Laundry

Sorry I didn't get a chance to post yesterday. I had a job interview (I got the job whoopty freakin doo) and then more importantly we had a softball game. After the game (loss) we went out for a couple drinks and to watch the draft (Villeneava 7th and Warrick 18th? pathetic) anyway we pulled up to the house around 10 or 10:30. Its never a good sign when half the people that live in your building are waiting for you outside with their arms folded across their chests. "We have been trying to reach you all night. "We think your water heater busted and it is in turn flooding all of our places," said Luis (Angela's PuertoRican boyfriend). Fuck Fuck Fuck. I wanted to run up the stairs as fast as I could to see the damage. Unfortunately, because I am a fat and out of shape bum after pitching a whole softball game (which is equivalent to doing about 100 lunges) I am unable to walk up stairs or get up from a sitting position. I was finally able to drag my sorry ass up to the fourth floor. Turning the key in the lock I was terrified as to what I was gonna find in our brand new condo. Truthfully though I wasn't as scared about the condo as I was worried about the dog. I opened the door and everything looked O.K. to me. No wet floor. No dog drowned in his crate. Angela inspected a little further and found that our laundry machine had overflowed. Apparently the lid to the washing machine was left open (not by me) and the washer was on for 5 hours. It has a function in which it automatically shuts off, but I guess this function was on summer vacation because it didn't work.
We decided to go down and survey the damage that we had caused. The woman under us has not moved in yet so we couldn't see the worst of it. We went down another floor to Luis' place. There we encountered Niagara Falls flowing down onto his hot water heater and furnace. He was busily mopping up all of our water with a dozen pairs of hospital scrubs (he is an x-ray tech). I didn't really have too much to say "ummm, damn man sorry." It is 95 degrees out, and the south side of our building is afraid to turn on their central air because their furnaces are covered in water. We then go down to the garden unit. Same scene there with perhaps slightly less water. The poor Ethiopian family is afraid to even turn on their lights or use the gas stove. The poor Ethiopian babies will have to suffer through the hot night.
I needed a cigarette bad and Yao needed to pee so we went outside. There we encountered a gigantic possum. That's all I need is for Yao to get messed up from some possum that is bigger than he is. Luckily possum are not that confrontational and our possum scurried away. Yao and I crawled back up to our fourth floor apartment. We relaxed in the luxurious central air as all the tenants below struggled in their hot wet apartments.
What to do, what to do? I know, I'll turn on the TV to see how that NBA draft turned out that will take my mind off things. Ten minutes later I hear a pounding on our door. The woman from the condo directly under us (the one that doesn't even live here yet) is here and she's pissed. "Hi, nice to meet you," I say.
At first she and Angela are about to cat fight but things simmered down a bit as we went to survey the damage. Seems that her furnace was holding quite a bit of water.
"Well first thing in the morning I'll get on the horn and call whoever we need to call to help us fix this problem," I say. She doesn't seem too impressed with my solution but that's pretty much all we can do. The gay guy from across the hall (who also is the new tenants friend) is there to laugh at us. He does act as a tension breaker in the room so that's nice.
"I guess nobody on the south side of the building is gonna want to come to our party on Sunday," I say.
Today we have been on the phone calling repair men and Goodman Furnace dealers in our area. Most are just telling us to wait for everything to dry out and then fire up the furnace and see what happens. We may have to pay for them to be repaired we may not. Our neighbors don't seem too thrilled with the "wait till it dries," suggestion. So we have someone coming out to look at them on Friday. Angela and I went down to the garden unit (our Ethiopian former friends) to try to see if their furnace was dry yet. It was a little wet on top but the important part (the electrical wiring down below)was dry. Luckily they don't use the air conditioning anyway so that made me feel a little bit more at ease. Angela and I tried to hurry out of there as we were interrupting a traditional Ethiopian meal this woman was having with some friends. Instead of us leaving, much to my dismay, the woman booted her friends from the table and made us sit down to a homemade Ethiopian meal. Don't get me wrong Ethiopian food is the bomb, but now her poor friends have been booted to the couch we have our backs to them. We are both ready to get out of there as soon as possible. Anyway our friend is gonna teach Angela how to cook Ethiopian food (yeah right) and everything is all good.
I guess the moral of the story is homeownership is a major hassle. A warning to all you out there (especially my lazy ass friends.)