Myth Busters/House of Horrors

I’m not a superstitious person, but I always believed if you had one bad thing happen and then a second bad thing happen, there would be a third bad thing. A lot of people I know believe the same. And I believe, from experience, that bad things nearly always happened on a Friday. Not so, on either count. Bad things can happen day-after-day. That’s two myths busted!

My mother, who is now 88 years old and in bad health, and I found ourselves each alone and purchased this house together about 22 years ago. We’ve been diligent about upgrading, adding energy efficient furnace/air conditioning/appliances etc, and keeping the house in good repair overall.

This past Friday I suspected the water softener was out of salt as the water seemed hard (not too many frothy bubbles in the washing machine or the sink for dishes…I won’t even mention the shower!) and we have a lot of lime in our water. So down…down..down to the bowels of the basement I went (very steep steps) to check it out. There, on the concrete floor was a stream of water and white foam floating into the floor-drain. Okay, the water heater has a leek and it’s only a few years old. Also discovered the water softener, that is not yet a year old, is not working. It’s still full of salt that I put in three weeks ago.

Back I go, ascending to the first floor and pick up the phone. First the water heater people. They sent a repairman out within a couple of hours and he replaced a valve. By then I had already set up for the water softener people to come out…Sept 6th is the earliest. Okay, hopefully our house pipes won’t clog up with lime in that length of time, so I can deal with that.

So, water heater fixed on Friday…water softener repair ordered. In the meantime, I confirmed two specialist doctor appointments for my mother, aka “The Coach”. She likes to tell the Toronto Blue Jays how to play ball. And let’s not even start on the Toronto Argos!

Saturday I wake up and hear rushing water. Hurried downstairs (I’m didsabled so I don’t run anywhere) and could really hear water rushing on the main floor. Make my way back down to the bowels of the basement and it’s okay down there. Back up to the top floor…upstairs toilet has running water in the tank. Being once a property manager many years ago, I think, “I can fix this.” I take the top of the tank and fiddle around…okay, so I can’t fix this. Back on the phone I get and call a 24 hour emergency plumbing service. A repairman arrived, good to their advertising word, 23 hours later. Nice young man he was, too. He replaced a flow value in the toilet. That was Sunday. So, we’re good to go!

Not quite.

Monday about noon a town’s crew arrived and started digging up some broken sidewalk in front of our house. Now, my dog, Trooper, always goes to daycare Monday and Wednesday afternoons to play with the other dogs…he needs that interaction. I put the dog in the car, press my gizmo and the garage door goes up…there is a back-hoe across my entire driveway, digging up the sidewalk. I couldn’t see it from inside the house because of the trees. And obviously they would not be moving for a time. So, I put the garage door down, take my confused dog out of the car and we go back into the house, whereupon I call the daycare and advise that Trooper will not be coming as planned.

Then, wisely, I decided to go back down into the bowels of basement and just check things out down there. Augh! The water heater is still leaking water and foam! Back on the phone I get to call those repair people to get their butts back out here!

As I’m talking to them, there is a knock at my front door. Live call in progress I went to the door with phone in hand and my neighbour asks, “Is your phone working?” Um, yeah, and I held up the phone…”I’m on a call right now.” “Is your cable TV working?” he asks. At this point I’m wishing I were two people. I invite the neighbour in so the dog won’t run out the door (dawg is a real runner!), resume my phone conversation and flick on the TV at the same time. No cable! The guys digging up the sidewalk cut into the cable lines! We were lucky as we had the phone line…they had cut off the neighbours phone line as well as their cable.

Neighbour goes home. Water Heater guy shows up within an hour.

Down the repairman goes into the bowels of the basement. Now I’ve got the dog on a leash attached to my wrist so that he doesn’t run, when I hear, from the bowels of the ‘earth’, “Hello”. I go to the top of the stairs. “Um, your water heater is bust.”

Oh good, that’s fine. “I’ll have to replace it,” he says. “Oh good, that’s fine,” says I. Meanwhile as he’s working I’ve got the poor dog confined and attached via his leash to my wrist because the repairman is going in and out to his truck…the water in the house is turned off for the better part of the afternoon, but, hey!, the new water heater is finally installed, the water is turned back on, and off the fellow goes.

I’m exhausted but all should be hunky-dory now. We’ve got the regular, annual furnace check-up scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. No prob…piece of cake. And I was still laughing about it all.

At this point, the house is locked up, I free the poor dog, and myself, from the leash and I walked out into the kitchen to pour myself an adult beverage, because I had damned well earned it! And I hear water rushing…augh! Just shoot me! I am no longer laughing! It’s the upstairs toilet tank again…the one that was just repaired yesterday.

So, myths busted, I should have a quiet day tomorrow and be able to get some work done. After all, I’m still hoping to get Trooper to daycare for his play, the furnace man is schedule to arrive between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. and I’ve got to call the plumbing service to get their butts back here! LOL. And, hey, by tomorrow night, we might have our cable TV back in operation!

Jill…signing off from the House of Nonsense in downtown Georgetown.

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