update...

jessica
hi again.

the toilet did the same thing after the storm today, so it's really obvious, now.

further, i checked the back room and it seems to be flooding out of the storage area beside the laundry room, which my ears tell me is where the sump pump is.

i noticed when i went out for a smoke that it was dumping water on the front lawn at a startling rate. like, it looks like somebody left a faucet running, sort of thing.

again: i have no idea what this means, only that something is flooding and it seems to be connected to the sump pump.

(pause)

actually, the water in the basement seemed to be coming from a little hole in the foundation. but if i were to guess, i'd think the cause of it seeping through would be the massive amount of water coming out of the sump pump directly above it. i might be concerned that it's producing some water damage, but it's sort of secondary to the plumbing issue itself.

it's hard to believe it 's coming from the rain because the puddles on the rest of the street have already dried up. why is this unit getting a thousand times more water than the one next door? so, it has to be feeding back from somewhere.

i just want to be clear about the flow rate. you know the "outdoor taps" that units used to have? i haven't seen once since i was a kid, but you'd attach a hose or a sprinkler to it out of your backyard. it looks like that faucet is on FULL BLAST. and it's been running like that for an hour. there's absolutely no way it's just the rain, it didn't even rain that much, that water has a different source...

with that much water, i thought maybe it was coming from a pipe that could be turned off, but it was suggested to me that that doesn't make sense. see, maybe it doesn't. but the toilet thing doesn't seem to make sense either.

i don't know what the options on the sanitary line are, or how they could get mixed up with the storm drain, but something seems to be crossed.

so i need to ask: did the furnace guys connect any pipes together? might it have crossed something up, through back pressure?

(pause)

sorry for the long email, but, just to finish the thought, it seems like the water was coming out of the sump pump and back into the basement. so it was recycling itself, creating the impression that it was coming out at a steady flow. he put a device in that acts as an inclined plane, to get the water out from the house and each pump is consequently decreasing in volume. so, it seems like it's not backed up, after all, it's just that the ground is really saturated. it might be a good idea to try and make that permanent to prevent further water damage...

it doesn't explain the toilets, but i do think the logic extrapolates. if the water is too saturated in the front of the house, it stands to reason that the city system is possibly backed up.

i'm still a little skeptical about possible flow issues somewhere, but that's an easy line of thinking to stick with for now.

(or it could have been a coincidence that the pump started slowing when the device was installed)

the landlord
Again the pump, pumps storm water, it does not pump sewage. If the sewer, sewage line is backing up we will call the city and report this. Speak to Paul and explain what you are experiencing so that he can look for himself when it rains again. This will give him first hand knowledge of the problem when he speaks to the City.  I will speak to Paul and have him call this to the Public works. This is not are doing this will be a city correction. If you notice around our building that they have had us divert the water from the eves draughs out of the storm pipes at the side of the building. This is so the storms are not overloading, delaying the run off into the storm sewers from the road surfaces. Paul you are seeing  this e-mail, call me when you get this.

jessica
i guess that explains where the extra water is coming from. ok. i just couldn't understand why there was so much on this property, and so little elsewhere without the water backing up from somewhere. i was thinking that if a stormwater pipe had broken, it could be flooding both the sump pit and the sanitary at the same time. but if you're doing it on purpose, that explains that.

i did a bunch of googling and i'm still working with a weak understanding of toilet plumbing but i think it has to be the case that water is pooling somewhere. it might be a blockage, but if it's a blockage it would have to be somewhere that water can pool where it rains - through a manhole or something. this is then killing the air pressure on the flush. otherwise, it would be slow to drain all the time.

the other thing i was thinking was about the air vent coming up from the toilet. if something had been rerouted with the furnace, could it not possibly have a different reaction to rainwater, and conceivably produce a lack of flush pressure? but, i did an experiment early in the morning and i think i've ruled it out. what i did was let the water in the sink run and then flush. the water was flowing right out through the sink before i flushed, but as it was flushing it started to fill up a little. if i understand correctly, this rules out a vent issue by demonstrating a restriction of the flow rate.

i have to admit that i'm not entirely convinced it isn't construction. if they're temporarily down to one pipe somewhere instead of two, that could be where the water is pooling. i know everybody else in the neighbourhood would have to experience this, but how many have toilets that are low enough for it to be an issue?

i'll bring paul down here next time we get a lot of rain...

