I am in a hotel room in Lancaster, California, and I am up at 6 AM---in fact have been up since 5:30 AM---partly because my brain is on Massachusetts time, and it is three hours later there.  But also because I was awakened by the sound of water.  Not gush, gush, but trickle,  trickle.  Not drip, but trickle...meaning it is flowing, though not very fast.

I got up to investigate and discovered that the toilet is leaking.  The floor around it was quite awash, though now I have mopped it up and the base of the toilet is swathed in towels. It continues to flow, and I will have to add new towels soon.  Here is a photo (and some of you loyal readers will cringe at the awareness that I published another hotel-toilet photo not terribly long ago. There is a trend here. Sorry).

This would not be a terribly serious problem were it not for the OTHER photo which I will now add, the photo of the cartons and cartons of books delivered here on a dolly by Barnes and Noble last night.  You can't appreciate the geography from these two photos.  But the flood is inching toward the cartons.

Can the hotel get a plumber up here in time?  I am now going to get dressed, go downstairs, see if they have coffee available this early, and inquire about flood control.

Stay tuned.