What next revisited

Well, we have hot and cold running water again. Just because a $950.00 service call to replace a water heater bothered me, I stopped by good ol' Home Depot on Sunday and found out they replace the old one for $289.00 in Plano, which included the cost of my permit. The total for the water heater and replacement was way better than the regular plumber, and, to be honest, quite painless. Except that Monday morning I was up before 5:00a.m. to order the water heater for the third time because I mis-measured twice.

Most of the time, I do operate a tape measure with a reasonable degree of competence, but we had a family tragedy on Sunday that threw me off my stride. Because my dh is a very private person, I will simply state with great sorrow my mother-in-law passed away unexpectedly Sunday afternoon. I am not going to detail this matter any further so as not to invade his family's privacy during such a tragedy. And I mention this in the middle of a humorous blog because his mother possessed a wicked sense of humor and I think would truly enjoy the tales regarding her grandchildren, not mind being included in this "family history", and would understand that humor is sometimes the one thing that keeps me sane during times of great upheaval and stress.

On the lighter side, getting up at Oh-crack-hundred left me plenty of time before school to wake up any laggardly neighbors with the sound of my saw as I custom cut and shaped four floorboards for the bottom of the closet that the water heater damaged. Doesn't everyone do their carpentry before sunup? Darned shame that the water heater completely obscures my fabulous, heirloom quality woodwork (in top of the line plywood, no less)!

I have reason to believe that hammering four floorboards into the bottom of a tight closet with a ball-peen hammer is an exercise in frustration. Fortunately, the nice plumber rescued me with a proper, regulation-sized hammer and nailed the boards into place, and as he installed the water heater my daughter and I played street hockey in the driveway. Chalk one up for home school P.E.! Now if I can just get back on track and finish getting the house ready to move. . .