Floods Aren't Fun

One evening this past winter, me and Lee-Anne were home and I smelled what seemed to me like wood burning. I asked Lee-Anne if she could smell it too and she said she could. We quickly surveyed the unit and couldn't find the source. We opened the door to the shared section of the house and found ourselves ankle-deep in water.

It didn't take long to find out that water was spouting from the back of the washing machine. We'd put a load of laundry in, and after shutting the machine off, the water flow quickly stopped. At this point in time, our neighbours were still gone.

We called our landlord even though it was kind of late. He answered, and it was the first time either of us had ever heard his voice. Our tour of the unit had been hosted by the previous tenant, and all the legal stuff after that had been done remotely.

Our landlord said he'd contact the maintenance person and that he'd be by the next day. Until then, he asked us to clean up the water. He didn't really need to ask us, we were kind of incentivized to not have our own home destroyed.

It was an uncomfortable task, though. Lot of stuff in the laundry room and I'm not quite sure how they all work. We spent awhile sopping up water with mops and towels, wringing it into buckets and bailing it all out. All the while, I was vaguely nervous that one of the devices was going to explode in my face from prolonged exposure to the water.

This isn't the first time I've dealt with a house flood. Long time readers might remember that one Christmas in Guelph, we had a mysterious flood that ran through our kitchen. We spent the holiday season sweeping the water into the drain in the laundry room over there and running wet vacs, taking shifts through the night to stop it from building up. We had various professionals come through, with no one finding the answer until it was discovered that a vacated house uphill from us had a pipe burst and the water was running underground into our place. The very same day that the flooding issue was fixed and I was heading back to Kitchener, my roommate called and said my unit in Kitchener was flooded.

Anyway, this time around, we managed to clean things up. Nothing exploded in my face, and while the night was tense (we never found out what was causing the burning smell, which is just uncomfortable), everyone survived and the maintenance man showed up the next day.

He said it was likely a blockage in the pipes and he'd have to snake it out. Apparently he'd run into this issue before, when they were working on the upstairs unit and later found the basement to be flooded. He said it was because the pipes were in the form of a "T" which he personally thought was poorly planned. He'd like to check upstairs but I tell him the neighbours have been gone for over two months.

So he spent awhile on the pipe with his snake. Later on, he called me over and said that whatever it was, it was in deep, and his 25 foot snake had failed to clear the blockage. He told me he's get in touch with a plumber.

The next day, we have a plumber over. He's got a 60 foot snake. He works for awhile and finds success. No more water coming out the back of the washing machine.

About a week later, late in the evening, me and Lee-Anne heard some commotion upstairs. It's our neighbours. They'd left half a month after we gained access to our unit, and only a few days after we made our big move. It had been about two and a half months since then. I was worried we'd been spoiled by not having to deal with noise from upstairs.

The next day, we left our unit and found ourselves ankle-deep in water.

So the way we got to reintroduce ourselves to our neighbours was by telling them the basement was flooded, asking them if they'd used the washing machine since coming back, and explaining the situation last week.

They said they hadn't used the washing machine. We start to clean things up, and while we clean, it starts flooding again. We remember what the maintenance guy said about the basement flooding when they worked on stuff upstairs. We ask the neighbours if they're using their kitchen sink. They are, and we have to ask them not to. Flooding issue stops.

We contact the landlord again. He contacts both the maintenance man and the plumber. Both of them come together next time. This time, they can access the upstairs. Somehow, they resolve the issue. They tell me that they've written up an estimate to get some of the pipes reworked out of that "T" formation both of them are so unfond of. My landlord approves it. One more visit from the plumber later, and it hasn't been an issue since.

Floods aren't fun.

I know I haven't updated much this month, but I've made three entries on my Gryphood blog this month, so technically, I'm ahead of schedule. My last entry over there was that curry recipe that my mom got from a video game, which I mentioned on this blog a little while back. 25 ingredients! Probably the most intricate thing I've ever cooked. Here's a link: LeBlanc Curry (gryphood.blogspot.com)

Third Wave

Yup, I don't like to say it but it looks like we're in our third wave. Apparently, it was confirmed in early March, but a new province-wide lockdown was only called in April. Felt like an April Fools joke. We've only been out of lockdown for about a month, and I guess we were released from it right as we were confirming the third wave. Places like Toronto and Peel Region never even got to leave lockdown. 

It's kind of confusing. Awhile back, I made the prediction that Christmas 2020 would be the peak of the pandemic, as people gathered together in large numbers and close quarters to celebrate our largest celebration of the year, during our second wave which had been larger than our first. Then, as the weather warmed, I figured the virus would ease up like it did last year. We also had our vaccines distributing, and between these two figures I thought the rates would taper away, and while we might have had a third wave in the fall of 2021, I thought by then enough of us would have had the vaccine that it would be a smaller wave than our second.

And this is why I'm not a medical professional. Instead, we left our second wave and entered a third a month later. Our Intensive Care Units are apparently hitting record demand.

A big point of pride for us Canadians is that we avoided a third wave while the US didn't. Looks like we got there, though. Also, while we've done a relatively decent job at adapting to the pandemic, we didn't do the best at acquiring and distributing vaccines. Some of my US relatives have taken a few jabs at the Canadian branch of the family for how difficult it has been for us to get our shots. Oh well, after everything they've been through, they deserve a win.

The reason being given for the third wave is that the variants turned out to be really all that. They're calling them VOC's now, for "Variants of Concern". Remember when I said that it was odd that we condemned the term "China Virus" for being xenophobic, but then we had no trouble naming the new variants after the UK, Brazil, and South Africa? Well, looks like we're being consistent, because we turned away from country names again.

The outbreak zones are no longer long term care residences, likely because most of the workers and residents have been vaccinated. The University of Waterloo's residence was declared an outbreak zone.

There are more exceptions to restrictions than in the previous lockdown. For example, my work's in-person service is allowed to keep running, unlike last time.

Schools are being allowed to stay open. One way that COVID has changed our education systems forever is that, during mandatory school closures and optional home-schooling services, there was enough pressure to develop an accessible virtual option. This means that almost all children can access school from home. This means no more snow days! It was made official a few months ago, when the weather was hazardous enough that students couldn't travel to school. Instead of declaring a snow day, they called for a "weather impacted day" and students had to attend virtually. No longer will children know the immense joy of having their classes canceled.

While we're on the topic of this past winter. One big difference for me was that I had to shovel snow. Growing up in apartments, this was never something I needed to do. Even in my old townhouse, despite it being a pretty low-cost area, we had a maintenance guy come in to take care of it all. My only prior experience comes from helping a friend in high school do it, and helping a friend of the family in my early twenties. But I never did it for me or my household. I have, however, supported a number of people who use wheelchairs, and they've mentioned that there's a special place in heck for the people who don't shovel their driveways. I use this as a reminder to make sure that at least the sidewalk is cleared enough that a wheelchair could easily move over it.

I sent a Christmas present to a friend of mine through Canada Post, and he finally got it this past Saturday. Four months late! I'm still waiting on his present.

My friend who I mentioned was in the hospital a few posts back passed away.