(Sunday Paper, Year IV, Issue 32)

What’s that saying?

When one toilet explodes, another door opens?

Maybe I’m mixing my metaphors…but recently we had an incident that could have been a disaster.

Our toilet exploded upstairs and water flooded through the vents downstairs.

It was a mess.

But, luckily, nothing important was damaged. Most of the flooding was in the laundry room, and I don't keep anything valuable in there.

So instead of having a disaster on our hands I feel like we have a window of opportunity - or a toilet, as the case may be - to do something different with our laundry room.

First off, I feel like I should explain what a toilet explosion is. (I do not think this is a technical plumbing term.)

At least in our case, a toilet explosion is when your daughter calls you at work (never a good thing) to say, “There’s water coming out of your toilet.” (A worse thing.)

I asked, “Like, water trickling into the bowl or like water coming out of the toilet?”

“Water coming out of the toilet.”

Oh boy.

I immediately came home, but I was 15 minutes away. And when I got there - she was right - there was water coming out of the toilet…but before I even made it upstairs I gawked at the laundry room, where water was pouring down from the ceiling.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” I believe I said.

Then I went upstairs. Water was coming from the tank. So I lifted the top of the tank to see what was going on and water geysered into my face.

Now, let me pause here to acknowledge that at the time I wanted to cry…but in retrospect it must have been hilarious to witness. I wish there was video.

It was really perfect, like a cartoon. I lifted the top of the tank and the water just spouted right into my face. Then I tried to reach down and turn off the water to the toilet and water was just pouring over my head and down my back. It was crazy.

I eventually went down to the house water source, turned that off, mopped up the laundry room and the bathroom, and was able to turn off the toilet source and get water back to the house. (The plumber replaced a part the next day and the toilet is fine right now.)

I dehumidifier-ed the heck out of the downstairs area (I am still doing this) and, as you can see in the picture at the top, I took down the rest of the drop ceiling that was soaked through. I just wanted to get rid of everything that was damp - I might try replacing that ceiling by myself someday. (At right is an image from the other side of the laundry room that gives you an idea of how that drop ceiling is kind of supposed to look.)

I had to throw away the ironing board and take a bunch of stuff out of the laundry room and that got me re-thinking the space. I’m a fold-the-laundry-right-out-of-the-dryer-on-the-ironing-board type of laundry doer, but maybe I’ll change that up.

So now instead of worrying about the water ruining the space, I’m thinking of how I can improve it and what I can get to help organize it.

So, averted disaster and the opportunity to take a trip to The Container Store?

Sounds like a win-win to me.

Writing

*You might have seen on Facebook this week that I had the opportunity to work with Kathy’s company on Wednesday at their big conference in Boston. A couple of nice things about that, one of which was the opportunity to play Boston commuter for the day. That was nice - not sure I’d be able to handle it every day, but as a one-off it was fun. And of course it was a thrill to spend the day with Kathy - just like the old days.

Comedy

*Things are kicking up a notch this week, performing-wise. I’m at McGreevy’s in Boston on Monday night, and I’m doing a contest at Laugh Boston on Wednesday, which is fine, I guess. I have definitely become more picky and choosy with things like contests and festivals and I generally swore off contests but for some reason a few months ago I decided I should enter this one. I don’t know how I feel about it, but I’ll bring my best four minutes and we’ll see what happens.

*Last night was the August edition of Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’. I had a guest host for the first time and I did a quick 5-ish minute set and it went well. It’s been a great summer, even though we weren't sure whether to expect decent crowds or if people were going to be away. And I am getting such positive feedback from both performers and audience members - it’s been a really nice experience having this show every month.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*It’s been a while since I wrote a Sunday Paper and I forget if I even do this section anymore, but I’ll throw out a recommendation - Keane has new music coming out. They’ll be releasing an album in the fall, I think, and they’ve released two videos - at least one of which is a big single getting lots of radio play (‘The Way I Feel’ has been on 92.5 in this area) - and they have some international tour dates and I suspect a US tour will be announced in the new year. Kathy and I are looking forward to seeing them perform live - they put on a great show the last time we saw them, which I think was their only other U.S. tour. The music is very good. I highly recommend it - I can't see any way you won’t enjoy it. Here’s a link to ‘The Way I Feel.’ Listen. Please.

Notes on Dog Ownership

*I forget what this section was supposed to be called, but I think that’s right. (We’ll get settled back into the regular routine soon.) I just thought I’d note here that the dog really seems to prefer Kathy at this point. I mean, we get along and everything, but if it comes down to me and Kathy in a room, that dog will go to Kathy every time.

Notes

*Thanks to everyone who contributed over the summer with a guest post. I love reading other people’s work in this format and I really enjoy the break to get the creative juices flowing again. I am never sure if writing the Sunday Paper every week helps or hinders my creative writing, but I’ll keep it going for now until I decide it’s definitely a hindrance.

*Hoo boy, the Mets got hot recently. It looked like the season was over and then - bam - things got very interesting. And I’m looking forward to the Jets this year, as the NFL kicked off the preseason this week. So, in other words, my teams have me right where they usually do as we end the summer and head into September - ready to deliver a swift kick to the groin and send me reeling.

*It’s been a while since I promoted the social media presence - thanks for following if you already do…thanks in advance if you decide to do it today. You can Like the page on Facebook here, and you can follow me on Twitter here.

*I just realized that I haven’t written a Sunday Paper since we finished catching up on the Marvel movies. Maybe I’ll write about that soon…this week we’ll probably be seeing Spider-Man in the theater, which seems like a more manageable task while leaving the dog at home.

*Here’s another thing I’ll have to catch everyone up on…I would say the goals for the year are not progressing as we would have hoped. Or, at least, most of them aren’t. The dog situation has really impacted my running, I don’t remember my cribbage lessons, and I haven’t done yoga once. But I watched a lot of movies. So maybe I should have set different goals.