Ready for Zombies?

So here I am in my respirator at work.  Ready for the zombie apocalypse.  Not really.  I stand amazed sometimes at how people can live the way they do sometimes.  I got a jump this Friday on an apartment I'm suppose to make ready next week.  We'd opened the windows and patio door for a week to see if we could get the smell of pet odor out of the apartment.  You name the pet odor, it was there.  I mean, without a mask you practically gag going in.  Sometimes you hope that by ripping the carpet out that the smell will go away.  No luck here.  The "stains" had gone through the padding and soaked into the concrete.  With gloves, respirator, and humidity that was stifling, I began cutting the carpet out.  You know it's bad when the padding doesn't want to come off the concrete.  A little sweeping and then I brought in the secret weapon, 5 gallons of oil based primer.  Oh yeah.  You want to kill some odor, bring this bad boy in.  This stuff smells so strong I could smell it through the respirator faintly.  But that was the point.

So at what point do you realize that you live in filth?  At one point do you look up and see roaches crawling on the walls, roach eggs everywhere and think this is normal?   I was blessed to have a Mom who cleaned the house regularly, a Dad who did the honeydo's, and parents who taught us to do those things.  Yes, I'm not afraid to pick up a broom and sweep, dust, do laundry, change light bulbs, fix things around the house.  Things get a little cluttered when we get busy, but not to the point where we just leave the half eaten hamburger on the floor to become petrified!  When we spill something, we clean it up.  I mean, I've seen where people dropped gum and just left it there.  And sinks.  My goodness!  Sometimes it's like the bugs version of Las Vegas!  "Come to the bonanza in the sink of apt. 1000!  What happens in the sink, stays in the sink!  Am I ranting a little bit, well, you bet your left toe I am!  I've walked into apartments that the smoke smell is so bad, and the walls are discolored that we have to paint everything!  Don't get me wrong, it keeps me in a job, but people, come on!  And should I venture into the state of bathrooms that I've seen....Again, when you see black in all the tile crevices, it is a perfect opportunity for you to put down the bag of chips, get up off the couch, pull your britches up, and clean the tile!   And toilets, are they that hard to clean?  Are you afraid the tidy bowl man is going to getcha?  Heck, some of the toilets not even the tidy bowl man would venture there without a gas mask and packing serious heat.

Really, it's as if the roaches are family.  That ones is stinky, and there is fluffy, and there is mongo.  Honey, leave some food out for the children....I get home and I can't wait to take a shower!  The funny thing is I've been there long enough I see how we give them the apartment and what it looks like when they leave.  It's all nice and painted, cleaned, and ready for them, but when we get it back sometimes it's like, really people, really?  I will say this, it is nice that they keep me in a job, because as long as there are messy people, I'll have walls to paint and carpets to clean.  I'll quit ranting now....I will say this, it reminds me of how my life was before God cleaned me up.  I had such a mess in my life, in my heart, but just like I make apartments ready for a living, God is in the business of cleaning up lives...

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