Plumbing nightmare

Went to take a shower this morning and... no hot water. Bummer. Turned on the heat, no heat. Bummer again. So I called the gas company to get someone out here to see why I can't get any warm out of anything, then got ready for work and walked to the patio door to see what the weather was like outside. Strange. My patio is covered with water. I don't remember it raining last night. In fact, I *know* it didn't rain last night. So I slide the door open and... hear the sound of trickling water. I walked out to see where the water was coming from, and it was coming from a tube coming out of the side of the hot water heater closet. I opened the door and... well, water was coming out of the top of the water heater. That explains it!

Now, penguins are aquatic waterfowl but even a penguin appreciates that modern apartment buildings don't like being irrigated like this. I drove up to the office and reported the leak to the lady, and she looked alarmed and grabbed her walkie-talkie and called the maintenance guys. By the time I drove back to my apartment (which was ASAP), they were already hanging around looking at the water falling off of my patio and wondering where I was.

The good news is that they opened up the lock and turned off the water, then got the plumbers out ASAP to fix it. So now the brand-new water heater is roaring away heating up 40 gallons worth of water for my nice warm shower. Chalk one up for apartment living. As much money as I'm paying in rent to these guys, it's nice to know I get something for my money -- wasn't even a second thought on their part. There was a problem, they fixed it. Period. That's the kind of service that everybody ought to get. Alas, too many companies think "service" is what a stallion does to a mare...

-- Badtux the Service Penguin