There's No Hot Water (Except in His Hotel)

Happy Monday of the umpteenth week of Lent! At the house here, we are listening to drums in the deep, as rumbles and clanks from the basement signal the plumber in the midst of uninstalling the busted hot water heater. Since Saturday, we've languished in a cold-water economy, in which showers are icy and the dishwashing is a hand-numbing experience. Also, a disciplining experience, because one cannot leave the dishes to be done later. They must be rinsed immediately, and if you're going to rinse, you might as well wash right away too. 

Note on dishwashing: In cases of no hot water with which to operate the dishwasher, people would usually boil water, fill one side of the sink with hot soapy water, and rinse in cold on the other side. But we, due to the wisdom of the previous owners, have only a single basin sink. We do boil water, but the time of the process is doubled with needing to wash everything and then drain and rinse. So mostly we boil water to soak down big greasy things, and use soap and a lot of elbow grease on everything else. Also, I have no handy plastic tub to wash in, like people used to keep around, because some people around here break plastic bins by using them as stepstools to pantry shelves or the stovetop. 

The plumber's answering machine on Saturday morning gave us an emergency number for immediate action, but we debated. Does a downed hot water heater count as an emergency? It's not like we had flooding, or sewage backed up. And plumbers deserve a weekend too. The lack of hot water was an inconvenience (especially for some people who like to wash their hair every day), but it wasn't life-threatening. So we waited. 

On Sunday, this waiting corresponded with Darwin's departure for a four-day business trip, where I know he thought of us as he took his hot shower at the Hilton because this morning he fielded a call from the plumber at 5am his time and set up for them to come today. 

And come the plumber did, and looked at the hot water heater, and muttered, and took some photos.

"Gonna need a new gas line," he said, tracing the pipe with his flashlight through the maze of wires stapled to the beams on the basement ceiling. "Gonna cost extra."

"Gonna need the line bonded," he said, emerging from the basement. "Gonna cost some more." 

But we will have our new water heater, costing both extra and some more, by tonight, which means we can put eight people through hot showers or baths before we head down to Cincinnati to salvage a few days of spring break with the cousins. And Darwin gets home late Thursday night to trade the joys of hotel showers and a fresh bed with no small mammals, whether human or feline, for the warmth of family life and hot water from the tap.