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rivendellroseI woke up this morning at 4:45 to a strange sound. It sounded like... running water. Rather a lot of it, actually. After determining that yes, I really was awake and I really did hear that obnoxious sound, my thought process went something like this:
Step 1: What the hell is someone doing taking a shower this early in the morning?
Step 2: Wait, the shower isn't that loud from my room. And there are only three of us (including me) home this weekend. Also, I'm the only one who has to be anywhere today, so why would anyone else be up?
Step 3: *Last, desperate attempt at not-having-to-get-up-to-investigate* Is it, perhaps, raining very hard? So hard, perhaps, that it's... somehow making loud noises inside the house?
Whereupon, with much grumbling and "no, no, please no, don't be anything bad" sorts of commentary, I pulled on my robe and went to investigate. And immediately outside my door landed my foot in a good inch of standing water.
"No, no, no... bad, bad, very very bad..."
I'll spare you the direct quotes from here out. Long story short, water heater go splut, basement go very very wet. I try to find a valve to turn off. No luck. Call Mom, see if she knows how to turn off a water heater. No luck. Call Dad. No answer. Call Mom again. Call Dad again because damn it, there's no other way to solve this... and then assure my stepmom that no, I'm not dying, we just have a problem with the house. Dad tries to walk me through finding the valve, but the valve that we find does not, in fact, do much to turn off the water. After scrambling back and forth a few times (barefoot, in my robe, through an inch of standing water) and trying various things, he gets off the phone to come up. While waiting, I a) panic, b) try again to find a valve to shut off, and c) call Mom again. Dad arrives, we ascertain that no, I'm not blind, there really is no other valve in the water tank room thing, and then go outside to find the meter and the attached valve. Eventually find meter, which is Old As Fuck... and no valve. Dig around in dirt, freeze our butts off. Water still coming all this time.
At this point we call the city utilities office, and I actually manage to prove that the city of Seattle has useful, polite, understanding and prompt civil servants - they are out in front of the house in probably about 15 minutes, and immediately pull out the tool to shut off the valve (which we have by that time discovered, but which cannot be shut off with normal wrenches and such. Real useful.). So... no more water. Yay. Commence with the shoving of water out into the our 'car-port' thing and out the door, and then with the shop-vac-ing of even more water. Continue for two several hours. And that pretty much brings you up to current with my life.
We have no running water. I've had about 4 hours of sleep. I have to leave for work in an hour. And at this point, my mental capacity has gotten about as far as "water bad." I can't even work up a good upset about the fact that I can't wash my face or flush a toilet. At this point, it's all worth it not to have running water everywhere.
For some weird reason, I don't have a "ohmigod this is a fucking disaster and I'm so pissed off and exhausted" icon. Note to self - make icon to that effect as soon as am not completely flat on my butt tired and avoiding another go with the shop-vac.
Step 1: What the hell is someone doing taking a shower this early in the morning?
Step 2: Wait, the shower isn't that loud from my room. And there are only three of us (including me) home this weekend. Also, I'm the only one who has to be anywhere today, so why would anyone else be up?
Step 3: *Last, desperate attempt at not-having-to-get-up-to-investigate* Is it, perhaps, raining very hard? So hard, perhaps, that it's... somehow making loud noises inside the house?
Whereupon, with much grumbling and "no, no, please no, don't be anything bad" sorts of commentary, I pulled on my robe and went to investigate. And immediately outside my door landed my foot in a good inch of standing water.
"No, no, no... bad, bad, very very bad..."
I'll spare you the direct quotes from here out. Long story short, water heater go splut, basement go very very wet. I try to find a valve to turn off. No luck. Call Mom, see if she knows how to turn off a water heater. No luck. Call Dad. No answer. Call Mom again. Call Dad again because damn it, there's no other way to solve this... and then assure my stepmom that no, I'm not dying, we just have a problem with the house. Dad tries to walk me through finding the valve, but the valve that we find does not, in fact, do much to turn off the water. After scrambling back and forth a few times (barefoot, in my robe, through an inch of standing water) and trying various things, he gets off the phone to come up. While waiting, I a) panic, b) try again to find a valve to shut off, and c) call Mom again. Dad arrives, we ascertain that no, I'm not blind, there really is no other valve in the water tank room thing, and then go outside to find the meter and the attached valve. Eventually find meter, which is Old As Fuck... and no valve. Dig around in dirt, freeze our butts off. Water still coming all this time.
At this point we call the city utilities office, and I actually manage to prove that the city of Seattle has useful, polite, understanding and prompt civil servants - they are out in front of the house in probably about 15 minutes, and immediately pull out the tool to shut off the valve (which we have by that time discovered, but which cannot be shut off with normal wrenches and such. Real useful.). So... no more water. Yay. Commence with the shoving of water out into the our 'car-port' thing and out the door, and then with the shop-vac-ing of even more water. Continue for two several hours. And that pretty much brings you up to current with my life.
We have no running water. I've had about 4 hours of sleep. I have to leave for work in an hour. And at this point, my mental capacity has gotten about as far as "water bad." I can't even work up a good upset about the fact that I can't wash my face or flush a toilet. At this point, it's all worth it not to have running water everywhere.
For some weird reason, I don't have a "ohmigod this is a fucking disaster and I'm so pissed off and exhausted" icon. Note to self - make icon to that effect as soon as am not completely flat on my butt tired and avoiding another go with the shop-vac.
