November 4, 2010

So this morning I get awakened at 6:45am by the sound of doors SLAMMING in the Appliance Repair Shop below me. From 6:45–8:15, when my my alarm was set to go off, I couldn't sleep. Every 5 minutes, a door would swing open and slam shut, jarring me just as i might have had a chance to reclaim some lost sleep.

When I woke, this is what I heard:

Worker 1: It's Thursday and I gotta pull the dishwasher and all this shit out.

Muffled noise.

Worker 1: In and out like every hour.

Worker 2: Cackle, Cackle, Cackle!

Worker 1: It ain't right. I'm down here, calling Oscar....

Can't make the rest out. Just here some generator noise.

The phone starts ringing, I think the Foreman is calling someone. Rings 4 times.

Foreman: Hey, what's up? Hey listen, you guys got 236, 630?

Can't understand the guy on the other end.

Foreman: 6A, yeah.

On the other end: Yeah.

Foreman: You guys got this one?

On the other end: Yeah.

Foreman: Ok. You gotta pick up paint?

On the other end: Yeah, we got it.

Foreman: Ok, my guy's on his way. Thanks.

Pause

Foreman: Jose, Jose, Buddy.

Worker 2: Cackle, Cackle, Cackle!

Foreman: Hey guys, he's out there waiting.

Worker 2: Cackle, Cackle, Cackle!

Someone is barking, literally barking.

Another Worker (singing, reggae style): A yah yah yah yah yah yah.

Foreman: Buddy! Jose!

Some back and forth that I can't understand.

Foreman: Hey Crieh! (Really not sure about this name, but hopefully will become clear in the future)

Some rumblings and generator noise.

Foreman: Alright, well just go around and see....I haven't seen him, I still gotta find out who shows up.

Woman Worker: Tile Guys

Worker 1: Carpet.

Foreman: Right, with the tile guys, they're a little bit of a complainers. I call the unit up and they like, "Oh my back. I can't get in there."

Worker 2: Cackle, Cackle, Cackle!

Someone says something.

Worker 2: Cackle, Cackle, Cackle!

Another sleepless morning in Stuy Town.

November 2, 2010

Phone rings.

Stuy Town Appliance Repair Shop:

Hey Lara, how you doin' this morning?

Listen, I got a call for a surveying job at 276, 630.

Some back and forth that I can't understand

Stuy Town Appliance Repair Shop:

There's no carpenters that have it and I can't get a hold of the exterminators

Some more back and forth that I can't understand

On the other end:

Retransmit please, retransmit.

Stuy Town Appliance Repair Shop:

2565 Appliance Ring (not sure about the ring part)

A woman is speaking spanish in the background.

On the other end of the line:

You say you can't get a carpenter or an exterminator?

Stuy Town Appliance Repair Shop:

Yeah. The carpenters don't have it, the tile guys can't do it. So it's just us and the exterminator or what?

I can't make out what the guy on the other end is saying—something about the exterminator.

A door slams.

Not sure what any of this means, but this is what I heard on November 2, 2010, early in the morning.

October 21, 2010

No good conversations to relate today as I woke up late, somehow sleeping straight through to 9am without waking up. I was wiped out.

On Tuesday however, Kristin went to the Stuy Town Appliance Repair Shop to talk to the workers.

She introduced herself.

"Hi my name is Kristin and I live upstairs."

Blank stare stares all around.

She asked them,

"Would you guys mind being a bit more conscious of the noise you make so early in the morning."

Some huffs and puffs scattered throughout the room.

She continued,

"7am is really early to be yelling right below our bedroom."

One worker retorted,

"No one's here that early except the foreman."

Kristin replied,

"So then I guess he's yelling at himself?"

They didn't get the joke.

The Foreman walked in and asked,

"Can I help you?"

Kristin wanted to know,

"Is there is any way you guys can keep it down so early in the morning? We are trying to sleep and you are waking us up every day."

The Foreman said,

"You see my desk over there? That's where I sit. When I get orders in I gotta yell them out to the workers over there. How else are we supposed to work?"

The Foreman's desk is directly below our bed.

Why this blog?

This blog has the sole objective of broadcasting to the world the conversations of the Stuyvesant Town Appliance Repair Shop, located directly below my apartment. Each day at 7am, I am awakened to the sounds of the shop and its workers. A rude awakening.

Each day I will bring to you a snippet of what I am forced to listen to every day of my life.

Enjoy.