Sep
11
Written by:
David Strickland
9/11/2007 4:45 AM
I can remember growing up there was a cartoon about a parrot. The plumber knocks on the door the parrot says “who is it”. The plumber says “It’s the plumber I’ve come to fix the sink”. When the door doesn’t open he knocks again the parrot say “Who is it?” and so on. The process repeats about 5 times at which point the plumber gets so frustrated he has a heart attack and dies at which point the owners come home. As they walk up on the fallen man the Women says to the man “Who Is It?” at which point the parrot replies “It’s the plumber I’ve come to fix the sink.”
After this weekend if anyone has a parrot I’m in the market. Saturday Night as I was working on my computer I heard a snap and crash followed by a gush of water. The tap had broken off the sink and water was running everywhere. The Plumbing is all cemented inside the wall and there was no off valve. We had to shut off water to the whole building. We called our landlord and got the number for a plumber. We called the plumber only to be informed that we would have to wait till he could get to us. We were Ok because after some investigation we found that the tap in question was in the pipe that connected the city water to the reservoir on top of the house. We had water but had no way to fill the tank once it was Empty. Sunday Morning we all took showers to get ready for church and by the time we were done the reservoir was empty. We hoped the plumber would show later that day.
Monday morning we got up and by then the bathrooms were acquiring an aroma that is hard to describe. Not taking a shower and buying drinking water isn’t that big of a deal but not being able to flush definitely has it’s draw backs. We called the plumber and he said he was already at another customer but would get to us Monday evening. We decided something had to be done. I took a rag put it into the hole in the wall the tap fell off of and used the tap to hold it shut while Mercy turned on the pump to get water into the reservoir on the rough. It was a wet job but we eventually did get enough up there to freshen things up a bit. Monday night came and went still no plumber. Tuesday morning I decided enough was enough 3 days without a shower I was determined to do something. Called the plumber he said he’d be there Tuesday night needless to say his word at this point is a bit suspect. Call the Landlord. He promises to do something but he’s out of town and can’t do much. He calls the plumber and gets the same story.
At this point the Independent American streak in me shows up and I decide to do something about it myself. I take off on a quest for a cork or rubber stopper I can pound into the hole. Ok so that wasn’t such a great Idea. After the third plumbing shop were I spent 15 minutes trying to explain(in English) what I needed to shop keepers that only know Kannada why was I surprised that the only thing I received was confused look. I decided I’d have to approach this differently. Engaging the way back machine I remembered some damage control training from the US Navy and realized a wood plug might work. Spent the next 30 minutes trying to find a wood shop bought a 1x1 4 foot long for $.50 whittled it down and pounded it into the hole. In the end it may not look pretty but I was able to pump water up to the tank and take a shower. The plumber will probably actually show up tonight now that I got around it. Looking forward to yet another confused look when he sees what the problem is. I tend to get those a lot.
3 comment(s) so far...
Re: It's the Plumber I've Come to fix the sink
I guess in India you have to think out of the box in a daily basis.
By Anonymous on
9/14/2007 3:08 AM
|
Re: It's the Plumber I've Come to fix the sink
Still no plumber
By David on
9/20/2007 11:54 PM
|
Re: It's the Plumber I've Come to fix the sink
Hey the plumber finally showed up.
By David on
10/11/2007 3:48 AM
|