you know, you almost want to scrounge together a little empathy.

it's the coldest day of the year, and instead of checking the seals on the windows and setting the furnace up an extra degree, my upstairs neighbour is stomping around in a fit, ensuring that his daughter turns the heat off, under the fear that the tenants around him might force him to break a sweat.

what enforces such a morbid fear of sweat in a grown man, beyond the age of 60? was he teased as a child because of his smell? is that the cause of his morbid obesity - a fear of smelling of sweat?

if only he could put as much effort into losing weight as he does into preventing himself from breaking a sweat....

-10 C = 14 F.

and, yet the heat remains off. and i am forced to open my own windows to clear the pool of gas that has resulted from some leak, or some bad wiring, and that is correlated with and seemingly caused by his refusal to turn on the furnace.

that furnace was newly installed in 2014, btw. if it were up to him, he'd never use it at all. why spend the money? and why force me to suffer the externalities?

i'd be happy to heat his unit for him, if he'd like to disconnect the gas permanently. as it is, i have no option but to try and freeze him out until he turns his furnace on.

existence remains inherently absurd. and i can only continue to laugh...