story1043.xml

story1043.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-18

the next day I sent out this email to people I knew.

Sunday at about noon the sewer backed up into my house so I spent a few good hours cleaning the mess up until I had things clean enough to try and snake the pipes and fix the problem after several unsuccessful try's I finally got fed up and called the plumber now Monday morning. who ever I called said they would be there in a few hours so I moved the washer dryer and everything else in the way. but at 2:30 I called again to see what was taking so long. the person on the other end of the phone (who sounded exactly like the person I talked to in the morning) said this isn't a plumbing company. so I call up plumbing company #2 they show up quite promptly (rescue rooter if you care :-) )he snakes out the drain and everything seems cool I pay him $130 he leaves and I start to put the washer and dryer back while reconnecting the washing machine the entire fixture crumbles to dust (or rust) and I get hit with a tiny piece of metal scratching my stomach (not bad and I didn't notice till 5 hours afterwards) and pouring hot water all over me and anything else in the vicinity. I immediately run to the main shut off valve for the house only to find that it is in such disrepair that it won't shut all the way off when pushed to the complete off position it still lets water in the house lightly so after about 40 minutes I get the water shutoff to such a matter that the water is no longer pouring in through the now destroyed copper tubing in the basement. I rush to home depot to buy the parts needed to re-soder the pipes back together and quickly reconstruct the branch of pipes. I get a good working part to now connect to the house where I proceed to try and soder to a piece of pipe that is cut and stable enough for the new pipe to connect to. (back in my mind I forget that you can't soder pipes with any water running through them) so for about 3 hours I try welding the pipes and start to burn a nice hole in the wall (yes I had a fire extinguisher close by I'm stupid not a moron :-) ) eventually I remember that I can't weld pipes that have water in them (at least not with my working knowledge.) so I rush to the main cut off and try to shut it off again only to find that now with any movement the water is either ON or trickling through the system. I get the system running back to nothing and then remember that I am working on the hot water line and try to shut off the water running to the hot water heater. and guess what that too is old and corroded and will just spin and shut nothing off (could be worse this could have crumbled in my hands too) finally I get the water back to a trickle again and put the bucket underneath the dripping broken line and pretty much cutting off all water to the house for all intensive purposes and look on the internet for a fabled home depot that is open 24 hours a day its now Tuesday morning at 1:15 am holy cow there is one listed so I rush over to it on the other side of town taking 30 minutes to get there and find out they recently changed their hours to close at midnight. so disheartened I go back home I wait till 6:00 am to go to the home depot close by my house. I get the second spool of soder and some sand paper and some more pipe since I had demolished a good chunk of my earlier set of parts with my mind numbing sodering water flowing pipes. lovely as the days have been going now home depot has no cash registers working since whoever was in charge of that didn't show up yet eventually the person shows up and I get my stuff out of there. knowing now that I couldn't do welding myself I called up rescue rooter and sat in front of the TV on the news there is a building on fire. and the reporters are saying a plane crashed into the building then right in front of my eyes the second plane comes in and slices right through the top of the other tower I'm instantly wondering if I'm watching a movie then figure out that its actually happening and tell the person at rescue rooter what happened and that I still needed help she said there would be someone over in a few hours I continue to watch the TV finding out about the pentagon along the way taking only a few minutes away to change the bucket I've got filling with water down stairs and rebuilding the pipes that I can take outside away from running water. I see the first building crash to the ground and here the reporters still apparently afraid of making a false early prediction saying that the building has "reportedly fallen" a few minutes later the second building crashes to the ground and all I can think of is there were firefighters in there trying to get people out. I sit stunned in front of the TV waiting for the plumber to arrive at about 10:30 he arrives and we go downstairs to work on the pipes (well him work and me watching and asking what I am sure are stupid questions) and listen to the radio commenting on how pointless this all is. finally the plumber finishes and I write him a check. I call my dad/landlord talk to him about the mess in NYC and Washington. and tell him the unfortunate news that the house needed repairs that I can't afford and got a check from him so that the checks I wrote wouldn't bounce. he says I can pick it up as soon as I can get over there. I clean up the flooded area and put a load of wash in the washing machine and start it up and head over to get the check I suddenly remember that I didn't put the outlet pipe into the storm drain I run immediately home to find the washer had run through its entire cycle and now there was about an inch of water on the floor. I promptly put the outlet pipe into the drain and again vacuum up the water all over the floor now for the third time. I finally finish about 7PM still watching the TV and reports and then start another load of laundry I sit down upstairs for a breather and then at about 10:00 go down to see change a load of laundry just to find another inch of water covering the floor I panic thinking the hose fell out of the drain but then find out that the entire drain is backed up again I do a quick clean up then run to the 24 hour (now 16 hour) home depot and buy a better snake then I originally had. and then rush back until about 12 midnight I continue to snake the drain coming up with nothing. finally at about 2 I quit and wait till morning to call the rescue rooter people again (I can't afford emergency time to be paid and I'm so tired I can't do anything) I sleep for a while tossing every 30 minutes wondering if the water is filling up the basement or how people in NYC are doing. finally 8 o'clock runs around and I call the plumbers again they will show up at about noon so I continue to clean and do other things felling quite dirty since I hadn't run any water in about 2 days now. at noon the guy comes in and snakes out both drains finds out the problem is that roots have invaded the pipes and I should put root killer in drain 2 times a year. he leaves at about 1:30 and I continue to clean up the mess in the basement. finally now at 5:00 Wednesday I sit down to write what happened to me probably just for a mental dump and to thank god I've got my life and while even unemployed things are not even close to as bad as it could be. so now I'm going to go get something to eat take a shower and pray for those still alive in the rubble and for their families and the families of those who have lost others.

hope your doing ok.
Jim