Off the Wall
This takes longer to write and to read than it did to happen, but read on and laugh if you must!
It started off as a regular, normal morning. I went out and did the AM chores as usual and was doing the wash-up after milking; where I run wash and rinse waters through the hoses and milkers. My husband, who drives a bus for the grade school, had left to start the bus and warm it up (he keeps it parked up by his mom’s place) and to check on his mother. I was in the middle of finishing the bleach rinse cycle when I took the plug out of the vat so the water wouldn’t go back up the intake hose and the milking hoses would clear out. As I leaned over to do so I casually laid my hand on the porcelain sink that we use to wash our hands; it is right next to the clean up vats. To my everlasting astonishment the sink just fell off the wall.
Now, this is a large older porcelain sink and rather heavy. However, it didn’t go kablooie, it just kind of bowed slowly away from the wall, like it was genuflecting to the milk tank in the middle of the room. As it fell one of the water lines broke and water started gurgling everywhere. For one split second I stood there in amazement; then I realized that the vacuum pump was still running and I needed to shut it off. For some reason it never occurred to me to try and prop the sink up, it was still only halfway to the floor, but I had to turn the vacuum pump off before it burned out. So as I was turning that off the sink collapsed the rest of the way to the floor, breaking the other water line attached to it. *sigh*
At this point reason left me and while I madly looked for a shutoff valve with the water gurgling happily over my shoes I started hollering my husband’s name off and on, as if he could hear me ¼ mile up the road. I ran from shutoff valve to shutoff valve along the waterlines; but this one went to the stock tank in the holding corral, this other went to the water hose into the milking parlor…etc. No luck. So in my panic I grab up the cordless phone and try to call up to his mom’s to ask him what to do. (The water by this time was just cleaning the concrete floor and swirling happily down the drain.) In my panic, I couldn’t for the life of me seem to remember how to use the cordless phone; I had the phone to my ear with one hand and was waving the headset (which was attached to the phone) around with the other. I think I got a busy signal, which sent me off into another level of panic. I slapped that phone down and ran *pant pant pant* back into the milking parlor to the phone on the wall there. I pick it up and start to dial when to my utter and unbelieving frustration I hear on the phone the swishing sound of water. **ARGH!** I hadn’t hung up the cordless! I ran *pant pant pant* back into the other room, make myself calm down enough to remember how to use the cordless and find out there really IS a busy signal. Double **ARGH!!**
Finally, after a quick check to make sure the baby is OK, she was blissfully sleeping in her carrier, on a high spot of the floor, I go charging out of the barn up to the garage, jump on the 4-wheeler, and roar up the road and get my husband; interrupting him from his donut.
To make a long story short; by the end of the day all was fixed and there was a shutoff valve in the barn as well as in the well house. Ha!
But we still can’t figure out how the sink worked its way UP off the brackets on the wall.
It started off as a regular, normal morning. I went out and did the AM chores as usual and was doing the wash-up after milking; where I run wash and rinse waters through the hoses and milkers. My husband, who drives a bus for the grade school, had left to start the bus and warm it up (he keeps it parked up by his mom’s place) and to check on his mother. I was in the middle of finishing the bleach rinse cycle when I took the plug out of the vat so the water wouldn’t go back up the intake hose and the milking hoses would clear out. As I leaned over to do so I casually laid my hand on the porcelain sink that we use to wash our hands; it is right next to the clean up vats. To my everlasting astonishment the sink just fell off the wall.
Now, this is a large older porcelain sink and rather heavy. However, it didn’t go kablooie, it just kind of bowed slowly away from the wall, like it was genuflecting to the milk tank in the middle of the room. As it fell one of the water lines broke and water started gurgling everywhere. For one split second I stood there in amazement; then I realized that the vacuum pump was still running and I needed to shut it off. For some reason it never occurred to me to try and prop the sink up, it was still only halfway to the floor, but I had to turn the vacuum pump off before it burned out. So as I was turning that off the sink collapsed the rest of the way to the floor, breaking the other water line attached to it. *sigh*
At this point reason left me and while I madly looked for a shutoff valve with the water gurgling happily over my shoes I started hollering my husband’s name off and on, as if he could hear me ¼ mile up the road. I ran from shutoff valve to shutoff valve along the waterlines; but this one went to the stock tank in the holding corral, this other went to the water hose into the milking parlor…etc. No luck. So in my panic I grab up the cordless phone and try to call up to his mom’s to ask him what to do. (The water by this time was just cleaning the concrete floor and swirling happily down the drain.) In my panic, I couldn’t for the life of me seem to remember how to use the cordless phone; I had the phone to my ear with one hand and was waving the headset (which was attached to the phone) around with the other. I think I got a busy signal, which sent me off into another level of panic. I slapped that phone down and ran *pant pant pant* back into the milking parlor to the phone on the wall there. I pick it up and start to dial when to my utter and unbelieving frustration I hear on the phone the swishing sound of water. **ARGH!** I hadn’t hung up the cordless! I ran *pant pant pant* back into the other room, make myself calm down enough to remember how to use the cordless and find out there really IS a busy signal. Double **ARGH!!**
Finally, after a quick check to make sure the baby is OK, she was blissfully sleeping in her carrier, on a high spot of the floor, I go charging out of the barn up to the garage, jump on the 4-wheeler, and roar up the road and get my husband; interrupting him from his donut.
To make a long story short; by the end of the day all was fixed and there was a shutoff valve in the barn as well as in the well house. Ha!
But we still can’t figure out how the sink worked its way UP off the brackets on the wall.
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