Plumbing and Policy

At the Lion Coffee shop downtown which, mysteriously, always has plenty of seats and good wi-fi. It may be the only coffee shop downtown that meets that description, even during Comic Con, which is only two blocks away. As I walked up to the place to-day I heard two women sitting outside talking. "No people here again!" said one, "Don't say it out loud!" said the other.

The reason I'm here is that my apartment is facing its most spectacular plumbing problem yet. Just a couple days after I received a notice telling me water would be shut off for five hours at a time two to three times a week, every week, for "months", I found myself without use of my sinks after dinner last night. Not because the water was shut off but because water wouldn't go down the drain and, in fact, a little water was coming up along with black gunk and a variety of debris I bid farewell to over the course of the past year--little pieces of broccoli, oatmeal, etcetera. And some of it was coming up in my bathroom sink, too.

Somehow I got to sleep last night, despite being annoyed. Then to-day it started coming up so bad in the bathroom I had to start bailing it out lest it overflow--I dumped the water into the bathtub where the drain seemed to be uninvolved for some reason. I got it down to a good level and hurriedly went to my manager where I found the maintenance guy already talking about the identical problem occurring in my next door neighbour's apartment. I came to my place and pumped water out and told me people would be there in a couple hours to fix the pipe.

I was going to go talk to the manager before that but I got caught up in the news out of Missouri and wanted to see the President speak on this issue. It's nice to hear him condemn the excessive police tactics being used and encouraging, if the Guardian article is accurate, to hear the Missouri governor is taking action based on Obama's statements. Though obviously things should never have gotten to a Federal level let alone a presidential one. I just saw Arianna Huffington tweet, "For those asking where Fed presence is in #Ferguson, it's already there: that's where the military weapons came from." Considering that response seems to be at odds with the policy expressed by the President, the political divide in government infrastructure looks a little more frightening. Mind you, I'm not talking about the divide in policy making but in the departments that evidently feel comfortable exceeding their authority to enforce ideologies opposite the ones voted into power. The fact that the rogue ideology here seems to be racially oriented is particularly saddening and a striking glimpse of just how severely people in influential positions break with the better nature of the American culture.

Twitter Sonnet #656

Soundless threaded diamonds fade from the cloth.
Thin neon green sickle moons multiplied.
Shivered daylight brushes the landed moth.
Uncredited moon the tides amplified.
Unmarried millionaires are all bereft.
Lips knowing affectionate language pause.
Silky cigarette smoke stayed as she left.
Savvy eyes through shadows shift time sea laws.
Plastic beach sand fools no fox vacation.
Unannounced ant hills pre-empt the sink drain.
Established voices hold animation.
Industry olives leave salted the sane.
Breakfast stimulus follows tattooed lunch.
Broken pipes begin a short distance crunch.