Before we left for Arkansas on Friday, I noticed that the Cara and Ollie’s toilet had sprung a leak.
Such an impressive [meaning annoying] leak that the floor was covered with water and the bathroom rugs were sopping wet. We turned off the water to the toilet, cleaned up the flood and went to Arkansas.
Yesterday, Tucker called the maintenance people and told them about the leak and a maintenance guy was over faster than you can say flooded bathroom.
Yay for prompt service but the man who was sent has proven himself to be less than impressive when it comes to his skills at fixing simple problems. Also, in the past, he’s informed me that he is allergic to dogs but he’s only ever asked that Sophie was put in the other room – which is fine by me since Sophie tends to “lose herself” when new people come over and makes a complete ass of herself in her joy over company.
This time, the maintenance man asked if our pets were put up and when I told him that Sophie was still at the boarding facility, he told me that he was going to get a mask.
When he said “mask”, I was thinking the masks that you see in medical dramas – a simple fabric-like thing that covers your mouth and nose. What he came in wearing was much, much closer to a freaking gas mask!
Cara took one look at the man and screamed in terror.
My brave little girl was reduced to tears and she buried her face in my leg.
I ended up with Ollie on one hip and Cara on the other and couldn’t help but chuckle under my breath at Cara’s dramatics.
The man seemed rather oblivious to his affect on Cara and several times came out into the living room to make small talk with me. And each time he did, Cara would shriek and run to me. Why he wasn’t in the bathroom fixing the toilet, I’m not quite sure. Maybe he thought it was funny to see Cara react to him the way she did?
Since I’ve never seen this man exhibit any sort of sense of humor, I can only guess that talking about the weather and the traffic was his main goal.
Thankfully, he shut his gas mask covered trap and finally decided that the toilet was beyond repair. They’re going to replace it sometime in the near future.
I’m not sure why the apartment complex would send a man who is so allergic to dogs into an apartment where they know a dog resides.
Maybe they don’t like the maintenance man very much?
The funny thing about yesterday is that I had to explain to Cara why the man was wearing the mask.
Me: “He’s allergic to Sophie, baby.”
Cara: “What’s allergic?” Because she’s started asking “why” after everything that we tell her.
Me: “Well, it’s when something makes you sneeze and cough when you’re around it.” I made a mental note to get a better answer for the next time she asked me that question.
Cara: “What’s sneezing? What’s coughing?”
Me: [huge sigh of exasperation] “Cara, you’re asking questions that you already know that answer to.”
Cara: “I was just joking.” And then she ran off to play in her room since the gas masked maintenance man had left by this point.
Last night, while we were driving to get groceries, Cara piped up from the backseat:
“DADDY!!! Alergic came to our house today and he fixed my toilet!”
Tucker gave me the “What the hell is she talking about?” look.
I just started laughing.
I had to explain to Tucker about the gas mask and then I had to explain to Cara that the man’s name wasn’t “allergic”. “That’s what he is…not his name.”
Apparently I wasn’t very convincing since Cara asked today if “allergic” was going to come to her house again.
I sure hope they send someone else to replace the toilet since dealing with hysterics over “allergic” gets old real quick.
Image|Photos8