When it Rains…

Have you ever had a day where one thing just leads to another?  (Honestly, who hasn’t?)  Tonight, the simple act of grocery shopping set a unique chain of events into motion.

Come to think of it, it may have started even earlier than grocery shopping.  I had plans to come straight home, settle in, process a few headshots, and hopefully send out the remaining invoices that were sitting in my queue.  On my way home, traffic blocked me from my usual exit.  Rather than fight it, I took it as a sign to go grocery shopping – something I was going to skip because I just didn’t feel like it.

Grocery shopping (and other “Oh, I’m out… I might as well…” errands) complete, I finally made it home.  Since things have been rather busy lately, cleaning out the refrigerator hasn’t been a major priority; however, it suddenly became a priority when I realized there was no room for the groceries I just purchased.  (Do I really need to be able to close the door?)  Operation Evacuate the Inedible commenced.

Naturally, the refrigerator purge lead to the addition of dirty Tupperware containers to the small collection of pots, pans, plates, and silverware already awaiting a good scrub.  Having first safely stored the day’s supermarket harvest, I turned to the dishes.

Halfway through washing, I reached under the sink for more dish soap.  To my utter delight (please note the sarcasm), I discovered the myriad of chemicals and cleaning supplies, sponges and trash bags, paint brushes and plant food swimming in a pool of what I could only hope was water.

Now began operation Chemical Soup Cleanup.  Out came the dish soap, the Windex, and three kinds of floor cleaner; silver polish, all-purpose cleaner, and Magic Erasers.  With the kitchen floor now littered with any potion you might possibly need – some of which clearly predated my time in the apartment – I set about sopping up what I was relieved to find was in fact only water.

Sop, wring, rinse.  Repeat.  Sop, wring, rinse.  Repeat.  I had almost finished cleaning up the mysterious puddle when I stepped back to observe the disaster area.  I proceeded to slip on the mixture of product that had accumulated on the floor.  Next up: mopping the floor.  Oh joy.  With buckets currently occupied by various products, I opted to rinse the mop in the available half of the sink.  Easy peasy.

Finally, under the sink was clean.  Bonus, the floor was clean!  It was time to assess the water situation unhindered.

But lo!  What scourge ‘neath yonder basin drips?  The puddle hath returned!  I could hear a faint “drip, drip drop”.  Something was not right.  Perhaps it was the fumes… Perhaps I was just hallucinating.  I sopped up the puddle again.

Upon initial discovery of the mess, a hypothesis had taken shape.  Dishes, running water, pool.  Mopping, running water, puddle.  The scientist in me decided that the way to test this was obvious: run the water again.

Apparently, when it rains, it pours.  Quite literally, tonight.  What started as a simple detour to the grocery store lead to the discovery of a leak under the sink.  At least the kitchen has been improved a bit: the fridge is cleaner, the pots and pans are drying on the dish rack, and the floor is sparkling from its chemical peel.  I guess all that is left is to relax and enjoy the fumes.  (And maybe call a plumber.)

With that, I’ll leave you with a photo I processed a few weeks ago since (clearly!) I’m not meant to get anything done tonight.  My little bit of daily zen on my drive home: the view of Portland from Baxter Boulevard.

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~ by Audra Hatch on November 7, 2013.