So we had a flood in our little apartment yesterday. The good news is that the water damage (from a broken pipe) is confined to the living room and entryway and it was reasonably fresh water, not something icky like sewage.

The bad news is that I don't know how long it's been since I moved the couch and vacuumed under it and the Maintenance Guys had to move it to inspect for water damage.

Last night? Did a little quick vacuuming, washed the rugs from the kitchen floor, and cleaned all the counters. Carried out a fifty-pound kitchen trash can.

It's not normally fifty pounds, but the flood filled it full of water (we keep it under the sink). Lacking any brains, the Maintenance Guys decided the right place to put it was up in the sink, when they found it was full of water. Having, as I said yesterday, Done Something to my back recently, I can assure you I very much enjoyed the experience of lifting 50 pounds of water and trash out of the sink.

The apartment stinks. I decided there was no use mopping the kitchen floor since they'll be back in there today. Tonight, though, I mop. And I'm going to dust and polish the furniture and anything else I can think of that will create a better smell. I doubt they replace the furniture they yanked into the middle of the living room floor, so tonight I move furniture, too.

I'm a bit puzzled. Someone from the apartment complex did call me yesterday afternoon to tell me there was a flood in the building but she couldn't confirm if it was in our apartment or not. She just wanted to tell me they were going into our apartment to look for water. I told her to find out and call me back, but she didn't.

I can't decide if she expected me to just come home because there was a flood that might have touched our apartment, or what?

I mean, in retrospect, it's clear to me that, having been told there was a flood, I should have gone home to deal with it, but yesterday I couldn't even find out where in the building the flood was and it didn't sound that critical. There are four floors, the only place she actually mentioned water being seen was on the first floor (I don't live on the first floor), and there's been an intermittent water leak in the laundry room (the opposite end of the building from us) for months. So...I just didn't get it that I should go home, you know?

Anyhow. We went out for dinner. And then watched a couple of episodes of BtVS and tried to pretend we always keep the couch in the middle of the floor, flanked by bookcases and desks. And that we couldn't smell anything. Or hear any weird noises from what I'm fairly certain was a water pump going in the apartment below ours.

The good news, for the apartment people, is that the apartment opposite ours, the one where the leak occurred, is empty, as is the one below us. So we're the tenants closest to the damage and we're not psychos or anything.

On the other hand, based on the rush in the laundry room last night, few first floor apartments escaped low-level flooding. People were lined up to do laundry, and all of them were carrying armloads of rugs.