguard to work the 8 hours/day and will keep the pool closed if a lifeguard isn’t hired by the end of the month.
The announcement says “a lifeguard” so just one, far as I know. In the 21 summers we’ve been here, I don’t know of anyone who needed rescuing. The lifeguard typically ensures everyone in the pool area has a pool pass, periodically checks pH levels, ensures the pool is free of debris, and calls for adult swim time. Otherwise they’re under a canopy doing whatever.
Ive got a very close relationship with a handful of family members, close enough that they’re allowed to come over without calling first.
But the real answer is that I’m not reclusive and answering the door doesn’t bother me. I have no problem giving a polite but firm brush-off to any unwanted visitors, and sometimes I actually want to interact with family, friends or neighbors.
Yeah, they should call or text first and they usually do, but I’m really bad about checking my texts, I often don’t even see the text from a friend or neighbor until after they’ve come and gone. And they know I’m bad about texts, I don’t check my devices as often as I should, so if they don’t hear back from me they usually just come over anyway. If my car’s at home, so am I.
I need to share a story. Once, when I was young, I was visiting my grandma in winter time. We went on a walk (she used to call it “wear out the grandkids time”) which took us to one of her friend’s house. We dropped in unannounced, but there wasn’t anybody home. She wanted them to know we’d stopped by, so we made a bunch of snowballs and left them by the front door, and tossed some up onto the entryway roof.
Later that day my grandma’s friend called, “Did you come by to visit today?”
My kid worked a couple of summers as a lifeguard at a private pool. Never had to get out of the chair, except to pee (and shoot the shit with the kids who taught swim lessons). We asked if she wanted to work at the city pool for more money: "Are you kidding? Lifeguards have to WORK there!"
I’m guessing life-guarding is a lot like police and guns. The large majority of officers never draw much less shoot their weapon, and most life-guards have never had to actually save someone.
Yep. The condo association is pretty much looking for anyone with lifeguard certification just to meet the minimum required standard operating procedure. The pool doesn’t even have a diving board, it was pulled out long before we moved in due to the insurance cost.
I just remembered: there had been two lifeguards in summers past but they worked different days. The last ones were exchange students or something.
We’ve got cabin fever. It’s been three weeks since schools went online / closed. My hours are way down so there’s that stress. My kids miss their friends and the structure of school. My wife has been from home from before so that’s the same, but with the added stress of having kids underfoot.
Thank og we’re not in our tiny Tokyo place and have separate rooms to get some time away from each other.
I know people had it worse for longer back home, but it’s still stressful at times.
I had a prescription refilled yesterday. I’ve been taking this med for several years. But this time it came with a new warning label: “Check with your doctor or pharmacist to make sure it is safe for you to take this drug.” WTF? Wasn’t it prescribed by my doctor? Didn’t my pharmacist fill the prescription? And NOW its safety is questioned?
Oh yeah, there is a huge difference between big swim clubs and rec centers and small neighborhood pools. During college, I worked at a swim club with hundreds of daily swimmers. Sure, you spend your time in the chair, but you are scanning the entire time. It takes just one second for someone to hit their head on the side, and slip under without a sound.
Our club owner also contracted out to several neighborhood pools, so I’d take care of one or two, when their regular lifeguard would take a vacation. One the one hand, you have much fewer swimmers, on the other, you do not have a regular rotation, so you’re scanning for fifty minutes at a time. That’s why you have that ten minute adult swim.
Despite what the TV and movies will show you, lifeguarding is hard work.
I was visiting my father who lived alone, and noticed to my horror that the front door lock was non-functional. Even with the deadbolt thrown, the door could simply be pushed open from outside. To make matters worse, it was late Saturday night when I discovered the problem, the light over the front door had gone out and groups of variably suspicious people were approaching the house and trying to get in, including trying the doorknob. My father inexplicably was not taking it seriously, and I had to try to convince him to call out a locksmith on an emergency basis.
The kicker is that something very much like this actually happened on a visit to my Dad many years ago, only the lock wasn’t in quite as desperately pitiful shape and there weren’t squads of potential intruders threatening to break in, at least that I knew about.
I woke up gasping at 3 a.m. Sleep was a long time in returning.
*in a preface to this nightmare, a big storm was approaching our house and Mrs. J. and I were planning to take cover in one of our freezer drawers. Kind of cramped in there.
That’s a nasty nightmare, Jackmannii, all the more so because it isn’t 100% far-fetched.
Two nights ago I had one: I dreamt that Joel Hodgson had committed suicide, a la Tony Bourdain. I was devastated, but I was given a chance to go back in time a couple of days to try to convince him to get help. I found that he was a hot mess and was having a psychotic break and couldn’t be talked down. I kept trying, and was going deep into despair, knowing I wasn’t going to be able to prevent the suicide. I, too, woke up gasping at 3 a.m.
I Pit the universe for requiring my friend to have emergency asshole surgery on the day we were all supposed to meet up for the first time in 15 months. I hate when bad things happen to the goodest of people, and I hate missing out on my friends.
P. S. We fired the nanny. She cried. It’s over with, I guess, but so sad. I know she’s in dire straits and she tried really hard. I wish trying was enough.