What a weekend. Saturday began at 6:30 am with some heart-rending sobs and a cry of "Please help me! I'm having an accident!" Which was a little puzzling, given that we're pretty well agreed two years old is too early to expect night-time dryness and put him to sleep in pull-ups. Turns out that one (which was the last of the smaller size anyway) didn't do the job and he'd woken himself up leaking onto his pants & shirt & sheets. So I though, well, I can't tell him to go back to bed if his bed his wet.
I got him up, and took him to the potty and put him in dry clothes, and reassured him that he did everything just like he was supposed to and it wasn't his fault, and read a book to get him settled & happy again, and then had him help me change the bed and start a load of laundry so he could see that one just cleans it up when there's a mess. Our washing machine takes a long time to run, so Jonathan and I had just had some food and were sipping our coffee, Jonathan in Tristram's room and me in the living room, when the cats suddenly ran in panic and we heard a bizarrely loud noise (in that order--they hear faster than we do, apparently). I looked over and saw something coming out of the wall just above the washing machine that I couldn't remotely interpret until I realized that the room was filling with steam and there was a quickly spreading puddle on the floor. Strange how one doesn't recognize water out of context (like, erupting from the wall) until one sees a puddle.
In the time it took me to turn my head, shout, "We have a a water emergency!", and look back toward the kitchen, the puddle had spread about six feet from the fridge to the front door. Jonathan estimated it at about 40 gallons a minute.
A frantic scramble ensued, which involved neither of us knowing the emergency maintenance number offhand, Information's listed number for our complex being no longer in service, some frantic throwing of towels at the floor (which was about as effective as throwing towels into a pool), desperate attempts to get Tristram dressed to go outside, desperate attempts to turn the water off...I did get T. Grey out to the front door where the phone numbers are posted and called, only to find a several-step click-through menu with the slowest message narration I've ever heard.
Long story short, the hot water hose for our washer exploded. Jonathan did manage to turn it off before maintenance called back, by shutting off the main breaker so the pump stopped running. Amazingly, all we lost was a bag of flour, a bag of sugar, and a bag of rice. We still have the industrial fan going to dry the carpet, both in our apartment and in the hall outside. Oh, and it soaked through to the basement below us enough that the carpet by the elevator down there is probably ruined too. But it was quite a start to the morning--and add to the basic adrenaline rush and crash of a scalding water explosion the fun of rushing a two-year-old out the door and trying to make him understand that it's important to get where you're going ASAP, and then the fun of keeping him out for three hours so maintenance can work while yourself have not yet showered, had coffee, or even brushed your hair & teeth. I think I may have been mistaken for a homeless person, especially given that I was wearing my rattiest around-the-house sweats.
Tristram had a great day, though. There was a puddle inside the house to jump in, then Mommy got him breakfast at the cookie shop, then he played in the park for two whole hours, then we took him to get takeout Chinese and a root beer float because we weren't up to cooking. Between the mess and the adrenaline crash, we would probably have cancelled our plans to have work friends over for games and root beer floats, but it was actually the best thing for me that we did have a fun night.
Today, in contrast, was pretty idyllic. We went to the botanical garden this morning, and saw all the buds on the trees and bulbs coming up from the ground, so I am quite content that Tristram says he wants to go there every weekend. Grass actually comes out from under the snow already growing, I've discovered. Stays green and springs right back into action.
We went to the park for a couple of hours this afternoon, too. I've been making noise about moving closer to work, because what's usually a half-hour commute gets really unpleasant when there's much snow overnight, but now I'm remembering why I was so gung-ho to live next to the lake and the park.
The plan for tonight is to finish my coat. I've got it seamed, so I just need to do the edging with button loops and then decide if I'm going to add a high collar or leave it low. And then, of course, get the buttons and put them on.
