I was an interesting day

Boy, I do hope I do not have many days like today. It has been one weird day around here. My day started out with what I thought was going to be a nice day. Weather was not to bad but at least it was not raining. So I figured I would get myself around and go get the dreaded blood-work (cholesterol screening) done. I was able to get in and out and was back on property in about 30 minutes. At this point everything was going pretty well, it did not last long, We were showing a prospective tenant around when we discovered that one of the clothes washers in the remote laundry room had sprung a leak somewhere. There was water everywhere! So for the next 4 hours or so I proceeded to disassemble and inspect every washer in the room. I started with where I thought the leak was coming from. Of course nothing is ever going to be that easy. All the water seemed to be around the 1st machine. So naturally I figured that was the logical place to start. But after searching every square inch I found no signs of leaks. So I looked again and thought well maybe it could have been the machine next to it. long story short - no leak! this same procedure happened with the next two machines as well. I stood back and looked at the last machine knowing I was on a fools errand to even think about opening it up and looking inside because it was completely dry around it. I knew I had missed something somewhere. After a few minutes thought I decided what the hey - I have checked out everything else so I might as well check this one out as well. I told myself I would just consider it a preventative maintenance check. But was I surprised when I pulled the front cover off the machine. there was water everywhere inside. Which of course did not make sense because there was no water on the floor. So how come the water was all at the other end of the row of machines? Anyway I started looking for the cause of the leak. I could find no leaks anywhere! It defied all logic. MAybe that was my first mistake trying to use logic with a clothes washer..... humm...I'll have to think on that one..... Anyway after 45 minutes of poking around inside I decided to just sit and let it run through a cycle completely. The tub filled with water and ran the cycle just perfectly. So I decided that I had missed it somewhere. I rechecked every hose, the pump and everywhere I could think of and found no leaks at all. So like every good maintenance man I ran the test again. It just had to be this machine. Well, this time I found it. As the tub was filling with water I was poking around inside the machine trying to get a better look at the fill valves ( they allow water into the machine when needed) My head and body was basically half inside the machine when all of the sudden I got a bath. At the same time I heard a snicker from one of the tenants as I was attempting a hasty retreat from the beast that just pee-d on me. All I saw of the tenant was a glimpse of their backside as they scurried out the laundryroom door. The drum has now started to agitate and with every turn of the agitator the water came over the top of the drum in big splashes. Of course I was still in the way! I finally got myself out of there and able to yank the cord out of the wall before the blasted beast was able to puke on me again. At this point I did not know whether to be mad because of the vicious attack by the thoughtless machine or overjoyed because now I had proof this was the culprit. I took a couple minutes to regain my composure and went back to work on the beastly machine. I finally figured out it was the stupid little hose that goes from the bottom of the laundry tub up into the control box and into a level control switch. Whose job is to tell the machine when there is enough water and to shut off the water valves. The hose works by trapping air inside it and the trapped air increases in presure as the water fills the tub. When the pressure hits a certain level a switch is tripped and the water flow stops and the machine starts to agitate. However for this simple system to work properly the tube has to be open so that water can flow into it and create pressure. On this beastly machine there just happened to be a piece of foam rubber that had somehow got down into the tube opening and would not allow any water to flow into it. No water = no pressure and the machine will just keep on filling with water even after it is overflowing. So now I know where the problem is. how to correct it? All I had to do was get the foam rubber out of the end of the hose. I had drained all the water that was left on the machine and decided I could just disconnect the pressure tube from the switch and blow into it and wa-la the foam rubber would just shoot out like a cork in a pop gun. I realized seconds after I had accomplished this task that I had not really thought it through to well. You guessed it - Wet AGAIN !! Only this time I managed to nail myself straight in the face!!! I quickly looked to see if anyone had witnessed this. And although I did not see anyone I am positive sure someone had to see it. That is just the way it works around here. Believe it or not I was able to get the machine put back together and it actually worked!!! Of course I just sort of hung out in the laundry room for awhile until I dried out some. I just could not bring myself at that moment to have to answer any questions about how the beastly clothes washer and I had a fight and I lost. I am almost afraid to go into that laundry room tommorrow ........ Afraid the machine will want a rematch !!! Ohh the life of a maintenance man.