Friday, January 31, 2025
So when is a good time for a water line to break in your yard?
Never. Never is the correct answer.
And it is definitely not at 4:50 p.m. on a Friday evening before you leave for a 12-day cruise.
I had finished putting a load of laundry into the dryer. I walked into the kitchen to rinse some dishes before loading the dishwasher. Turn the hot water handle. No water. Turn the cold water handle. No water. The clothes I had put in the dryer had been wet. What gives?
I tried each faucet in the house. No water. Maybe some work is being done in the area. I text a couple of our neighbors – “Do you have water?” Both responses – “Yes”. Oh no. It’s just us.
Chuck is playing a video game- blissfully unaware of our situation and the panic that is building up inside me. I’m about to spoil that bliss big time.
After he gets over the initial shock of what I am saying to him, he goes outside to find a big pool of water bubbling up near an outdoor faucet in the front of the house.
We are fortunate to have very good neighbors.
One of the neighbors who I sent a text came over to help. He and Chuck got the water turned off at the street and started digging around the spigot area. I started making a mental list of things to do to cancel the cruise since there was no way a plumbing company was going to come out on a Friday evening in the dark and we couldn’t leave the house with no water.
But before I could make the first call, our neighbor said “don’t cancel your cruise. I’m going to be in town next week. Either I can fix it myself this weekend or, if it looks like too big of a job, I can get the plumbing company out here on Monday.”
As I said, we have very good neighbors.
He let us fill a big bucket with water for flushing. I had a gallon of distilled water for handwashing. I had a pitcher of filtered water for the coffee maker. I had bottled water for drinking and to leave for the cat sitter to give Pumpkin until the water was turned back on.
So after all the drama of the evening had died down, I took a deep breath and rechecked my packing lists. I think we are good to go.
We have very good neighbors.