(pause)

the only other thing i can think of is that maybe one of the neighbours recently installed a sump pump to the sanitary and it's exaggerating an existing block...you're not supposed to that, but people do that...

whether it's via leak, construction, bad install or whatever else i think the flow restriction happening only when it rains, and stopping when it's dried out, demonstrates that there just has to be rainwater blocking the sanitary at some point, somewhere, somehow - even though that's not supposed to happen.

but, like i say, i'll get paul down here to see it next time it happens.

(pause)

actually, there's one more hypothesis i have. i know this is a little bit of a long shot, but the culmination of what you're telling me and what i'm reading and what i'm seeing indicates that something very strange is happening.

the house across the street had a fire last month. it seems like it's been completely shut down since. if they shut the sump pump off, the basement could be flooding in the rain, and the flooding could be finding it's way into the sanitary, slowing the drain down.

it's just a guess, but something weird like that MUST be happening. i don't known if you know those guys or could call them and ask, but i think the sump pump in that basement ought to be working, regardless, for the benefit of the rest of the neighbourhood....

so, maybe not.

i left my broom to dry in the back room a few weeks ago and forgot about it. i was going to clean today, but not without a broom...

if it doesn't show up by tomorrow, i'll go buy a new broom, i guess. i mean, it's the landlord's broom. but that gives me a few hours to listen to mixes.

i'm really sick of the idea of "education failing our children". it was clever for about two seconds. now it's one of the worst cliches out there.

it's particularly annoying because it masks the root of the problem, which is a culture that places initiative in the wrong places and creates individuals with stupid priorities. the system can break you, but it can't make you. you have to do that shit yourself. every copy of that awful michelle pfeiffer movie should be tracked down and burned. it's not the answer...

it doesn't matter how bad the system is. in the end, if your kids can't count or read then they fail. you can talk about the kids not working hard enough, or not having the aptitude (in rare cases). you can talk about the youth culture downplaying it's importance and producing warped, cynical psychopaths. you can talk about the parents not raising their kids with good mindsets or at all (which is the real root of the problem in almost all circumstances). but you can't reasonably blame it on the education system, which merely presents information to interpret. i can't even get my head around how anybody could even make sense of shifting the responsibility for personal achievement in such a bizarre manner.

so, let's get it right. it's not as touchy feely. it requires a level of responsibility. but, the system doesn't fail your kids. your kids fail the system. and, if that happens, it's *your* fault.

ffs...

i'm basically never going to buy fresh meat ever. i don't want it in the house. and i've been phasing out the bit of salami i temporarily had in my diet, reducing my primary protein source to eggs - which is what it's been for most of the last 15 years.

but, if i were going to buy meat, and you put halal meat beside otherwise unmarked meat at the same price, i'd actually probably get the halal meat. it's not because it underwent some kind of lunar ritual, or because i'm interested in the rules in leviticus (or wherever the rules are). it's because i would understand that this is meat that was butchered with an intent to cause the animal the least amount of pain possible.

when you consider the other option of factory farmed meat, where animals are literally put through meat grinders while they're still breathing, i couldn't imagine any human worthy of the term (i'm allowing some cross-species discussion, here) choosing the factory farm meat. to freak out and go on all kinds of racist tirades about it isn't even really maddening - it's just depressing.

how about we start marketing non-halal and non-kosher meat as MAXIMUM PAIN INFLICTED. fuck it, it would probably develop a market amongst you bloody savages...