Oh good heavens!

Our roof at work has sprung a leak (which isn't really unusual in a building over 100 years old), but not the kind you can put a bucket under, but the kind that runs down the wall putting bubbles in the paint and reducing the plaster to goo. I spent an hour wading through water that just continuously gets deeper and expands trying to move the office occupant out of the room and save the files and other water soluble items. I put a call into facilities around noon and they brought a bucket. At 2:30 the river started running from the ceiling down the wall and I called them again. The ceiling is cracking in a linear fashion which means that the water isn't capable of dripping into a bucket but rather needs a trough. The maintenance guys came over, made statements about it being too dangerous to get onto the roof in the rain (true) and well there isn't much they can do (especially since they were supposed to get off work at 3:30) and it might just have to be a good insurance claim (Cough! What?). The janitorial service can come vacuum up the water, not that it does much good since the river is still running down the wall. But it might prevent the water from running into the next floor down. Whether they will or not, since his thought process was "it doesn't do much good; why bother," is anyone's guess at this point.

I am wet to my knees; my shoes are soggy and I rung out my socks. The boss loaned me a pair of dry socks from his file cabinet (don't ask, neither of us know why they were there) but I'll have to put my soggy shoes back on to go home. The furniture is particle board which means it's going to be destroyed before this is over. All of the student files for the departmental programs are stored in that office and not easily removed. I don't expect that facilities will do anything, although they admit it's a disaster...But maybe I'll get a call about midnight telling me the ceiling has caved in and what do I want them to do about it. Some days, being the building managers sucks.

Bless them...

The maintenance guys went up on the roof anyway and...pulled a 20 oz bottle out of the drain. Water is lessening it's appearance in the building and a vacuum is being put to good use. Now, how the heck does a 20 oz bottle end up in the drain of a four story building?

On another note...

The boss man said he heard me coughing two blocks away at lunch time. *rolling eyes* I'm ready for this bronchitis stuff to be over with.