The Story of Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered

This is a sad little tale about Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered. He might live on your street or he might be your next door neighbor. Wonder if you came home from vacation and discovered your house was flooded? To add insult to injury...wonder if you found out that your next door neighbor knew your house was being flooded...but he couldn't be bothered to help? 

Let's just say you lived in a single family attached condo that shared one wall with another unit. And let's just say that while you were cleaning up the mess, your neighbor, Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered, strolled over. He casually told you that he figured a pipe had burst because he had heard water running constantly through the pipes coming from your unit. From the comfort of his own condo, he said he heard the water running night and day in your place. He and his wifey sat around for days and days listening to the water slosh through your home but couldn't be bothered to do anything about it. Just wonder if all that happened to you.

What would a conscientious neighbor have done? And what, you might ask...did Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered do in this sorry story? Did he try to resolve the problem? Did he act in a responsible, decent, helpful, neighborly manner? 

Wonder if you heard that Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered claimed to have called the condo management company but it was closed for the holidays. Yet the management office answering machine clearly informs callers to press #2  for urgent matters and they will be forwarded immediately to an after-hours emergency staffer. Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered did not notify the emergency contact person.

Did he bother to contact any one of your five condo board members to inform them of the situation and see if they could help? All the board members live just a few homes away and a former board member lives directly across the street. All the board members have telephones.

Did he bother to ask any of your neighbors if they had a key to your home so someone could go in and turn off the water? Did he ask any of the neighbors if they had your email address or cell phone number? If Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered had informed the neighbors, at least somebody could have contacted you and told you what was happening and you could have made arrangements to have the water shut off well before a week had passed. Did he call the fire department or some other emergency agency?  

Wonder if you heard that Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered did not call anyone while your house was being deluged for days from a broken water pipe while you were out of town? Would you be shocked at his shameful unresponsiveness and lack of neighborly concern...especially when he admitted he knew there was a problem? Would you wonder what he and the wife were thinking as they sat in their condo day after day and heard the water running constantly in your place?

And after all that...would you be pondering over what kind of diabolical vengeance you could bring down upon Mr. Can't-Be-Bothered? ....Me too.

P.S. For an account of the real-life flood that happened to us over Christmas, read my post:
http://www.boomerpie.com/2009/12/christmas-tsunamiin-family-room.html Sphere: Related Content