Vanessence: Waterworld

My daughter and I were going over one of her assignments when we heard a terrible grinding noise coming through the wall in the office area. I wondered out loud if the neighbors were drilling holes in the walls to put up shelves or something. About 15 seconds after that, we heard a … gurgling sound coming from the kitchen sink. I had some dishes soaking on the right side, as I usually do during the day, and the left side was open, as it always is. I went to check on the sound when I saw water coming up in the sink. It was coming up on both sides – it had even popped up the stopper I had in the right.

This is what we call an “Oh &$%#!” moment.

I tried calling the office, and naturally got their voice mail system. EVERY other time I call one of the ladies there personally answers, but when it’s an emergency, you just know you’re going to get a machine. So I hoofed it over there as fast as my bad knee would let me.

When I got back, my son had taken his bath towel and was trying to contain the mess, and my daughter was in tears. I think she thought the place was going to explode or something. As my son put it, “The sink vomited.”

Yeah. And it was community crud, because the stuff in it wasn’t ours. There is only one thing worse it could have been, and you have no idea how thankful I am that this didn’t happen in a bathroom. I’m still shuddering over the grossness of it all, as it was.

In addition to the sink overflowing, it started coming up into the dishwasher too! Silver lining for the kids is that the clean dishes I was waiting for them to put away after school had to be washed again, so they got out of that chore for the day.

The drawers on that side of the kitchen also got flooded. Everything in them had to be either trashed or washed. Mostly it was stuff like wax paper and baggies, and my kitchen towels, so at least it wasn’t major harm.

[that drawer is typically full of stuff, I had to throw away a garbage bag full – I just put that roll in there to try to highlight the amount of water]

Of course, under the sink was flooded too, but the stuff under there was mostly plastic bottles of cleaners so they’re fine. I had to take everything off the counter to get rid of the water, and spray it down. The floor is a disaster and that needs to be mopped and sprayed too.

It took the maintenance guys a couple hours to figure out the problem. Well, I guess they didn’t really figure it out. They think the upstairs neighbor tried to put something in his garbage disposal and then run his dishwasher and that’s what caused the blockage. I kept trying to tell them that the grinding noise didn’t come from upstairs. After 10 years, I know what the upstairs neighbors’ dishwasher, garbage disposal, washing machine, showers, and toilets sound like. There are simply aspects to apartment living that you adapt to. The neighbors change, but the appliances don’t, and the plumbing doesn’t either. So, maintenance did manage to get the pipe unblocked, but they don’t know how it got blocked. They had to try a few different plumbing snakes, too, because they brought short ones even though I told them they’d need a long one because the grinding came from the far wall, not the near one. But, what do I know.

Bonus, I ended up with a new garbage disposal. Not sure exactly why as mine wasn’t really an issue. I mean, it was old and loud, but I hardly ever use it, because it’s old and loud. Hopefully the neighbors will get a new one, too. IF that was the issue, and I’m not saying it was.

I don’t know why I feel so … drained. I mean, I was shaking once the adrenaline wore off. I know it wasn’t a disaster, as far as disasters go. Earthquakes and tsunamis – those are disasters. This was a bump in the happy, extra cleaning and laundry, probably the expense of some food wraps. No one got hurt, nothing valuable was lost, but the stress I felt seemed rather high. I’ve lived through worse. God help me, I’ve lived through worse. But sleep? Yeah, I need a seriously brisk nap!

So that was MY Monday, how was yours? Better, I hope! lol