We’ll Laugh About It Later

Ever have one of those days full of we’ll-laugh-about-it-later moments, during which things happen that aren’t funny at the time, but you’re sure they’ll be funny later? This has been one of those days for me.

My hyperactive brain wouldn’t let me sleep last night. No, I’m not hyperactive, but my brain often refuses to slow down so I can relax and go to sleep. When that happens, my body responds by tensing up all my muscles, so between my brain and my body, sleep becomes elusive. Sometimes it takes six milligrams of melatonin to make me drift off. Last night was one of those nights, so I felt really tired today.

Our old water heater had been installed back when a pan wasn’t required underneath to catch leaks if it ever failed. It started to leak last week, and we knew we had to find someone to replace it before the floor was damaged. We sopped up the water with towels and contracted with the handyman company we normally do business with. They sent a man (let’s call him “John”) out last Thursday to take measurements for the new water heater. He brought it to our house at nine o’clock this morning and dropped it off with the explanation that someone else was coming “soon” to install it. The second guy (let’s call him “Dave”) was on another job and had another one after ours. Up to that point, we had assumed John was going to do the whole job, and it was going to take four hours from start to finish. Not so.

The new water heater stood waiting in the yard until Dave showed up shortly after noon. He hooked our garden hose to the antiquated water heater to drain the water out of it and prepared to do his job. He groaned when he examined the parts John had bought at the hardware store. They were the wrong parts. He had to go to the hardware store for the right parts. That took about half an hour. When he returned, the water heater still hadn’t drained out completely. He said it was so full of rust and sediment that the water was just trickling out. He decided not to wait, and dragged it out of the house while it was still half full. Now, imagine this skinny guy who’s about 5’10’’ and not very muscular, and resembles the actor John Malkovich, wrestling a 50-gallon water heater that’s half full of water out the back door and down the back steps to lay it down on the ground. I thought he was going to fall down the steps with the thing, but he didn’t. He cleaned up the puddle on the floor where the decrepit water heater had leaked out, and then went outside to get the new one. He carried it in and started setting it up, and then discovered he’d bought the wrong parts earlier. He rushed out to the store to buy the correct parts.

I had called the utilities department this morning to report a bad taste and faint odor in our water. While Dave was gone the second time, the utilities department sent someone out to flush out the nearest fire hydrant, which would flush out the water line along our road. Dave returned to finish his job while this guy was instructing me to give him about an hour and then turn on all of our faucets to flush out our pipes until the water ran clear (about five or ten minutes).

I waited until after Dave finished installing the new water heater. When he left around 4:00 p.m., he took the ancient one with him. Then I turned the water on to flush out the pipes, starting with the washing machine, then the kitchen, the full bath, and my half bath. After a few minutes, I followed the same order to turn the water off. Big mistake. When I got to my half bath, the floor was flooded. I had forgotten that my bathroom sink is contrary and slow to drain out (much like the old water heater). When all the other faucets were on, my sink didn’t seem to be filling up. However, with every faucet I turned off, more water pressure was sent to my sink. The increased pressure was too much for the drain to handle. The sink filled up and overflowed. Now imagine me standing there, jaw dropped, staring at the overflowing sink and flooded bathroom floor and slapping my forehead with my palm. I turned off the water and grabbed some towels to mop up the river on the floor. Good thing the water hadn’t had time to cross the threshold to the hardwood floor in the bedroom. 

Like I said, this has been a day filled with we’ll-laugh-about-it-later moments. The chaos has finally died down, thank God. I still have to plow through over 200 emails (not one of my top priorities, as you can tell) and rustle up some supper. I’m exhausted and my brain is already shutting down, and it’s just after 7:00 p.m.

I don’t think I’m going to have any trouble sleeping tonight. I might even be able to go to bed early.  Wouldn’t that be nice?