It is a magnificent feeling to step in cold water (of questionable cleanliness) first thing in the morning. Not fully awake, still in your pajamas and flip-flops. Yep. Awesome.

This is the landing of our cellar steps. Pictured here is enough water to cover my foot, and is a small sample of what was in our cellar. A neighbor has a ruptured pipe of some sort, which has yet to be properly fixed. This is the third time this has happened since the holidays, but this time they went for extra credit, sending a whole lot of water our way.

One of the things that people don’t tell you about townhouse living is that even though you’re separated from your neighbors by stone, bricks and mortar, what happens on one side of the wall frequently has consequences on the other side. The water pictured here, originated 18 feet away at the other side of the cellar, yet it made its way across the wall in the photo, to say hello to our other neighbor. By the time it got there, it had lost some of the oomph and was more or less just a damp spot.

If you live in a home that is attached to another home, don’t be a dick to your neighbors. To quote Bill and Ted: “be excellent to each other.”