From tuku@cisl.columbia.edu Mon Jan 24 11:51:31 2005
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 11:59:54 -0500 (EST)
Subject: chicken licken


Hi All,

As some of you would know, it was quite a cold and snowy weekend. Over all 
of last week, it was cold cold cold. Apparently high pressure doldrums had 
moved in from the Arctic. And then, as high pressure is always followed by 
low pressure, the clouds moved in. And over the weekend it snowed. Snowed, 
snowed, snowed. The winds howled, the snow poured in at noon yesterday, 
when finally the storm passed, we were all buried in a little less than 
two feet of snow.

And this morning the sun rose. Some of the snow started melting. It was 
still bitterly cold - less than -8C.

I had half-woken up in the morning, like any other cold night, to the tune 
of my ancient heating system banging its fist. I intently started 
digesting the morning news that my radio was wailing about. Suddenly my 
ear caught a strange sound. Like the ticking of a loud clock.

Was it a time bomb?

I woke up with a start. Looked around and found nothing. The sound 
continued and even though I was trying, dispassionately, to think about 
other important things in the world, my attention was drawn towards it. I 
looked again. There was nothing. 'Where is this time bomb hidden', I said 
to myself. And then I saw it...

Drip. Drip. Drip... My ceiling was leaking - the carpet was soaking up the 
water and damping the sound.

Up above, a huge portion of the ceiling was bulging - as if it would cave 
in any moment now!

Many of you would have heard about similar events that have taken place in 
my lab. Well - I was feeling like Chicken Licken yet again! The Sky was 
Falling Down!!!

I held back the "Oh my God", took a deep breath and sprang into action. 
Ran to the bathroom, got the bucket and placed it under the leak. Then ran 
downstairs - found the super and informed him about the situation.

When I came back up, the dripping water was no longer dripping. It was a 
stream of water now and to make things worse, the water was falling 
outside the bucket. I repositioned the bucket and waited. I waited - 
waited - waited - waited. I emptied out the bucket twice.

It was almost 15 min before my patience ran out.

Went back downstairs, found Angel, the assistant superintendant and told 
him my tale of woe. He came upstairs with a huge (100 gallon) trash bin 
and placed it under the leak. And then with a start, he exclaimed that the 
ceiling was leaking all over! I followed the direction of his gaze - and 
saw the damp signs of the ceiling about to cave in at several other spots. 
The superintendant came in a few minutes. He didn't hold back the "Oh my 
God".

Then they started work on the roof above me. Apparently, the extreme cold 
had frozen and blocked the drain pipes on the roof. As a result, when the 
snow started melting, the water had nowhere to go - other than to drip 
down into my bedroom.

They will be working all day on it. In fact, as far as my understanding 
is, the problem is so difficult that our super has already talked to his 
bosses in the university and is drawing attention to the problem.

As for me - I get to learn about yet another hazard of living in the top 
floor. When it was snowing hard on Saturday and Sunday, I was under the 
impression that the sky was falling down. Little had I known that the sky 
would really fall today!!

Cheerio.

-Tuku / Shouri