Tuesday, June 14, 2011

When it rains, it rains poop...or ...

Time for a helmet?
Ladies and gent's,
I have been a little absent lately and I thought I would drop a little blog post about what has bee REALLY going on.Well, life happens... and it happens when you least expect it.....Now lets dive in!!
A few Wednesdays ago I was in the shop doing my most favorite this ever in the office:PAPERWORK. I despise paperwork. It is horrible, dull, frustrating, and the worst is that I am not great at it, but doing this keeps me away from the bench, where I need to be. When I am not behind the bench, I am not building your bike. Things like this add up, and put me behind.Now so everybody knows, the office is located directly below the mens room of the second floor and as this is I now know the difference between the flush of the toilet to the flush of the urinal, the sink, and the knock knock knock of people hitting the soap dispenser for the soap. While this may sound a little add to you all, this is just an astute observation on my part.
Now, whilst I was doing this horrible , evil paperwork, I was listening to the sounds of someone washing their hands...for about 20 minutes...Then, I heard a little drip drip drip...onto the black plastic I mounted to the ceiling, in such a case as this would happen.
I knew exactly what was happening : the toilet was over flowing and my god please let there be no poop in it!!
I ran up stairs as fast as I could to fix this potentially "shitty" situation...and I was late. I saw water running out of the door, and oh boy I did not want to go in there. But, I had too! There was so much at stake!!
I opened the door to see about three quaters of an inch of water, the toilet clogged , and the handle still down, and water flowing out of the bowl like a righteous angry two year old crying at the supermarket.
Well , I panicked. I ran to find a plunger, but before I did that I did fix the handle, so at least the water stopped.I ran to three different bathrooms to get a plunger, but my quest was fruitless, and I decided to run to the local hardware store to buy one. Sounds like a stretch of time, but I made it there and back in UNDER SIX MINUTES.
I ran back upstairs and there was the janitor guy, and another tennant, and my shop sharer guy Erik, the "other " Erik ... He looked at me and said, :" Did you see your office?"
At that question, I just let the plunger slip out of my hand and walked away in silence, know I was walking back to a potential poop shower on most of the things I love.
Well, I was right. The office was all but destroyed...but at least it was not super poop water.
I still got bleach , and any other type of disinfectant and got to it.
I had to remove a few furniture items and discard them. I lost so much paperwork it isn't even funny, numbers, messages, invoices, a paniting, some posters, but it stayed away from my computer....I have that.
I ripped the carpet out, and got some new stuff. I also found out that my lease and my insurance do not cover any water damage....that was a punch to the baby sack I was not ready for....
AND just when you thought it was getting better....
I went to a concert a week after the toilet bowl from Hell experience , and I met a buddy there and was very excited to see one of my favorite bands play. They did not disapoint, and I left before the main act came on. I just was not that into them, and I thought if I left early, I could get to the shop early and play catch up because of the toilet incident.
What happend that night I may never know. But what I DO KNOW is that I left the show about 11 pm, and I knew I would be home by 1130 ....
I woke up somewhere in the street about 430 am.I don't remember exactly where I was, but I must have been close to home, maybe within three blocks or so...
When I came to, I was in a puddle, lying on my back, and when I moved my left arm I knew my shoulder was out of socket and that hurt, more so than usual.I was bleeding from my elbow, my left hip and lower back hurt, a lot. The lower part of my left leg hurt too, but, I had no pain in my head...for a while.
I did the collar bone check, and that is when I knew that my shoulder was out of joint, when it didn't want to move that way. I put it back in its socket and started getting up. And that took a little bit of effort, and time. As I looked around, I saw my bike, my beloved Country Mile, and while it was scratched up a bit, it looked okay. I had my wallet. I had my bag.I had all my stuff, so I am pretty sure I was not "jumped". What I do not know is the scary part:
Did I get hit and run? Did I hit a car? Did I have a small stroke? Did I have really low blood sugar and pass out?
I don't know. That is what is scary....
So after a few and wayyyyyy more than I want doctors visits, I can work, but they are all mad at me and want me to take a couple of weeks off. Well, I can't do that. We got a lot to do down here at the shop, and we are getting caught up, we are getting things done, but some times, when it rains, it rains shit.
I aint dead, and it could be a lot worse.
Be safe out there everybody, and if I have not gotten back to you in the last couple of weeks, well now you know, and Ill get to ya soon.
erik