This has been a really rough week. Even though I knew it had to start getting better at some point, I just couldn't see it. Now things seem to be on the rise. Maybe it was the lunar eclipse that caused it - the last 2 weeks have been really shitty so maybe not.
Sat 4th March
I call my landlord b/c my bath rm sink had some kind of water pressure problem, water was just trickling out. So he tells me he'll come with a plumber Mon night. some of the pipe connections were still iron pipes which tend to get clogged with gunk(his words).
Sun
He comes by and does something with it b/c when I get back from choir/errands, the water pressure seems normal i.e. I can actually wash my hands in less than 3min.
So I think, maybe I was mistaken and he came today to fix it. Wrong.
Monday 6:30pm
I get a call on my cell while I'm still at work telling me that he and the plumber have arrived and are going to take care of things...
8:00pm - I get home to find them both still in my bath rm "fixing". They don't leave until 10:30pm and there is a mysterious leak in the new elbow joint they've put in that they can't seem to fix. It's a small, slow leak so they put a bucket under it and tell me that maybe the joint will 'swell' in a couple days and it'll stop. The floor under the sink/toilet has been removed and the dank, smelly wood underneath exposed. it reeks in there. Plus they must've knocked the toilet roll off in water and put it back b/c it has gurbby marks on it and also that swollen, frilly look at one end that tissue/paper towls get if you drop one end in water. What kills me is that they put it back. it's a good thing I always put my glasses on before goin to the loo b/c I could have used (shudders to think) that on my person. How Gross is that? So I've left it there for them to futz around with and have opened a new roll which I hide in the closet before I leave.
11:30pm - banging on my back door (accessible only by my downstairs neighbor or landlord, it my downstairs neighbor telling me he has a flood in his kitchen and he thinks it's coming from me. I have no water on any of my floors so this seems uinlikely to me. He asks to come in and look for himself. I let him (b/c I just want to get to sleep). He looks and can't find the source, not in my bathrm...not under my kitchen sink. He tells me he thinks "they broke a pipe in the wall and that he's
"turned off the water". I'm exhausted and nothing he says really means anything to me - I just need to sleep.
Tuesday 6:30am
Time to get ready for work - then it dawns on me...no water. So I call my landlord and ask him what to do, I have to get ready for work. He tells me to go out the back and knock on my neighbor back door then ask him to turn it on so I can get ready. I do this - nothing, no response. So I have to put on my coat/socks/shoes and go out the front...into the 3°F morning cold to bang on their front door. Part of the conversation goes like this:
6:45
Me: Can you turn the water on for 10-15min I need to get ready for work
Surly Neighbor: NO, I won't. It's flooded in there and there's enough damage.
Me: I need to shower/brush my teeth/have to go to work, just give me 10min.
Surly Neighbor: Nope, not going to turn it on
Me: (desperate now)can you turn it on for 3min so I can fill a couple buckets at least?
Surly Neighbor: get your buckets ready
So I dash back upstairs and simultaneously fill a couple buckets with hot water from the shower, 2 containers in the kitchen sink and brush my teeth. Then the water was gone. I had enough to bathe but didn't have time to regulate the water so it was much hotter than I normally bathe with - near scalding but better than no water or cold water I guess.
7:30am Landlord calls me to tell me to leave my back door open for my Surly Neighbor, b/c he's going to put in a shut-off for the hot water. whatever, needed to leave soon for work So I left it unlocked.
8pm I get home and find them about to leave - they've done a temp fix: put in a shut off and I have cold water but no hot water b/c that's what's causing the leaking downstairs.
Wednesday 6:30am
I boil water for my bath which is ok b/c at least it's a nice temperature, not too hot or cold.
I received several calls during the day from my landlord telling me of their plans to go in and do a permanent fix...they had to replace the piping/elbow joints from my apt to the pipes leading downstairs.
Another call @ 6pm - He informs me that they noticed another leak - when he turned on the tap in the kitchen, it was leaking from it's drain onto the bath rm floor under the sink. He says, "if you don't mind, could you not use the kitchen sink at all, we're going to come back Thur and try to put a temporary fix in." If I don't mind? If I don't mind? Not like I have a real choice.
A couple friends at work who I told offered me use of their spare rooms for as long as I needed. So I decided to go home, get an overnight bag to stay at T's for the night. Her husband was away for the week on business so I didn't feel too bad about imposing.
7pm - I get home, they've just started working. So I get my stuff and go over to T's. We get pizza, watch Idol. I slept really well all things considered.
Thursday
Got up at 6:30am and was actually ready to go @7:10am. Walk out to my car, guess what's on my windshield? A parking ticket written at 2am! A $50 parking ticket. So I look around and there's no sign posted anywhere near me on my side of the street. There is one on the opposite side of the street that is completely obscured except for the number 9. That's the only thing on it not erased. I just take it in and drive to work. The closest sign is maybe 150ft away. NO where near the house where I was parked. So I'm going to protest this ticket. It wasn't posted close enough. As I drove off I finally saw a sign at the intersection of the street and the main road "no parking mon-fri 12am-9am. It says this on both sides of the street. On a dead-end street. T was pretty upset and even offered to go halfs on the ticket-she felt so bad. I refused of course-not really her fault. She said they'd lived there 3 yrs and have people visit and park on the street and have never known anyone to get a ticket before. She'd never even noticed the "no parking" signs.
My consolation is that 2 other cars parked there also had tickets. The last time I got a parking ticket for parking on the wrong side in front my building, none of the other cars around me had tickets. That pissed me off. It was posted every 3 or 4 houses so I couldn't really say I didn't see the signs even though I didn't until after the fact.
6pm I call my landlord and ask if I can use the sink, he says they need another day so no using the kitchen sink yet. Not great but doable, not like I planned to cook anything Thurs night. Had grilled bacon/tomato/cheese sandwiches. They were really good.
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