...that's what the chimney cleaning company hired by my mother's property management association is.

All the residents got notices saying you MUST get the mandatory chimney inspection and if they decide it needs cleaning, it's $89. Never mind that my mother never used the fireplace in 15 years; the insurance company still requires a biannual inspection.

Fine. So I scheduled it for Sat. July 18. Of course, they give you a 3-hour window during which time they will show up. My window was 12 to 3 p.m. She said they'd be there closer to noon than 3. So i got there at 11:30 a.m. and waited til 3:05. They never showed. I stayed busy most of the time as I was still emptying out my mother's lower level, but this still totally annoyed me.

I called them twice during this window and got their machine. I called them the following week, leaving messages and my phone number. I called the property management company and he said unfortunately, all the inspections have to be done by this weekend, so we'll have to "tag team" "Jenny," meaning he would call her and I should call her. He said there were 4 or 5 people they didn't get to. Jenny said I was the only one they didn't get to. Which is it? Who knows.

When she finally called me back, instead of apologizing for the no-show, it was one excuse after the other and I caught her in all her lies. She said she returned each one of my phone calls. That was baloney, and she said, yeah, the phone number we have for you is.... and she gave my mother's old number, which was disconnected 2 months ago, so she couldn't have left me any messages. I also explained that if she listened to the recording it would have given my phone number as the forwarding phone number. Never mind that I gave her my phone number each time I called anyway.

She also said someone came during the appointed time, knocked but no one answered. Again, not true since I was here hauling things out to my car the whole time.

Could they not have made a 30-second phone call to me when they knew they wouldn't make it?

So anyway, we scheduled a 2nd visit for them to come today from noon to 3 p.m. And guess what happened???? They failed to show AGAIN. They wasted 6 hours of my time now!! I have so many more important things to do than sit around an empty condo waiting for someone to show up.

I left an angry message with property management. I am NOT waiting for another 3-hour window. How rude and inconsiderate. I wonder what their excuse will be this time.

Aside from that, I made a deposit into my mother's checking account, got a new leather band for my watch, got some ink cartridges for my printer at Staples and picked up more free shipping supplies at a post office branch. Also did some mulching and weed-pulling both at home and in front of my mother's unit as weeds had taken over.