Once upon a time, just before 2 pm on a hot summer's day, a young old average age mother went into her basement to do some of the never ever ending piles of filthy laundry that her family of 6 produces on a daily basis. When she walked into her utility room, she found a large puddle of water on the floor.
"That's odd, the washer must have leaked," thought the woman. But as she examined the washer and dryer, she discovered, much to both her delight and chagrin, that the problem was not, in fact, a leak from either of those machines. The puddle was too big, and ran along the wall between the machines and the hallway.
She tentatively stepped into the hallway along the wall that backs up to the laundry machines, and her bare feet found that the carpet was soaked. She left dark footprints everywhere she stepped.
"Not good. So, not good," she thought. Then she opened the door to the closet containing the air conditioner, the furnace, and the water heater. She knew that the previous year her air conditioner had frozen and melted all over the floor, and with trepidation she examined the one-year-old unit to see if that was the source of the leak.
"Actually, this water is.....warm. Too warm, even for DC in this weather," she thought. That's when she noticed it.
The steady drip, drip, drip from the bottom of the water heater.
"Shit. Goddamn it. Shit." she muttered.
She wandered over to her rotary phone and called her husband.
"Shoot," he answered.
"Water heater," she responded.
"Shit," he said.
"That's what I said," she said.
"How bad?"
"Sorta, well, kinda, um, bad."
"Is there two inches of water all over the basement?" he asked.
"Well, no, I think I found it quickly," she said.
"Okay, call, um, whew, uh...call a plumber," he said, deciding that his parents were just too far away to respond effectively to this crisis.
"Do you have one in mind?" she asked.
"Nope, just pick someone," he advised, then hung up the phone.
So the woman wandered into the utility room again and shut off the water to the whole house, since she didn't know how to shut off just the water heater, pulled out her trusty yellow pages, and began skimming through hundreds of ads for plumbers that service her town. On and on they went, kinda like the drip, drip, dripping of the water in the basement.
"Hmmm, who do I pick? Someone who can come fast. Someone who stocks the materials I need. Someone who can service gas lines without blowing up my house or filling it with carbon monoxide. Someone trustworthy, someone who won't rip me off, oh, and someone who takes credit cards," she thought.
"Germantown Plumbing" the ad said. "That's close by," she mused.
So the woman called the Germantown Plumbing people, explained the problem, and asked how quickly they could come. The nice older gentleman took her information and told her that he would call his son to see how quickly he could come and would call back.
15 minutes later the son called, saying he'd be there in 10 minutes.
He was there 5 minutes later.
He hooked up what is essentially a super-long length of garden hose and drained the tank, then shut off the water to the tank so that the family could at least have cold water and wouldn't have to resort to bathroom functions in the woods out back. It was a townhouse development, after all, even if it was on the edge of a forest.
He arranged with the woman that he would return the following morning with a brand-spanking new water heater, bigger than the one that died. He noted that the one that died was built in 1987.
No showers were taken that night. Or the next morning.
The man called to say he would be later than he had anticipated. He showed up when his call said he would. He installed the new water heater quickly, almost entirely while the woman was gone picking up her kids. She paid him and he left on his merry way.
By the numbers:
1 20-year old, 40-gallon water heater craps out, leaves an inch of water on the floor and soaking the carpet, necessitating cutting another piece out of the carpet (that was already cut up when the damn pipe broke a year ago) to dry the basement out
1 brand spanking new 50-gallon water heater, installed, less than 24 hours after the original leak was discovered
$725. Installed. Bargain.
If you're in the area and need a plumber, call Germantown Plumbing. Seriously.
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Over the weekend the wonderful Carmen awarded me a Rockin' Girl Blogger award. I am touched and a little bewildered as to how in the heck she thinks I handle life situations better than she does. She's my inspiration on how to handle things a full 85% of the time, so either she's being incredibly nice or we're both probably royally screwed. Anyway, I'm passing it on to these fine women:
Angi, who has 4 just like I do (seriously, 2 girls, 2 boys, about the same ages as mine, just different order) and who handles life with grace and a strong sense of faith that I admire
Summer, who has the most adorable little boy, a hot husband, strong work ethic and faith, a bod to kill for, and some really funky shoes
Jen, because she's wicked funny and her blog title is something I shout at least 3 times a day
Julia, who I have been reading since forever and who has the strength of 10,000 of the mightiest women you can think of, is damn smart and a wickedly good writer, to boot
Ree, because you know that fantasy you had when you were little about living out west, where the sky is big and the horses roam and the cattle do what cattle do and you are married to a hunky cowboy? Well, she lives it - every day
So there you have it! Thanks Carmen, for making my stats go up for a few days and for thinking some part of me is cool - I am so looking forward to meeting you IRL later this month. Ladies, enjoy your bling bling, and every one else - Go. Read them. You won't be disappointed.
Up next: a cool pregnancy book, the story of the 65% tip, and the injury report. I wear myself out just thinking sometimes.
Aw, thank you for that! This might be the first time that someone has ever complimented me on my work ethic... particularly since I spend so very many work hours shopping online for funky shoes.
Glad your plumbing problem was solved so quickly. I know the pain of not being able to shower at home, but thankfully every time I've been in that situation, it's been winter. I don't know if I could maintain my sanity without a daily shower in this heat!
Posted by: Summer | July 11, 2007 at 12:40 PM
HA! HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
You SLAY me. You are too funny.
Can't wait until the end of the month.
Posted by: Carmen | July 11, 2007 at 07:48 PM