BrianJBecker.com

It’s nice when the turn of a faucet spews forth clear, clean drinking water.  That doesn’t happen here.  It’s hard to even dream of it happening, but maybe I should be dreaming that for Congo.  The building I live in has its own problem with water, namely gravity.  I have to give credit to the owners though – recently they came through with a strong new pump to fill our water cans every morning.  It’s funny though because recently the water was flowing in the middle of the night, possibly by the city water’s pressure.  It’s a mystery, and it had me up filling water cans at 4 AM in a mid-sleep stupor. 

The first day they hooked up the new pump and threw the switch it hummed and like lightning shot excessive pressure through the cracked old pipes of this old Belgian high-rise (think: ‘crumbling chic’).  The water flowed into apartments, halls, down stairwells, into walls and flooded out the parking garage.  Well, the pump works but the building doesn’t.  It seems they’ve regulated the pressure and the geysers have subsided during the hour or so a day they run the pump.  Still, I’m discovering water damage daily in my apartment. 

I came home from the office last night and saw the pump room open, water everywhere.  Papa Francois told me that the water company came and raised a fuss, saying that no pumps can be installed without their permission.  There’ll be fines, court dates, hullabaloo-a-plenty.  I slowly shook my head and said to Papa Francois, “Nothing’s easy, is it?”  “No, sure isn’t my son.  Go have a good rest.”