Lovely trip to Starkvegas today. Tuna sandwich at the Book Mart Sandwich shop. Upstairs to look at crappy old books and vinyl. Still had time to kill, so Mr. Big Food settled in with a book in a comfy chair and I moseyed down Main Street to the office supply store and picked out a new fountain pen. Time for the haircuts on top of the coffee shop. (The pleasantness was interrupted by some good old fashioned cuss words on my part as I told the soyboy behind the coffee counter a thing or two.) Hair cuts. Chit chat about Dyed and Co. and various other chat worthy things. Jewelers where I got a new chain for my dewberry necklace. Then off to go grill shopping.

An enjoyable day! Driving home looking forward to cataloging my two new crappy old books, putting my fountain pen together, doing some grill research for Mr. Big Food.

And then…

I thought it might be condensation on the garage floor near the steps. It was humid and almost 70. I thought it might be how Stuppy sounds if he runs upside down. (Did not want the robot vac to disturb the dogs when we were gone.)

“The laundry room is flooded,” hollered Mr. Big Food.

And then there was a flurry of activity. Phone call. Trip to the pasture to turn off the water. Phone call from the pasture to the water works. (It used to have an ordinary knob. Now you need a tool of a certain sort.) Cleared out wastebaskets, etc. Changed shop vac to water mode. Investigation.

It was the hot water heater. Whew! At least it’s not the pipes. Another phone call.

Our buddy arrived. Surveyed situation. Short and long term plans were made in short order.

In the end, everything got turned off, somethings got turned back on. And more phone calls were made regarding a new hot water heater and installation of same.

It will be purchased in town tomorrow morning. Delivered tomorrow afternoon. Our buddy will install it Thursday.

Meanwhile there are some adjustments to be made and I am kicking myself. Before we left this morning I thought, hum, I should load up the breakfast dishes and run the dishwasher. But I was in the middle of a project, I’ll do it when I get home. Tomorrow I will be boiling water on the stove and doing dishes. Back to basics.

Mr. Big Food will need to choose a different bathroom in which to conduct his morning routine before he heads off to teach the youngsters how to think. He’s leaning toward the bath in the Bunkhouse.

Two Three things stand out from today’s episode of Real Life. 1) One is living a good life if one has buddies one can call, omit all niceties, cut to the “we have a problem” chase, and hear, “I’m getting off in just a few and I’ll swing right by.” 2) In small towns, one knows the first name of each and every person on the other end of the line. Jeanie, the supervisor at Town Hall, knows who we are. In fact, it was her uncle who designed and built our home. So when the water guy– who gets off at 3pm (phone calls were after)– called her to make sure he was cutting off the water at the right house, she was perfectly able to direct him to the right house.

3) Real Life Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

And now, supper as planned. Though Mr. Big Food tells me it’s weird being in the kitchen with no hot water.