Either that or ghosts

11/18

A day. As Sarah is meeting with a lighting designer, (from the cutting edge St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn), I go downstairs to take a phone call in the yard and find the day’s first water disaster. The industrial sink in the kitchen, which Woodshed would have loved to see working, has filled with water and overflowed, the faucet still running. I am puzzled...this faucet hasn’t worked in years.

Upstairs, Tony from Sanctuary has come to check out our 747 temporary heater and see if there’s another way to vent it. As he’s checking that out, Leslie from P&G has come to take a tour of the church and see if she could lease/buy space to build her dream pub/performance space, her 87th street space having fallen through. I give her the whole tour, realizing this is seriously a tough one to pull off. Tony is dutifully waiting. Looks like we don’t need another venting system after all, just run it into the church house.  But is there enough diesel for Sunday?

And I’m waiting to talk to Sarah and Gina has arrived wanting to do notes from her play run through the other evening. I review issues of fact, issues of tone. And fill in historical details for her. And talk about the spirits that could haunt this space like the spirit in the play and if I make it out alive I’ll be lucky. She’s moved by what she didn’t know, the tweaks will be easy.

Still waiting to talk to Sarah, Tracy calls. Monday when I’m supposed to be at the Living Wage rally at Riverside Church, she needs me to go on WBAI  to talk about the Dominos boycott. At first it’s a tough call, but then I realize, with Living Wage, I’m a body, with Sweatshop Free,  I’m a voice. Sometimes just being a body is enough. Being a voice is better. 

Finally get to talk with Sarah. She’s been such a part of this place, we need to find a way to keep her involved after the gala is over. 

Then there is the person who used to work with us in childcare until we ended that program but kept getting paid for months after. We wouldn’t even have known had she not asked for a raise.  More pay for not working. The Session (board) was nonplussed. Wanted it ended. Hope and I thought about it, offered the opportunity to work and continue to be paid. Now with her check, she wants to know where her raise is. 

Hope and Leila are putting stamps on thousands of postcards when thsi controversy arises. As Hope engages, Sarah comes running in, another leak has sprung and is pouring through Mc Alpin. We have to find out where. We trace it to the fourth floor bathroom and the padlocked toilet. 

As I’m coming down the stairs to look for a flashlight, Jeremy has arrived. Soon Jeremy, Leila and I are checking it all out. Danielle is back from the post office and volunteers to go over the top, but Jeremy finds a way to remove the lock. We find the leaking pipe. But thing is, there hasn’t been water in this bathroom for over five years. 

Jeremy wisely calls Tony who’s back in a flash, figures it out and heads out to get the necessary plumbing supplies. In the midst of all this, the door bell rings and its Boxer Mike and his Dalmations. Raised voices still heard in the front. Tracking down a bad smell, we find garbage that has been hidden and organize a crew to get it out. Danielle’s husband, Nate,  is patiently waiting for the chaos to subside so that they can leave. 

Finally Tony fixes the leak. The angry worker leaves. Mike and the Dalamtians are gone. And Jeremy goes home. And Danielle and Sarah and I head to the basement to try and figure out what is going on. Near as we can figure, seems like the boiler people opened some water  lines that had been closed for years. Either that or ghosts. No other expanations.  Danielle seems to think she’s found another shut off valve. 

I’m thinking that a new Mexican bar has opened up the street