Have you ever had a feeling that something was wrong, amiss, not quite right, or a twinge in the gut that something dreadful was about to be discovered?
After eating dinner and finishing that nightly ritual of teeth maintenance, walked back into the bathroom for just a minute and don’t always find it necessary to turn on the light. As I turned to leave, my left barefoot felt something moist and wet. Not near the sink. Not near the shower. Not near the hand towel. As a matter of fact, not anywhere you would expect to find a little stray liquid. The first instinct was that it came from the ceiling and stared up as I turned on the light. Nothing noticeable and looked down to see more than half the floor covered in water and most of it accumulated around the toilet and spreading outward. There also was at least an inch of water inside the shower. For the past few weeks the shower had been draining very slowly and thought about taking a wire hanger and fishing out the gunk from the drain but would forget about it until starting to take the next shower. Although I had not used the shower that day, did hear the neighbors using theirs earlier.
The water level continued to double in volume as the gurgling actions bounced back and forth between the shower and the toilet, reminding me of the classic movie but without the green slime. Informed the manager who gave me a beach towel and mop to wipe up the mess and came to take a peek. The water was coming from the wall behind the toilet. Carol flushed my toilet and the water rose and stopped just before it overflowed. After checking next door, Carol advised that their toilet had indeed run over and the tub was full of water. She had my neighbor plug up the tub so the water in my shower would stop rising.
Unfortunately, I was told the plumber would not be coming until the next morning around 8, 9, or 10. So, where does one go to alleviate? Although Carol thought it would be okay to use the toilet, I wasn’t going to take a chance. Luckily I had two places to go—my parents or the church building. Church was closer and thought about staying and sleeping on a pew but came home, went to sleep and repeated the process at 1:30 am and again at 5:00 before going to walk. Went to play a little tennis and to get milk at Ralph’s and upon my return noticed the water level in the shower would soon be trickling out onto the floor. Spent a little time bailing out water and pouring it into the sink. Now I could somewhat understand the misfortune of those people whose houses flood during natural disasters.
By the time the plumber arrived, I had to bail out water two more times. The plumber snaked out the pipes from the rooftop as well as the showers and was surprised that he had not been called out last night. The owner had obviously thought it could wait, but whom is he kidding—it would have cost more money. What a cheapskate!
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2 comments:
I've had a few discussions with the apartment manager over the years and was never impressed by her. There is nothing that makes me screw myself into the ceiling more quickly than plumbing problems. Josh used to love it when we had them because he knew I would go nuts over it.
When I managed apt.'s I tried to instill a rule of "don't call me unless it is Fire, Flood or Blood" This would have been a case where I would have called a plumber out right away. Glad it all worked out in the end.
From Glenda (can't remember my password)
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