Drip, Drip

One hazard for homes where the washing room is upstairs is that a leak will manifest itself in the form of water marks in the living room ceiling down below. Such is the dilemma I find myself with today. The matter can and will be resolved with a bit of handyman know-how.

This scenario reminds me of another story my mother told me about my younger years. My brother Guy and I are just a year apart in age, and when we were wee lads we terrible two kept my mother on the edge of her seat (to say nothing of at the limits of her sanity). One morning while she prepared herself for work Guy and I busied ourselves in the upstairs guest bathroom by stopping up all the drains in the sink and tub and letting them run while we splashed about. When we tired of that diversion we sought our entertainment elsewhere.

And so the stopped-up faucets continued to run unattended. For about an hour.

When mom discovered that particular bit of handiwork, the upstairs of the house had been covered by about an inch of water. There wasn't time to clean the mess before she had to leave to work her two jobs, so she left the indoor lake as it was for the day with the intention of attending to the situation when she returned home that evening.

While we were away the water soaked through the plaster, which finally gave way in the living room. When we returned home that evening, there was a hole several feet across in the living room ceiling where the plaster had collapsed.

I was too young to remember this little incident, so when my mother related the story to me years later, I asked, "What did you do then?"

She replied, "I opened the door, looked in, shook my head, shut the door, and went shopping."

I considered this a moment and then asked, "Mom, why did you let us live?"

She shrugged, then said, "I was used to that sort of thing by then."

Indeed.