Water and Electricity

There are some things that seem to just not go together.

The sight of someone pouring water into the top of a steam iron always gave me the creeps.

And a wet shop vac always just seemed sort of wrong.

You just don't mix water and electricity like that, it goes against nature.

(Good thing he is wearing safety goggles.)


So when I came home the other evening and heard and saw the dining room fixture (I shant call it a chandelier) doing an excellent impression of a waterfall, it just seemed wrong.



Being an avid mountain biker, I am of course familiar with how gravity works so I ran upstairs so see if the source of the water was obvious.



A scene similar to the one in the dining room was taking place in the brand new bathroom on the second floor. For some reason I thought it was ok to turn on that light in order to see better, simply hearing the splashing wasn't enough. So I then proceeded to the third floor to see what was happening up there.



My shouts up the stairs telling S to shut off the water in the tub were met with mild confusion on his part. As I storm into the bathroom, he looks at the spouts and says that the water IS off. Oh, well what about the toilet here that looks like Silver Springs and all this water just flowing over the edge and onto the floor?



So I hit the shutoff valve on the toilet (I should have run to the basement first and just thrown the main valve) and head back downstairs.



Pans to catch the stream that is cascading onto the dining room table, sheets/rags to mop up, grabbing the shopvac (!) from the basement to suck up the water that is already on the wooden floor, moving books, moving clean (and folded and now wet) laundry all the while suffering from visions of warped floors needing to be replaced, sheetrock in at least two rooms needing to be replaced and who knows what in re the electrical systems...



There was some minor relief in knowing that: we were home; it wasn't a burst pipe while we were on vacation; and it was someone contained to one portion of the house. As my brother noted, it sounded like the drainage system from the third floor worked well, I should just consider re-routing it away from the electric. Thanks, bro.



The other thing that I don't entirely understand, returning to the original image of water and electricity, was in the bathroom. I went to remove the glass bowl from the overhead fixture and as I pulled down a bowl completely full of water, I saw one light bulb and then I saw one empty socket. How on earth could that bare socket have been underwater when I threw that lightswitch (it was NOT on when I removed the bowl) and the whole thing not have shorted out?


(edit: Thank you Google. Actually water is an insulater. It is the minerals and stuff in the water that conducts electricity.)


Again, feeling rather lucky in some respects.

Maybe we should have a party to celebrate!