OY! OY! OY!

I thought that this being Lent, I should write a sober, meditative blog. Unfortunately my tale of woe from last week continued into the next week, so here it goes–again.

Friday the toilet backed up. It has done this before so I have become a deft hand at using a plumber's helper which generally solves the problem quickly, long before maintenance would ever show up. This time was not so easy. The water from the tank (the one that was fixed a few weeks ago) continued to flow and flow and flow. Water spilled over onto the bathroom floor. As fast as I could (which wasn't fast enough) I turned off the water. Eventually I got everything working and spent an hour-and-a-half bailing out the bathroom and disinfecting things with bleach. (What? You want I should get typhus or something?)

All of this made me very late for doing laundry. I trundled over to the laundry room only to discover that it was closed to have the floor cleaned. (Maybe they could do my bathroom while they are at it.) This isn't a total disaster because we have a second, smaller laundry room. The difficulty is that the only machine for loading money onto the card needed to operate the machines is in the closed laundry room. Now I have encountered this problem before, so I always have enough money on my card to do laundry. Ha! Take that you electronic demon.

The problem with the Phase II Laundry Room (as it is called) is that it has only four driers, only two of which actually dry anything. I have been here eleven years. In that time you think they would have fixed the driers. Nooooooo! I got through the washing all right, but when I tried the driers, my card would only work in two driers. I'm not sure if this decreased the odds of my getting a working machine or not. I contemplated drying only one load in one machine so as to determine if it worked, but I was growing impatient so decided to play laundry roulette and use two driers. As it is said, a fool and his money are soon parted. $2.30 and 48 minutes later I had one load of dry clothes and one load of very damp clothes.

I hung the damp clothes in my second bathroom–not the one that might be a possible source of disease. That night I attended a musical, The Baker's Wife, returning home late. All was well, I thought.

I look forward to Saturday as my only morning for a leisurely breakfast–a ham omelet, one-half a grapefruit, toast, and as much tea as I want. I took my morning meds and headed off to get the jeans which I hoped had dried by now. The bathroom floor was full of water. The kitchen floor was also full of water. From past experience I knew the cause, the line to the ice maker was leaking again. It did this the first weekend I lived in this apartment and has done it twice since. I rolled out the refrigerator to turn off the water. Since it was too early for anyone to be in the office, I started bailing out the water again. About an hour later I informed maintenance of the disaster, and returned to the clean up. I couldn't do anything about the water that had seeped into the hallway carpet, so I left for church–without having any breakfast.

I returned that evening. The maintenance tech had stopped the water and sucked as much over-flow as possible from the carpet which now smelled like a wet dog who had a disagreement with a skunk. I spread baking soda on the carpet, let it set for several hours and vacuumed it up. Repeated as needed. I also burned incense to conceal the odor and maybe appease the powers that caused the water works to let loose.

The only good news this week is that on Tuesday morning as I came to church, I noticed a dead squirrel in the street. I hope that was one of our invaders.

Now I am worried again. The First Lesson for this Sunday is Noah's Flood. I know what the text says: "When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh" (Gen 9:14-15). But there is nothing about the plumbing going berserk.

I am going away overnight to see one of my young friends perform in Orlando. I wonder if I should pick up an inflatable life raft while I'm there?

Well, whatever waters flood your life's path, remember that the Lord who stilled the sea and set the boundaries for the ocean travels with you. May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival.

Peace,

Wayne



Picture is from here.






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