War on Bathtub!

The Tyger lives in a very plush apartment complex as I have mentioned before. There is high security with the college police next door always making their hourly rounds on the place. It's a gated community that requires a security code and card key to even get in and out of the place. It's very safe with hardly any crime happening around us. As with all great places though, every apartment has its quirks giving them their own personality. In this case, the biggest quirk here is the bath tub.

My first morning waking up, I did my usual routine of making myself breakfast, relaxing, and watching some TV. I got up to take a shower when The Tyger said, "Oh yeah I forgot to tell you, I only get 8 minutes of hot water so you need to take quick showers." Huh? Eight minutes?!?! Does everyone get the same amount of time? "Oh I don't know, I just get 8 minutes is all I know." Ummm...ok. I can do this. I mean, I don't take long showers to begin with anyway.

Now, to get the 8 minutes of our precious hot water, we have to keep a few things in mind. First, we can't have the dishwasher or washing machine running while taking a shower unless we enjoy having soapy hair as the hot water runs out in the middle of our shower. Second, if one of us is planning to take a shower before we leave anywhere, we have to make sure we're not hand washing dishes for a long time. Basically, we have to conserve on any kind of hot water we use. Really, overall this hasn't much of a problem and I've only screwed up a few times in the beginning causing us to be late to a few places.

The second quirk is how quickly the bathtub clogs up. I have to admit that The Tyger sheds a lot of hair and me with my big hair probably don't contribute to the drain in that tub so well. Once it's unclogged it takes about a week for the tub to start filling up with water as it begins to clog up again. This last time it got so bad that finally it reached a little past my ankles. At this point, I think maybe taking a bath would've been more conducive than taking a shower. The Tyger now has a weekly routine of pouring Liquid Plummer down the drain, waiting the allotted amount of time, then pouring boiling hot water just to unclog whatever it is that is down there. I even once tried to unscrew the plug and get in their with my bare hands but wasn't successful. It's been an endless battle all summer to say the least.

This round was pretty bad though and I think The Tyger has finally had enough of it. This last weekend she spent a better part of the evening in between our baseball and beers making trips of her normal unclogging routine. Back and forth, back and forth she went as I heard the timer going off in between soaks. With each trip to the tub I could hear the Tyger grumpily say things like, "Here I go again!" and "This better damn work!" Well, to our disappointment it didn't and The Tyger finally caved in and called maintenance.

I feel bad for The Tyger. I mean, what a defeated feeling knowing that the bathtub finally won after trying to overcome this all summer. Even though the evil bathtub may have gotten the best of The Tyger, she will still stand on top and win once maintenance comes and permanently fixes the problem. No place is perfect and despite our war on with the bathtub and hot water, I wouldn't want The Tyger to live anywhere else. I mean, if it wasn't for the unique quirks of the bath tub and hot water, this apartment would have no personality. And I wouldn't have something to write about!