Water Issues

Yesterday wasn't my best day.

Our house guests checked out and that meant laundry. Along with our clothes and small piles of things that had to be washed separately, I probably had 6 or 7 loads lined up on the floor outside the laundry room. Since yesterday was Sunday and we try really hard not to do much work on Sundays, I decided to just do two loads that could not be put off.

I am using my new washing machine because I ended up donating my old machine to the laundry needs of Capi's Apartment after the machine over there broke. My old rusty washing machine survived the move to the apartment and is washing sheets and towels like it should, although it started coming apart when we lifted it onto the golf cart. I only got to do laundry out on the back terrace once before the machine left me, and even though I'd like to say I miss it and all the attention it needed, I don't miss it a bit.

My new machine has been working great since I figured out the drain problem. But yesterday I guess I didn't put the hose into the drain exactly right, because I found a small puddle of water on the floor around the drain. I cleaned up the mess and made what I thought was the necessary correction and put in my next load - a small load of two blue beach towels that needed a good rinse due to an unpleasant beach odor (which I hope does not mean beach pollution is coming to our island).

Miguel and I were sitting in the living room when the machine finished the load. As I turned the corner from the living room I saw that the floor was flooded with blue water, which was slowly making its way into the bedroom and dining room. I quickly shoved the pile of towels I had on the floor into the water to block the flow. I must have groaned or something as Miguel was alerted that something was wrong and came to check. Smelling the towel water, he concluded that the drain had backed up with sewer water (it hadn't, that's just how bad the towels smelled from the beach!).

I started toweling up the mess and I looked up just in time to see Miguel sawing off the end of the drainage tube. He then stuffed the shortened tube down into the drain. I protested, because my understanding of the drainage issue was that the end of the tube was too low and that was causing a siphon, and now he'd just made it even lower. So in the middle of the mess we had a little spat, and spats never make anyone feel good.

So we completed the cleanup in silence, and I went upstairs to take a bath while Miguel sat beside the machine and watched it cycle through the next load. And guess what? The machine worked perfectly; no siphon issues, no drain backflow.

But I now had piles of wet laundry, so the machine really got a good test as I put in load after load - probably 8 loads in all by the time I rewashed the towels I'd used to mop up the water along with the stinky towels. I didn't have enough room on the lines so got out the portable laundry stand and filled that up too and so far the cat has only knocked it over once.

I did everything BUT use the dryer that was the original purpose for buying the new washing machine in the first place. So much for taking Sunday off.

Later we went out and picked up roasted chicken for our early dinner (we eat our main meal around 3 pm). As we sat at the kitchen counter eating, I picked up my water glass and it slid right out of my greasy fingers and dumped water all over the counter and ran over the ledge onto the counter below. The only good thing was that the glass was plastic or I'd have had broken glass to clean up along with mopping up the water. Miguel just looked at me and declared that it was not my day.

But it could be worse. We could be without water, as we've been on and off over the last year, thanks to something going on here that causes them to randomly shut off the water. Jackie has posted about it, and rather than write a lengthy comment to her, I will write about it here in a future blog. The issue is not new. But it's even more annoying than drainage problems in my washing machine.