Several days ago I woke up feeling a bit dehydrated from a painkiller I’d taken the night before. So, one eye still shut and the other only half open, I stumbled into the kitchen and grabbed a nice cold bottle of Propel from the fridge. The bottle being covered in condensation, I didn’t think much of it when I wandered into the living room and my foot felt a wet spot on the floor. Then I realized it wasn’t just a wet spot. The whole living room floor was covered in a quarter inch or so of water. Not only the floor, but also the power strips to which my TV, DVD player, receiver, computer, and monitor all connected. My computer that was still on.
Probably not the smartest step, I rushed over to it, turned the monitor back on, and shut it off. An instant later I yanked both power strips out of the wall. Then I noticed my video camera. Sitting in it’s nice protective hard case (lent to me indefinitely by a good friend), it would have been safe, if the case wasn’t sitting wide open. A second later, case and camera are secreted back in my bedroom, ceiling fan on high to better facilitate the drying out and saving my ass.
I then headed back to the kitchen, cursing myself for not listening to that other friend who kept telling me I should have a hair dryer. A bit of banging around in the cabinets later, I return, a pot in each hand. I switch the living room ceiling fan’s light on (the fan itself had been spinning all night long) and find the two steadiest drips, both right near the computer. I notice a third one towards the center of the room, but it’s much less regular. I look up and then it hits me. The fan, in the center of the room, had been spinning all night long. So much of the room (including my camera which had been quite a ways from the computer) had gotten wet because the fan blades had been playing Jackson Pollack with one of the leaks.
Fan shut off and a large glass bowl set under the third leak, I take a moment to say a blessing for the Apple design team. Thanks to their work, my G5 sits a couple of inches above the floor and, this morning, a couple of inches above a possible watery disaster. I also express a tiny bit of awe that the power strips, as soaked as they were, had not shorted out.
The water’s still coming in though so I checked my phone and sure enough, I don’t have the leasing office’s number. Fortunately, they have signs all over the place here. Normally I dislike how low rent it makes the place look, but that day I was thankful. After a quick step outside, I leave a message with the emergency maintenance voice mail. As I hang up, I notice the leaks have slowed and a moment later hear my upstairs neighbor heading for work. I catch her and find out she’d left something (sink or tub, I don’t know) running in the bathroom all night. So no burst pipe, just an absentminded neighbor.
After work, I flipped over the power strips and knocked a bit of water out of them. Two days later I finally plugged everything back in and it all worked fine. The spackle could use a bit of touching up though.
