the water card

Several years ago I was messing around with my friend's set of Oblique Strategies cards. I pulled a card that said "water". The next day, the bathroom ceiling of my apartment caved in because there was a leak. Ever since then, I've been convinced that those cards are magical. Almost every apartment I've lived in has had some minor water issue or other. It's the strangest thing. No matter what floor, no matter what weather. Some issue pops up.

The apartment I had in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, had a small backyard where I had to check that the drain wasn't clogged with leaves or ther debris, or else the basement (where I lived) would flood when it rained. I was generally diligent about it - well, after the first storm where I fought valiantly to get the drain unclogged. Later I discovered that there was also an issue with the street sewer that would 'cause pretty much the entire basement to flood.

Two apartments later I lived in Crown Heights where the water in the shower sometimes would suddenly turn really, really cold or really, really hot. Neither was much fun. In Texas, the ceiling above the bathtub would leak if the person living upstairs took a bath (as opposed to a shower). Since it just went down the drain of my tub, I didn't pay much attention to it. I'm lazy that way sometimes.

And now this apartment. The building has some issues due to the cheap labor used to renovate it. There's a rather interesting waterfall in the stairwell when it rains. The walls of the hallway also get rather wet, leaving damp puddles on the carpeted floor. Last night I noticed some areas on the floor that looked like water had dried. The main reason this was noticeable is the floors are epoxied concrete and I can slide around in my socks. Well I hit a rough patch. I saw that the trail of residue ended where my carpet tiles started, but the carpet didn't feel wet when I touched it. So tonight I decided to get a closer look and sure enough, when I lifted the corner, it was wet underneath!

All I can figure it with 5 straight days of super windy rain, some of it worked its way into the exterior and under the wall onto my floor. Fortunately, there was no real damage as far as I can tell so far. I'm just glad I didn't set up my sleeping area next to the windows.