DAILY DISAPPOINTMENT

This installment of Daily Disappointment deals with a disappointment I am confronted with on a yearly basis.  It tends to start right around Memorial Day, when we open up camp in Vermont and generally lasts throughout the first part of the summer.  The only reason it doesn't last longer is because I have learned to "let go let God".

Every year I endeavor to find a cleaner who can come to our camp after one of my family members have spent some time there.  Generally speaking we are looking for someone to come about every 2 weeks for a 2-3 month period...at best.  I remember fondly the year we had an ex olympic skiier cleaning our place - she was awesome.  I think that was in the late 80's.  Let me tell you about this years attempts....understand that this is extremely typical of any occasion in which we have tried to hire any sort of help in VT.

Of course at first I foolheartedly called last year's cleaner thinking she would be the best bet for this year (as she indicated at the end of last year she would be eager to pick up some extra cash this summer as well).  I left a voicemail on her home phone and her cell phone.  Not so much as a return phone call.  And I know her Mother-in-law pretty well, so it's not like she can just drop off the face of the earth.  AND, might I note - she pretty much sucked....last year she cleaned all the windows in the house with witch hazel.  I AM NOT KIDDING.  This isn't a matter of a few smears, she USED WITCH HAZEL on every window.   You could not see through the grease. When I pointed this out to her upon entering the camp she couldn't agree more, it was horrible, she was at a loss as to what I was going to do about it.  I suspect she smoked a lot of pot.  Just so you understand, I was willing, eager even, to hire her back again this year.  that's how desperate I am.

Okay, so, on to plan B.  Ask everyone I come across if they know a cleaner.  Finally, our neighbors the Martells have a cleaner, she is awesome, very flexible, cleans their camp ABOUT 50 YARDS AWAY every week.  I call her on July 6th as soon as I get back to MA.  She calls me back, we review dates, she is quite confident that she can help us out, she'll call me back when she gets home and checks her schedule.   Don't hear from her.  I call her on Monday July 11th - did you check your schedule?  'Oh yeah, I did, I can totally do it' (no mention that she never called me back).  Great - did you want to stop by the camp sometime between tue 12th and sat 16th and meet with one of us Jackmans just to walk through, see where cleaning supplies are, expectations, etc.  Yes, she agrees that is a very good idea, I gave her my sister-in-law Donna's cell as they were at camp that week and the cleaner indicated that wed-fri would work out better.  Donna calls on Friday - 'no word, I'm going to clean today before we leave on Sun'.  Tom and I get up there with Maeve and friends on Sat...we leave on Tuesday, still no word from the cleaner, so we have to assume she isn't going to clean..so we clean.

As it is apparent to Tom and I that this cleaner is not reliable - we find someone that is advertising on the wall at the Whippi-Dip and we call her on Monday morning.  This is a NEW flyer mind you because I have been looking every time I have been up there and it wasn't there July 4th weekend.  As you probably have already guessed, it's been a couple weeks, she never calls. 

I call the Martell's cleaner again, one last time - what's going on, can you do it or not (I act like I have some leverage, which is funny, because as you my reader know, I have no leverage, nor do I have any dignity at this point).  She calls back on Tuesday the 19th - she is 'TERRIBLY sorry, her father went into the hospittal on Friday, it's been crazy, she really really feels bad - she can DEFINITELY clean on Friday before Al/Chris go up on the 23rd'.  We talk about where the key is, what I want done.  Did I mention that she feels TERRIBLE and this has been totally out of character for her and she is very reliable?

Okay....you know where I am going with this don't you?  Do I have to tell you what Christine told me when I asked her if the cleaner had been there?  Of cousrse I don't, you know, as well as I do, that she was a no show.  I just left her another voicemail.  At this point I'm just playing the game to the end.

I used to find humor in the tongue-in-cheek slogan the folks at our Camp gave to the Lake Morey Inn:

"It's The LEAST We Can Do".

Apparently, that slogan applies to the entire state of Vermont.