Here we go again

After class this morning, I turned down our alley like I usually do, unlocked the outer gate, headed up the steps of the back deck/fire escape... only to discover that our back door was propped wide open. No, it wasn't robbers. It was two workmen from the management company, one on the ground and the other perched on the counter, with a utility knife in one hand which he was about to plunge into the wall above the sink near the ceiling.

"There's another leak," he grumbled. "We have to cut open the wall."

I just nodded.

After many groans and what I can only imagine was a long string of Polish expletives, they realized they had to pull the entire lower bank of cabinets, sink and all, away from the wall.

"We do that now," one guy said. "Is that OK?"

What else could I do? I nodded.

Amazingly, as I write this everything is back in place, our wall is freshly plastered, and the only evidence of their having been there is the displacement of all the junk we had on the counter before. But it sounded like whatever was going on inside that wall was bad, real bad. And of course that's the second time in about as many weeks that a major pipe has busted and water has gushed forth. This time, luckily, none of it ended up in our apartment. I just hope these puppies hold for the rest of the winter. It hasn't even really gotten cold yet.