well, my neighbor let me down, or the landlord wasnt around when he was yesterday, so no cushioning the blow before i had to poke my head out from the rubble. as it was, the landlord was pretty mellow, maybe it was the heat or maybe he got a good night sleep. either way he was neither choleric nor bilious but he still held fast to the reins of stubbornness. my lie held up well enough as he was disinterested in my culpability, but the notion that it was water that came out of the shower, not via some sort of leakage and then was seeping through a gap in the floor by the toilet, was hard for him to accept. he was convinced there must be a leak. i tried to tell him about the battery of tests we ran that supported our conclusion but they fell of deaf ears.

so he called the plumber who i could see across the way at the gallery, where he assists another landlord with the day to day business, as he told my landlord he wouldnt be available until later in the afternoon. that there is no point looking at the hole in my ceiling without access to the upstairs apartment again was not information that could dissuade him from wasting everyones time in the immediate future.

still, progress, right? at least in this game of thrones, despite much bluster, the casualty count will be decidedly low.