About this time last year as I was getting ready to leave for Portland and my year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, I was staying at Jason and Kim’s house. Now, as I am getting ready to leave to go to the Republic of Georgia, I am back at their house.
A few days before I left last year, their water heater broke and water went everywhere in the garage. Can you guess where this is going? So today I get a notice from the City of Tempe about my townhouse and that they noticed I used an exorbitant (my word, not theirs) amount of water compared to last month. What? The place is empty right now. Oh crap!
I go online and check out my bill. Yep, there is a prob. The bill is over 10 times what I paid the previous month. Well, I have been wanting to go visit my place this week so I guess now is a good time.
I get there and check all the fixtures, toilets, dish washer, water heater, showers and then I double check the water heater. I check out the backyard to see if someone forgot to turn off the hose, but everything looks ok. Well, so far so good – no major destruction is visible to the naked eye.
I give Tony a call to see if he knew of anything. He said that when he recently checked out the place the toilet handle was stuck up and water was flowing. Ok, problem found. I try with the handle and sure enough it does not like to fall down. After some deep meditation (i.e., jiggling and moving stuff), I move the chain that connects the handle to the stopper and try again. It works. I try again just to make sure. Still good. I wait 10 minutes and try again. Still ok.
Cool, now I just need to pay that damn bill.
While I am at it, I should probably start saving up for whatever is going to happen next August.