FLOOD!

I suppose it happens to everyone, but I'm not sure that makes me feel better. At 5:10 this morning I woke up to what I thought at first was a hard rain hitting the top of my patio table out back. I soon realized the sound was coming from inside and jumped up to investigate.

In kind of a worst nightmare scenario I found that the source of water, the air conditioning unit, was dumping gallons of water into my living room and guest bathroom. This is one of those stories where the nightmare goes on for hours as I realized I didn't know where the valve was to turn off the water to the house. (I rent, don't own ... couldn't find the dang thing) Frantic calls to my landlord didn't help the situation since he takes care of things by default (his girlfriend is the actual landlord .... he just fixes everything) and he didn't know where the valve was either, but was on his way.

Unfortunately, they live about an hour away and while I continued to look for a valve and throw towels and bedspreads and stuff on the floor to help impede the disaster, water continued to empty into my house.

I finally figured out that I could at least get a bucket under one of the sources, which I had to empty about every five minutes. The other source was coming down the wall and so I really couldn't get anything under it. There was now standing water in both bathrooms and water splashed up from the carpet when I walked across it.

By the time the landlord arrived it had been probably close to an hour and a half since I called. He ran all over the place looking for a valve and when he finally found it (a lever), it was one I had had my hands on while I had him on the phone initially .... I could have had minimal water input had I pulled that lever and checked to see if it stopped the flow. Hindsight.

As things stand now, I have two people in here trying to suck the water out of the carpet. The carpet is wet throughout .... both bedroom closets, both bathrooms (no carpet, but standing water), living room, guest bedroom, and probably the coat closet, though I haven't looked yet. I guess I can say that I was fortunate enough that the water didn't make it much past my bedroom door, so the computer wasn't in danger and there is a dry spot for me to be. (Good thing, since I have to finish up my research paper today.) The water did, however reach the entertainment center (cheap MDF that soaks up water like a sponge) so I guess I'll have to replace that. Wonder if my renter's insurance will cover it?

The doors to the laundry area were just walked past my room and I guess he is getting ready to pull out the washer and dryer to get the water out of there. Yep, the dryer is now in my kitchen. Out back on the patio there are sopping wet towels and a comforter hanging over the patio furniture and fence. Stuff that will have to be washed later .... if the water is ever turned back on.

The landlord just told me they would have to put down new carpeting or flooring, which isn't really a surprise. I asked him how he was going to do that with all this stuff in here and he told me they do it all the time. (he lays floors for a living) He's really positive and optimistist, which I suppose is helpful, since I'm kind of miserable. He said "I'm glad you woke me up at 5:00 this morning ... it gets me back on schedule. Since the time changed I haven't been able to get up". Talk about looking on the bright side of things .... geesh. The good news is, they are going to let me pick the flooring. I feel funny doing that since it's not my place, but he says they want to keep me happy. Guess it pays to be a good tenant. I'll be here for at least three more years, probably, so I guess that's three years of knowing they don't have to worry about their tenant.

Oh well, on with the worries of the day. Short term, I have to finish up this paper. If I can get the reference list written to standard, I'll be finished. Long term, I now have a huge mess to contend with. I guess I'm spring cleaning whether I want to or not.