Water Water Everywhere

So there's a lot of Water-related events going on right now.

I don't just mean all the snow we've had this winter and the icy melting damage occurring across the North East. I mean all the shit going on in my Family.

My parents' store has had a massive leak in the ceiling from the apartments above since June. The landlord hasn't been able to figure out where it's coming from, mainly b/c the building is so old and it seems to happen randomly. It's caused a lot of damage and my father is threatening to sue.

A second leak showed up for a few days in Dec, but was quickly tracked down. It was from a totally different source and on the opposite side of the store from the Waterfall. It ruined a few batches of my sister's soaps and candles, but nothing major.

The skylight in my apartment sprung a leak, and true to form, my landlords took their sweet time fixing it. Honestly, the jury is still out on if they did anything more than a rudimentary caulking or something. I'm not looking forward to finding out.

My dishwasher broke around Thanksgiving and STILL hasn't been fixed. We've been washing dishes in the sink or tub. Or using disposable stuff. The only reason I haven't put a massive curse on my landlords is I'm not about to shit where I eat.... yet.

 Now with all the snow finally melting, my apartment lot is a lake by day, and a skating rink by night. We have icicles that were nearly 3ft long weighing down the gutters, and a suspiciously-larger-than-I-remembered water mark near the skylight.

There has been a LOT of turmoil and problems in my family, especially between my parents and my sister re: the family store. Emotions are running high all around.

**MOMENT OF CLARITY**

Wow, I'm an idiot. Water = emotions. Leaks = suppressed emotions escaping.
My roof and Dishwasher aren't going to get fixed if I don't HOUND the landlords. Withholding rent is a last resort, I need to annoy the fuck out of them to get anything done.

I'm paying the rent tmw. When I go to the office, I will remind them that I have filed multiple work orders for this issue. I will tell them, I expect to know by Monday when I will have a replacement dishwasher. If that date passes, for every other day afterwards, I will call them and say "Dishwasher's still broken." until they fix it.
Or something like that.

The family situation is something that will require very different methods. Either way, nothing will get fixed if people don't start speaking up.

I'm done keeping quiet about the important stuff. *grabs megaphone*