So I woke up early this morning to empty the bucket of the water that was still leaking, three drops at a time, from a pipe set up right next to the wall. I was racking my brain for many a minute this morn, trying to find the right receptacle that was broad enough to collect the drops dropping down rigidly from three columns from the wall while being big enough to collect it all over the course of the twelve hours I would be away today before it starts spilling onto the floor. (I really want to get to MNUFC's offices to pick up my free, uh, clothing item.)
I couldn't find the right receptacle. The biggest bucket I found was the mop bucket, but the contour of the tub is so weird that it couldn't collect all three drops at the same time. None of them really did, plus they were too small to collect all the water through half a day, plus they had this fat lip so that the drops of water would just bounce off and hit the ground. This was beyond frustrating; this shit was pissing me off.
But then I stumbled onto an understanding. Before I went to sleep last night I looked up how to fix a leaky pipe. One of the steps was to close off the water valve, which is what Father told me to do if this pipe sprung a leak. I did close it; hell, I closed both valves on both sides of the meter. But the pipe kept dripping, and I didn't know what to do.
So I left to go to work, and I prayed the house wouldn't flood. And then I went upstairs to my bathroom to see my pee in the toilet and remembered that I didn't flush because I got tired and scared that flushing would do something to the pipe. So I flushed it, and the bowl didn't fill back up.
Oh. I then remembered that when I looked it up last night, the following step to turning off the water valve(s) was to open up the faucets and sinks to drain the pipe of the rest of the water. I kind of thought that the remaining water in the pipe when I closed the valves before I went to bed would have petered out by the time I woke up, but it didn't. Apparently, that step is very, very important.
I opened up the valves to see my toilet bowl fill up. I then closed up the valves, really tight, and before I left the house, it looked as though the pipe stopped dripping. I assume it's free of water. And unless I totally screwed it up, the house is safe.
Phew. My main fear was not being able to stop the drip-drip of water coming from the pipe. But now that I can, at least I can control what is going on down in my basement. This certainly cannot stop me from using water; I think running the faucet to wash my hands won't cause a flood; and although it will gush when I use the shower (I tested it last night), I don't shower more than twice a week anyway, so I think I can deal, especially if my showers are short.
Best of all, with the water completely cleared, I can start figuring out where exactly the leak is and what the hell I can do to stop it, at least enough until my folks get back and, potentially, replace all the pipes in the house. I've been researching here at work, and all I'm getting is that epoxy seems to be really tricky to use.
No matter. As long as I can stop the water, I at least feel like I am in control. That's the really important thing, for now.
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