Cup, broken faucet, whatever. All I know is that today has been a lesson in “running over”. It all started when Sam got out of the shower this morning and announced that the shower was still dripping when he turned off the faucet. “No problem,” I thought, “I can fix that.”
Well, as it turned out, not only could I not fix it, when I got out of the shower and tried to turn the shower off myself, the faucet handle turned freely but did not turn the water off at all, or even slow the hurricane force current pouring into the tub. Now might be a good time to mention that the tub in that bathroom doesn’t exactly drain well. And the roaring flood that was pouring into it would not take too long to overwhelm the drain, fill up the bathtub, and flood the second story of our house. So, of course, I panicked and tried to remember where my dad had told me to turn off the water to the house in case I ever had an emergency like this. Thinking myself brilliant, I ran over and frantically turned the knob on the pipe behind the toilet. But the water just kept coming. Hmmm, maybe that was just to turn the water off to the toilet.
At that point the phone tree began. I called Sam at work, he called Grandmother and Grandpa on the way home to Amarillo from our house, and they called Uncle Barry who lives two miles away. Meanwhile, I called my Dad in California, hoping I wasn’t interrupting a prayer or a sermon. Uncle Barry showed up to help just as dad called me back, and we succeeded in getting the water turned off. No more flood, but no bathrooms or clean dishes, either.
I thanked Barry and went inside, where the boys were running around unsupervised and half naked. Nico started crying, “I want to go to church, I want to go to church!” Considering we were all in need of a bit of prayer and a working toilet, I didn’t think it was a half bad idea, so I tossed Nico his clothes, changed Linc and myself, and got us on the road in record time. Wouldn’t you know the sermon was on money, while I was busy figuring up how much a plumber would cost on a Sunday afternoon. On the way out to the car, Nico was walking in front of me, chattering constantly as he always does, and I noticed a lovely little detail I had missed on our mad dash out of the house: he had put his pants on backwards. Yes, I hear my mother of the year award is being printed as we speak.
Anyway, we went back home and had a quick lunch, and then because I wasn’t sure what to do yet about the facet, I put the boys down for a nap. After a little more advice from grandpa, my dear old fried Phillips head and I diagnosed the problem, a broken plastic piece on the faucet handle. I was feeling better then and indulged in a nap, too. Once we were all up and around, we loaded up to head to Lowe’s for a replacement piece.
As we pulled into a parking spot, twenty minutes before the early Sunday closing time, Nico said, “You know I have a little bit of diarrhea, right?” I said, “No, I didn’t know that. You need to go to the potty?” Again, I was glad we were at least at a place with a working bathroom. But Nico answered, “No, I do not need to potty, but when I farted just now some poop came out.”
Really?? All I need now is for a bird to poop on my head and Lincoln to gouge himself in the eye with something. What do you do in a situation like that? We have no other clothes in the car, the store is closing, and unless we get the part, we will have no water in the house for another 18 hours. So, I said, “Well, how much poop came out? Can you walk?” “Yeah, I can walk,” he answered. And we went in, got the part, and got out just as they were bringing in all the grills out on the sidewalk to close down for the night.
I wasn’t kidding when I said it was a “running over” kind of day. In annoying (and gross) ways, but also in good ways. It’s so comforting to have people to rely on when something like that happens. Because of our schedules, Sam and I are often on other ends of town when things go wrong, and we have to reach out to people hundreds of miles away for help with little daily struggles like plumbing nightmares and car mishaps. Today, we actually had help from family nearby, and it was amazing how nice it was to have a hand (literally) as well as helpful advice from afar. So, yes, my faucet was running over, but so was my cup. Now we have running water again, but only when we want it to – no more Niagra Falls in the bath tub. Plus, because of the day’s distractions, I didn’t get the decorations from yesterday’s party down, so there are still those festive reminders of the outpouring of love we had last night hanging around, still a few pieces of wrapping paper on the carpet and half-eaten cake on the counter. Like I said, a “running over” kind of day.
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