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Aug. 15th, 2005 05:06 amThere was some serious thunder and lightning last night at around midnight. Plus, when it rains, the water rushing into the sewers forces air into all our plumbing, and water and air back up into our kitchen sink and toilet. I have to get up and close the toilet and put a stock pot over the drain in the kitchen, or everything will get soaked. This apartment building is about a hundred and twenty years old (having at one point been a workhouse for the blind,) so dodgy plumbing is probably expected, but it is still unsettling.
It always sounds like someone is busily plunging the toilet for a half an hour or so, and the entire time, I think about all the backwash of water from the sewers and the incredible versatility of the Norway Rat, which is truly one of the most wonderfully adaptive and remarkable species on the planet, (not to mention the most numerous vertebrate on the planet, followed closely by humans, and less closely by chickens,) at any time, you are probably not less than 20 yards from a Norway Rat, and they probably live in the sewer by the thousands, and would have no qualms at all about entering my home through the plumbing to obtain tasty eating stuff.
I once saw a nifty illustration showing the distances between air pockets in sewers and the average u-bend of a toilet, and comparing it to the distance a Norway Rat could swim while holding its breath, (which it can do for about 30 seconds,) demonstrating how easily they could enter toilets in apartments as far up as the third floor, the cheeky things. (I don't think a chicken could do that.)
Anyhow, the rain got me to thinkin. So instead of getting ready for work, I'm here typing away about rats.
Only three more days of work, (speaking of rats.) I expect the panic to set in there soon. I made a tray of brownies to take in, perhaps this will soften the blow.
It always sounds like someone is busily plunging the toilet for a half an hour or so, and the entire time, I think about all the backwash of water from the sewers and the incredible versatility of the Norway Rat, which is truly one of the most wonderfully adaptive and remarkable species on the planet, (not to mention the most numerous vertebrate on the planet, followed closely by humans, and less closely by chickens,) at any time, you are probably not less than 20 yards from a Norway Rat, and they probably live in the sewer by the thousands, and would have no qualms at all about entering my home through the plumbing to obtain tasty eating stuff.
I once saw a nifty illustration showing the distances between air pockets in sewers and the average u-bend of a toilet, and comparing it to the distance a Norway Rat could swim while holding its breath, (which it can do for about 30 seconds,) demonstrating how easily they could enter toilets in apartments as far up as the third floor, the cheeky things. (I don't think a chicken could do that.)
Anyhow, the rain got me to thinkin. So instead of getting ready for work, I'm here typing away about rats.
Only three more days of work, (speaking of rats.) I expect the panic to set in there soon. I made a tray of brownies to take in, perhaps this will soften the blow.
