To begin, one thing you must know about the city is that the elements have to be dealt with differently here, especially rain. The rain compounds every difficulty you might have, moving is a hassle, you are constantly wet, visibility is low, people are grumpy. And it's not like it just sprinkles in New York City, no...when it rains, it pours. It pours. Torrents. Gallons.
So last night, the rain began after we were snuggled in bed, somewhere close to 1am. Bonnie and I were playing host to our friend Faith who was occupying the air mattress in the living room. At about 3 am, I was woken by a sprinkling on my face. My first thought was "Wow, the air conditioner is spraying water really far" It took several good droplets before I realized that the ceiling was leaking. It wasn't a gentle drip either, there was a crack about a foot long and in several directions.
So once identified, we sprung into action! Ok, not really, I shook Bonnie awake, she didn't believe me, then she felt the water herself. So we did the sensible thing. Pad the head of the mattress with sweat shirts and get a bowl to catch the water (pretty shallow bowl too). Once the water was being received by some agent, Bonnie mumbled something about sleeping on the couch and I nestled down on the floor at the foot of the bed, putting my cell phone on the chest next to the bed. This was 3:15 am.
I heard the dripping for a while, my head swimming with questions: What are we going to do about this leak? are we going to have to move our bed? (this seems like a simple thing, but its not with our loft bed) is this going to be the only leak? how long will this last? I drifted off.
I was awoken once more by water splashing on my face. This time, it was coming from the mattress itself. I recovered my phone, getting damp, but still working, 5 am. The mattress is gushing water. The MATTRESS!!! I don't have time to question what's going on. I turn the light on, wake Bonnie up and we remove the mattress, tip it over off the bed frame and away from our clothes, and I stagger to the living room, deliriously fall asleep and hope, in vain, for the best.
9 am. We wake up, rain-a-fallin. The leak had stopped, but we still had to figure out what to do, our mattress soaking with water. Then, when going over emails, the air-conditioner sputters to a stop, the fans slow to a halt...the power went out. This could be a problem.
The entire day was like this. We realized that we were the only apartment without power. Our Super shows up, but doesn't know what to do. He says he'll check the breaker, but the leak was going to take a few days to fix. By 6pm, the power was still out. We'd placed an order with ConEd, but since the meter was reading for the rest of the building, they assumed it was a wiring issue maybe stemming from the massive water flow coming through the ceiling and walls. But if it was wiring, it would take a long time to fix and we might be without power for...well...we don't know!
So, while plugged in at Tillies, the coffee shop across the street, wondering what to do, hitting dead ends with our Super, we were reaching a state of desperation. It was a feeling of helplessness. We had no idea what to do, where to begin, how we were going to deal with the leak, with the power outage. Our hands were tied, mouths agape, staring helplessly out at the coffee shop walls.
Then the ConEd man showed up, he mulled around the basement and flipped one breaker switch and we had power again. We went from the bottom to the top in 5 minutes flat. Of course, being the man, I felt silly. THE BREAKERS! Why didn't I check that? The super said he had done it...maybe that was the reason. Feeling a little embarrassed, but overall relieved, we had a General Greene comfort food dinner and headed back up the 67 steps to our apartment, lights shining bright.
Not that everything has to be wrapped up, but this very long day was another reminder of how quickly things change for you here, why it's always best to check and double check yourself and to never take the rain lightly. Especially when it drips on your face in your bedroom in the middle of the night. The city may have one today, but I think we got the night.
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