Swiss plumbing, part 2

(update at the end)

The plumbing lay on the floor this morning, just as it had done last night.
"Do you think the dishwasher is linked to these?" he asked.
"No, not at all," she replied confidently.
He started the machine and returned to his online backgammon game. She continued to write.
"Hey, what's all this water shooting out in the kitchen?" cried out their son, who heard the flood over the sounds of Lordi. Remarkable.
They mopped up the flood, removed the baseboards, agreed to look at the plumbing again later. And then they took a walk in the sunshine, hand in hand, because sometimes plumbing crises drive people together. They talked about many things, but not pipes.

Later that day the son flew to China, the parents went back to their computers, and the pipes, after minor attempts to reassemble them, remained on strike. The dishes were done in the bathroom and a future of eating out for every meal was briefly contemplated.

They walked off into the sunset but not before leaving the keys for the plumber. He came by and was amazed that the sink had been draining at all for the past 20 years, since the evacuation hole was 15cm too high for gravity to do its job properly. It just goes to show how long you can get away with doing some things less than brilliantly well. We have all known people who spent their entire careers doing that, so why are we surprised at plumbing systems?