Upon waking Tuesday morning I found that the water was still there. No signs of drainage or increased levels. It didn't seem to be alarming in any sort of way and I figured it would get taken care of later in the day. Thus, I continued with my routine to ready myself for work. However, about a quarter of the way through this process I had a "nudging" to stay home. I wasn't sure why and couldn't figure out if it was just me wanting to or that maybe the Lord was giving me some sort of heads up. (Note to reader: This is where my mind then started going wild. Was He warning me of a terrorist attack on my school that I would later testify about how the Lord had saved me from sure death had I gone? Or spared me from a tragic automobile accident that would occur due to a drug-crazed school bus driver? Ah yes, the powers of the paranoid mind!) Eventually I settled it within myself to stay home regardless of why I felt to do so.
This meant I immediately called in to the sub system and then hopped in my car to go prepare my classroom for my absence. This was a relatively quick process and I was back home in just over an hour. At which time I decided to lay down for a bit before I would head out to get a pedicure (No need to waste a perfectly good day off!) then come back home to grade some papers in plenty of time to make it to prayer that evening. What a perfect plan! And it would have been EXCEPT....
About 45 minutes into my "rest" a familiar sound came out of my bathroom. The sound of running water splashing onto the tile floor. I was jolted awake and jumped into action as I saw the water that was once contained in the sink now flowing all over the counter, into my drawers, and onto the floor. What a mess! Even my bedroom carpet was unable to escape this plumbing catastrophe. Still not knowing where it had come from or why it was white made me not want to touch it our get it on me. Which was hard considering the amount of water there was and my wanting to spare the bedroom carpet as much as possible.
I got on the phone with the apartment office immediately and requested that they come right away. Much to my amazement they made it over in a very short time. As is common in these parts, they spoke broken English and so didn't say much as they went to work. Meanwhile, R and I just sat and waited and wondered when our bathrooms would be accessible again. Our curiousity grew as they brought in wet vacs and pieces of pipe. As more time progressed I became overly curious and finally went to ask. Just why did our bathroom sinks fill up with water like that?
Wanna know?
As it turns out, the "milky white" of the water was paint. Paint! Yes, PAINT! The geniuses who are working on the apartment above us seemed to think that cleaning their brushes in the bathroom sinks is a good idea. Along with washing paint chips down the sink. Do you know what happens when you do that? Oh, the paint goes down the drain, but apparently only down one story worth of drains. One story down is where it all begins to coagulate and come to a permanent resting place in the pipes. When this happens lots and lots of water back up into the sinks of the bathrooms just below. The maintenance dude showed me the inside of one of our pipes that he was replacing...HELLO! What were they thinking! Oh the glories of apartment living!
No fret, though. Our plumbing is back in working order and water is where water should be and drains as is intended. The only negative side effect of all these recent plumbing problems is that I sometimes am awakened out of dead sleep by any sound that is even remotely like running water. Yes, lots of startled, incoherent, sleepy moments this week. What fun. :)
3 comments:
Well, paint in your sink is not awesome.
Wow. That's some pretty crazy stuff.
I always wait forever for your page to come up then realize oh yeah I have to scroll down past the the lovely flowers to read what you have written. LOL! BTW I am back at my blog. Hoping to keep with it.
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