This, my friends, is a fountain. It is also the topic that drove me over the edge and has caused the creation of this blog. I inherited this fountain from a former co-worker who is taking a year off to travel with his wife. He had this same fountain in his office down the hall from me for at least the year that I have been here and likely much longer as it was no longer a conversation topic at my arrival. During the year+ that I have been here I have rarely actually seen the fountain in operation. That is not to say that it doesn't work, but that it makes a bit of a terrible mess upon operation and generally gets everything around it wet. For over a month now I have been adding water and periodically attempting operation of said fountain, to no avail. I can hear the pump working, but I have never actually gotten the water to move.
And then today I was approached by the office manager, KP - a sweet lady of immeasurable patience and calm, and quiety told to stop by her office a little later. The reason for the quietness is that my walls are of the four foot high variety and gossip travels faster than wildfire around here (as it does in most offices, I assume). Upon finishing my then current task, I traveled to the suite next door and perched upon a chair in her space to be told the VP had asked her to talk to me about my fountain. Apparently several people had come to her and said it was stinky. Mind you, I sit three feet from it and can't smell it. And I'm quite sure my nose is working fine. After ascertaining that she was indeed not joking and both of us laughing I said I couldn't see anyway that this wasn't a personal vendeta at this point. (will fill in more of the story in future, but is tiresome to think of it all now) I clarified that we were talking about the same fountain that was in KT's office down the hall for years with no odor complaints, and she confirmed. We shook our heads and chuckled some more.
And now I have rearranged the plants on the tops of the walls to absorb the ones that were located on the top of the fountain and I have begun the lengthy process of removing the water from the fountain base, one pitcher full at a time, and ferrying it down the hallway to the kitchen, dripping all the way. Fairwell 'stinky' water. Sorry that you are another victim of people in power going on trips.
