Or even when it doesn't rain. There's a puddle of water outside the shoppe. First noticed it a couple of days ago. That's odd. Everything else is dry. How did it get here? Then today I looked closer and noticed that the water was actually bubbling out of a crack in the concrete sidewalk. Uh oh. Broken water line. Right outside the front door of my business. Somebody is going to have to fix it. That means that the sidewalk and tile entry to my store is going to have to be dug up. Can you imagine trying to sell a business while the entryway is being excavated? I doubt you can find this tile anymore - it dates from the thirties. As in nineteen-thirties. They'll probably need to have the water shut off while they're working on it. Which means I'll probably have to close the doors while they're working on it. During Xmas shopping season. My brain is aching from just trying to imagine all the implications. Wonder how long I can go before alerting anybody that this is even happening...

Update:

Of course the situation would get worse. I discovered that it isn't just bubbling water outside the building, my front window 'bay' is flooded as well. Damaged a couple of cellos. So I contacted the landlord's representative. The landlady died last month. The person who inherited the building is in Arizona. The representative told me to call the city.

The city maintenance crew came out. They won't touch it. It's not their problem. So I called the rep again. He got the local Roto-Rooter guy to come out and look. Hmmm, this is going to be a lot of jackhammering. The sidewalk has to go. The front of my building might have to go also. They're not going to touch it. Nobody apparently is going to take any responsibility. I'm stuck in the middle. The front of my business is flooded and nobody is going to fix it. The landlord's rep is claiming that it's my responsibility. But I don't have any authority (not to mention resources) to ask somebody to jackhammer the public sidewalk on Main Street and excavate beneath the front of my store. It's also not my building. I share it with two other businesses. Sigh... Any way you look at it, it's a disaster.