Murphy's Law

Yes, isn't it always Murphy's Law that steps in when you least need it. We had saved up lots of laundry to do this weekend. Ya know, gettin' ready for the first day of school tomorrow. So Saturday morning Jonathan can tell that the water heater seems to keep refilling far beyond when it should have been finished. Yep, it's broken. At least that's what the landlord's maintenance guy said after one look at it. And he didn't think he could do anything to help it. Too bad the plumbing warehouse is closed until Tuesday, he says.

One thing we hadn't noticed until much later is that the valve we had shut off to keep the water from continuing to flow into the water heater wasn't stopping the water. The options: let the water continue to run (it wasn't full blast, but it was running = money down the drain); or keep the main line for the whole house turned off most of the time for this whole long holiday weekend. Being paranoid about the water running and the high wastewater rates Saint Peter charges I opted for keeping the water off.

We had planned on canning tomatoes from our garden this weekend. Maybe the water situation is just my excuse not to undertake that chore. Thank God we have some generous friends who said we could do laundry at their place and take warm showers while they were out of the house yesterday. It helped take a load off my mind (oh, very bad pun!). Thanks so much, Matt and Gigi!

I guess this water situation makes me grateful we live in an age of such convenience. It has also shown us just how little water we can manage to use for such things as washing hands and washing dishes. I don't mind a little lesson in environmental sustainability, but did it have to be the weekend before school starts! :-)

M.