A new floor! Only slightly carcinogenic.

I had my first experience with a contractor today. We're having some of our floor refinished, because we tore up the carpet to get to the lovely hardwood underneath, only to find:

• cat piss stains (courtesy of my cat, who now lives in her own kitty apartment in one of the spare rooms)
• paint stains, everywhere, because the previous owner decided to paint before he laid the carpet (nice job, previous owner! If I could sell the hundreds of yards of speaker wire you left looping from the floor to the cellar below, maybe we'd be even)
• one of the closet floors had been, apparently, jigsawed into many pieces in order to thread phone wires downstairs "unobtrusively"
• gaping holes on the stairway where a railing had once run before aforementioned previous owner added a paneled wall (our living room is rather, er, masculine, what with the paneling and all)

Anyhoo, Floor Refinisher Guy was supposed to show up between 9 and 9:30.

8:30: I emailed work to let them know I'd be a little late, but I was expecting to be in my ten, tops. I had slept in a bit, had some leisurely coffee. Life was good.

9:15: Floor Refinisher Guy calls to say he is running late - he left his truck lights on last night and is recharging his battery. "What time will you be here?" He tells me 10 at the latest. I settle down and watch some Eastenders on the TiVo. Pat is shtupping Frank on the side. Silly cow.

9:30: Make toast. Wonder when he'll get here. How long does it take to charge a battery? Don't jumper cables take, like, two seconds?

9:45: Wrangle all the cats, their beds, food dishes and litterboxes into basement. Am haunted by plaintive caterwauling/desperate door-scratching until I leave the house.

10:00 Turn off TV. No sense in watching more English TV if he's going to be here soon, right?

10:10: Turn TV back on.

10:20: Should I leave? But then how will he get in? This is asinine.

10:25: Write note to Floor Refinisher Guy. Tape to door.

10:30: Head to work, leaving door unlocked. Try not to have panic attack or think about house across the street that was burgled last month.

I can tell that when we start having work done on the basement, it'll be even better! Ah, contractors. Gotta love 'em.