Leaks and Buckets

The right-hand shower faucet-knob (is that what you would call it?) in my bathroom has been leaking, seeping through the wall and making a puddle near my bedroom door. leaking through the wall. The morning after the puddle appeared I went and told the guards that I thought a pipe was cracked, and they looked at it and told me it needed new grout. I made a vaguely skeptical noise and they said in any case someone would come look at it on Monday, and I thanked them. (The guards here are really nice, and in addition to their guarding duties they help out with pretty much everything from building maintenance to flagging down door-to-door food vendor ladies.)

Yesterday a guy came by and took my shower apart, revealing that the pipe just behind the faucet-knob thing was indeed cracked. He plugged the pipe-end MacGyver-style (there was a fair bit of splashing and spouting water during the first plug attempt) and hopefully he'll come by tomorrow and put it back together. He and the guards were concerned about what I would do without a working shower for a few days, but I assured them that after two years au village I'd be just fine, and in any case I had plenty of water stockpiled and pointed at my buckets. They seemed surprised that I'd had the foresight to store water (even though water goes out a lot so most people do) but also seemed reassured that I'd be able to manage just fine.  

Not having a shower really isn't so bad, I don't mind bucket baths, especially since I have a stove and can heat up my bathwater. Once cold season sets in I'll probably be opting for a warm bucket bath over a cold shower most of the time anyway, it's just so much nicer. 

Technical Difficulties

I'm sad to announce that there was a small mishap this week and now my netbook screen has gone the way of my old iBook and more generations of iPods than I care to remember. (My track record with electronics is why I tend to buy inexpensive, used iPods. They're more easily replaced.)

At first the lower right quadrant was still functional, so I could drag windows to the bottom corner of he screen, but the damage spread until the whole screen was useless. Fortunately, the hard drive still works (for the time being) and so this morning I was able to borrow the office projector to get online and a get a few things done. I still have my iPod Touch, si I can check e-mail and Facebook and get podcasts, it's just slower and less convenient, and it's hard to get any real work done on a tiny little screen. 

I'm going to look in to getting a replacement netbook, and in the meantime I'll just have to check my e-mail on the big screen.

Could be worse.