Splish Splash!

My sister arrived from New York today, right after the first session of my Nutrition/Cooking class at The Wellness Community, near Good Sam. I had scheduled a mystery shop to complete while I was at the airport. I originally had an appointment with my oncologist which would have prevented my going to the cooking class, but I was able to reschedule it until tomorrow.

I had my first indication that all was not well while making up the living room / guest room for my sister. I live in a two bedroom / 2 bath apartment only because I wanted the open plan kitchen / dining room / living room, which I use for my business. I use the master bedroom as my "real" living room, and the master bath pretty much as a closet, except when I have a guest. For the first couple of years I only put things on the floor of the shower that wouldn't be damaged by water, but nothing ever happened, so.... Until today the bedding for the guest bed was in the shower, two pillows in one large plastic zippered bag, an electric blanket in another.

When I took the pillows out and set them aside I got a little water on my arm. I was concerned, but pressed for time. I had more work to do in the apartment, and I had to get ready to leave for my class. In an attempt to see where the water had come from I started to lift the bag containing the blanket. My first thought was, "Why is this so heavy?" Then I realized that the bottom few inches were soaking wet. I checked the shower head; it was dry. I checked the wall that was damaged by a leak three years ago; it was dry. I decided that I didn't have time to deal with it without skipping the class, and decided to deal with it when I got home.

I cleaned the front bathroom, since my sister would be using it, cleaned up and left. I reached my class right on time, enjoyed myself, enjoyed the food, shared a recipe. I had to leave early in order to meet my sister's plane. I had not turned my cell phone on at that point; I turned it on and left a message telling my sister that I was on my way.

I reached the airport, opened my cell phone and saw that I had a message. The details were sketchy, but the gist was that my sister had not left Albuquerque on time, and would not arrive for another 50 minutes, on a different flight than anticipated. I could have stayed at the class. Oh well.

I went into the airport. I decided to complete the mystery shop while I waited, but due to a timing requirement I couldn't complete the transaction until 10 minutes before my sister's new arrival time. I left a message telling her that I was leaving but would be right back, and finished the shop. I returned to the terminal and found my sister, but her luggage was nowhere in sight. It had left Albuquerque on a different flight, and wouldn't arrive for another half hour. I was glad I had completed the shop.

We walked around, we looked at photos, we looked at the art in the gallery. We returned to Baggage Claim; her luggage did not show up on the carousel. We eventually found it at the baggage office. By then it was 7:30 p.m. She had been traveling since 9:30 Eastern Daylight Time, a total of 13 hours. It was more than two hours after her original arrival time; we were tired and hungry. We decided to go to Sweet Tomatoes and enjoy Greek week.

Two hours later we finally went home. I headed for the back bathroom to investigate the water while she headed for the front one. They both had standing water on the floor, as did the kitchen. The carpet padding in the hall, the linen closet, the master bedroom closet and the dining room was soaked. The carpet didn't look wet, but when we stepped on it the water wicked up from the padding. So much for my decision to deal with it tomorrow!

I called maintenance. When Francisco came he discovered that the shower was full of water to overflowing. He left to call a water extraction company and a plumber while my sister and I started moving things off the affected carpet. Eventually I started bailing out the shower and discovered that it was greasy kitchen waste water, including food scraps; apparently the sewer line backed up through the shower drain. I called to give Francisco the additional information and to suggest that someone tell my upstairs neighbors not to use their kitchen sink.

Besides the things I had stored in the back bathroom, everything on the floor of the linen closet and much of what was in the master bedroom closet was wet. I spent the next hour discarding, cleaning and bailing.

The plumber and the carpet guy showed up at about the same time. By the time they left it was after midnight. There is now an industrial strength fan in each bathroom, blowing between the carpet and the padding in the adjacent room. I've mopped the bathroom and kitchen floors, but only enough to get rid of the water; they will have to be done again, and disinfected. The waterproof stuff in the shower -- my camping kitchen, my Hydro-Bells, some of my water storage -- has to be cleaned and disinfected. I've decided to discard the bedding. It was all soaked in dirty kitchen water; I'd never feel confident that it was really clean, and with my immune system compromised I'm unwilling to take any chances.
The office and living room are littered -- more than usual -- with everything we moved to clear the carpet and make room to bring the equipment in. The tub is full of towels that we used to soak up as much water as possible before I realized that they had arranged for extraction.

I have twelve cases of food storage from the cannery in the back closet. I am very grateful that it didn't get wet. The carpet is wet just a few inches in front of them, but the food storage is not wet.

My life is never dull.