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Compartment 14B

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It's not just the inhabitants that are quirky.

2004-07-20 - 9:11 a.m.

This building is a ghost town. Everyone has claimed the space � hence the reason it�s been hard to find me a spot to hang my hat � but no one is actually occupying it.

Yesterday I went to the women�s washroom around the corner at about 3:00 pm. It was a large, multi-stalled facility and I noticed something odd. I walked all the way down the row, glancing into each stall to confirm. Yep. All the seats were up. Since the place is cleaned, I presume, after hours, and since women aren�t exactly prone to putting the seat up once they finish their business, this could only mean one thing�

By 3:00 in the afternoon, not one person had been in to use the washroom yet!

Now I know that it�s not the only washroom on the floor, but it is the most centrally located one. And I know that there are more men around here than women, but still�

Also? Last week I used the washroom after one of our meetings and when I turned on the tap I was startled to see a moth get washed out of the tap and, flapping madly, swirl down the drain. I felt badly for not rescuing it, but it happened quickly and all I had time for was a double-take and a disbelieving blink of my eyes and then it was gone.

One more bathroom quirk: when I flushed yesterday I heard a small stream of water from somewhere else in the room. I briefly thought that maybe it was a stealthy pee-er who had snuck in and lowered another seat silently, coincidentally at the same time as me, the first person to use the place all day. Then I stepped out of the stall and glanced; no, all the stall doors are open. Following the sound I traced it to the floor drain just as it died away. Coincidence? I went back and flushed again. Same thing. For a reason I don�t even want to speculate on, it seems that flushing triggers a flow of water into the floor drain that�s open to the air. At least, I�m hoping it�s water and not, say, an overflow of raw sewage! I suspect that my nose would have told me if that was the case but still, an odd way for the plumbing to work, wouldn�t you say?

This building is scheduled for a currently-on-hold retrofit; let�s hope the plumbing is one of the things they upgrade.

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Edited to add: I just found out that it's Dooce's birthday. Happy Birthday Dooce and may those damn invading intestinal bacteria get the hell out of your system forthwith!

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