Living

Saturday I ran out of time to write my daily contribution. And I had a very good reason. It was not for laziness or forgetfulness. It was simply because I was busy. Yesterday was the perfect example of apartment living versus living in your own home. 

I live in an apartment building renting a nice comfortable apartment. The building has a live-in superintendent who supposed to be around 24/7. Everything in the apartment with the exceptions of the furniture and our belongings are owned by the landlord. If anything goes bad it is his responsibility to repair it, fix it with no cost to us.

And that was what happened Saturday. Abigail cuts her hair every week and that hair goes into the bathroom sink. By Saturday it got so bad that it was impossible to drain the sink, it was all clogged up. My wife and I both tried to clear it with a plunger, but that didn't work. Then she decided to take the pipes underneath apart. That did not help either. We were forced to go to the last resort, ask the super to come up.

Saturday is his usual day off, so he was not very happy, but since we have a good relationship with him, he did come. He took everything apart and came to the conclusion that the clogging was in the portion of the drainpipe that was in the wall. He had to bring up his electric snake and that eventually did clear up everything. He also confirmed that the culprit was hair (Abigail's).

This work lasted quite some time aside from the mess that it created. His efforts were generously rewarded but it was still cheaper than calling a plumber which would have been the case had this home were owned by us. We told Abigail if this happens again, she will have to pay for the labor. She doesn't believe us.

After years of living in apartments I maintain that the most important person in an apartment building one should be friendly with is the super. He is the one who can fix anything and if one is on good terms he even comes to help fast. This just proves that money is the solution to most problems.