Friday, January 20, 2006
Idiocy is its Own Reward
This morning, while walking to the bus, I got a call from my wife. The laundry tap is gushing water, she said, what do I do.
I headed back home and, rather than call out a plumber who would cost tens of dollars, decided to fix it myself. I sent my wife out to buy a new washer while I did the re-seating, which basically involves scraping away all the crud on the bit of metal that contacts the washer. This left a few copper filings in the tap cavity so thought I'd better clean them out before fitting the new washer.
To achieve this, I had the genius idea of turning the water mains back on to gently flush the filings out. Unfortunately (for reasons that escape me) I forgot that no tap => quite rapid emission of water and, for quite a while, marvelled at the numbers on the water meter spinning merrily.
After several minutes it finally dawned on me that the laundry was probably filling up with water, so in a panic I shut the water back off and hurried back to find that yes, the laundry had been filling up with water. Or at least, a generous amount of water was now covering the floor, walls, and ceiling. This necessitated frantic mopping and cleaning, so much so that when my wife finally arrived with the new washer she found a spotless laundry. You've cleaned the laundry! she said.
Anyway, I earned a hefty number of goodwill credit points today for not only fixing a leaking tap but also mopping the laundry floor. Hooray! Sometimes, just sometimes, being a complete imbecile works out for the best.
I headed back home and, rather than call out a plumber who would cost tens of dollars, decided to fix it myself. I sent my wife out to buy a new washer while I did the re-seating, which basically involves scraping away all the crud on the bit of metal that contacts the washer. This left a few copper filings in the tap cavity so thought I'd better clean them out before fitting the new washer.
To achieve this, I had the genius idea of turning the water mains back on to gently flush the filings out. Unfortunately (for reasons that escape me) I forgot that no tap => quite rapid emission of water and, for quite a while, marvelled at the numbers on the water meter spinning merrily.
After several minutes it finally dawned on me that the laundry was probably filling up with water, so in a panic I shut the water back off and hurried back to find that yes, the laundry had been filling up with water. Or at least, a generous amount of water was now covering the floor, walls, and ceiling. This necessitated frantic mopping and cleaning, so much so that when my wife finally arrived with the new washer she found a spotless laundry. You've cleaned the laundry! she said.
Anyway, I earned a hefty number of goodwill credit points today for not only fixing a leaking tap but also mopping the laundry floor. Hooray! Sometimes, just sometimes, being a complete imbecile works out for the best.
