We live in an
apartment building with a fair number of units. But our little part of
the building has a main door leading into four units - two on the bottom
and two on the top. This more intimate entrance setup makes for more
social and less anonymous neighbor relations. And we have made an effort
to meet the other three families that share our building.
Unfortunately, the unit across from us is for sale and empty. The
unit below us contains a very nice family of a mother father teenage
daughter but the mother/daughter who were the extroverted part of the
bunch have gone to India for 10 months. The last unit has a very nice
single woman and her extremely well cared for dog. We have been friendly with
her and the children talk about her dog, Aisha, all the time as they
harbor secret hopes of intimate human creature friendships. So, basically
our apartment contains twice as many people as the other three combined.
Last night as we were putting children in bed and going about our usual slow quiet evening for the parents thing there was frantic knocking on the door. The woman and dog duo were in trouble and needed help quick. A pipe had burst in her bathroom and after spending 20 minutes frantically bailing water with her airbnb boarder she was at a loss as to what to do next. I like problem solving, especially when it doesn't involve my own house so and I perked up out of my evening complacency. She had specifically asked if my husband knew anything about pipes and so was surprised when I so eagerly volunteered to help. She looked at me doubtfully but I informed her that I was a resourceful person. Jakob also perked up at the chance to take a break from work and came along. Sure he knew nothing about plumbing either but it all sounded exciting.
And it was exciting. A small pipe under the sink had burst and was spewing massive amounts of water at very high pressure. The four inches of water coating the bathroom floor was being contained from the rest of the house by a dam of towels that was miraculously doing its job so long as there was constant quick bailing. Jakob very quickly and practically called the emergency plumber while I dove into the water to see if I could staunch the flow of water. The girls lingered at the top of the stairs. Our building was built in the 1930s and it wasn't obvious how to shut off the water. Jakob really mastered the calm in the storm approach and after arranging for the plumber to come splashed into the bathroom to help. While he enthusiastically bailed I went outdoors with the neighbor to search for the tap. We victoriously located the tap though unbeknownst to us at the time we failed to turn it all the way off.
With everything relatively under control I brought the girls down to see. They were pretty impressed by the swimming pool that had been created and even more impressed that their father was immersed in water bailing as much out as he could while Aisha the dog licked his face happily. I am sure Sophia would have jumped in the water if we let her. Instead I marched the kids upstairs back to bed while Jakob stayed to help. And now we know our neighbor much better.
Later our neighbor came upstairs with a big chunk of gooey coconut blueberry chocolate cake. We had both already had a great time real life problem solving and getting wet so we were delighted to get cake also. If only every night was that exciting!
Last night as we were putting children in bed and going about our usual slow quiet evening for the parents thing there was frantic knocking on the door. The woman and dog duo were in trouble and needed help quick. A pipe had burst in her bathroom and after spending 20 minutes frantically bailing water with her airbnb boarder she was at a loss as to what to do next. I like problem solving, especially when it doesn't involve my own house so and I perked up out of my evening complacency. She had specifically asked if my husband knew anything about pipes and so was surprised when I so eagerly volunteered to help. She looked at me doubtfully but I informed her that I was a resourceful person. Jakob also perked up at the chance to take a break from work and came along. Sure he knew nothing about plumbing either but it all sounded exciting.
And it was exciting. A small pipe under the sink had burst and was spewing massive amounts of water at very high pressure. The four inches of water coating the bathroom floor was being contained from the rest of the house by a dam of towels that was miraculously doing its job so long as there was constant quick bailing. Jakob very quickly and practically called the emergency plumber while I dove into the water to see if I could staunch the flow of water. The girls lingered at the top of the stairs. Our building was built in the 1930s and it wasn't obvious how to shut off the water. Jakob really mastered the calm in the storm approach and after arranging for the plumber to come splashed into the bathroom to help. While he enthusiastically bailed I went outdoors with the neighbor to search for the tap. We victoriously located the tap though unbeknownst to us at the time we failed to turn it all the way off.
With everything relatively under control I brought the girls down to see. They were pretty impressed by the swimming pool that had been created and even more impressed that their father was immersed in water bailing as much out as he could while Aisha the dog licked his face happily. I am sure Sophia would have jumped in the water if we let her. Instead I marched the kids upstairs back to bed while Jakob stayed to help. And now we know our neighbor much better.
Later our neighbor came upstairs with a big chunk of gooey coconut blueberry chocolate cake. We had both already had a great time real life problem solving and getting wet so we were delighted to get cake also. If only every night was that exciting!
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| Sophia finally agreed to give her beloved cat pyjamas to Tova |
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| Sophia then convinced Tova to sleep in her bed so she could hug the cat pyjamas |
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