Since I moved into this house in July, I've had at least ten plumbing issues. First, it was the sewage pipes which had been entirely destroyed by tree roots. One memorable Sunday night, I realized that the basement floor was covered with (ick) raw sewage. For several days, I was without water, as they sorted out the problem and then replaced the entire sewer pipe system from house to road. I first suspected a problem when the basement floor was covered in water whenever I did laundry. Laundry runoff water was leaking back into the basement from a crack in the foundation. That's so bad.
Since then, they've replaced the heating elements in the hot water heater because the hot water would conk out mid-shower. And fixed a leak in the basement that was actually coming from the bathroom (water leaking from the toilet tank). And done some more rotorooter - when the laundry run off started coming in again. And fixed a leak from the washer itself.
Last night, while I was doing dinner clean up, the garbage disposal finally went south. And both sinks in the kitchen refused to drain. And the disposal began to leak really fast. Picture me with buckets running between tub and under sink. Bailing the sinks frantically. The good news: Ron the plumber came today, put in new disposal (thank God!) and replaced pipes all over the place. The kitchen sink drains. Hooray.
At the end of each plumbing event, I've thought to myself. "OK. The house sat empty for 19 years. You expect some maintainance to have built up. But, we're done now."
So tonight, when I went down to do laundry, I lost it when there was, again, water all over the basement floor. I said many many many bad words. I yelled. I screamed. I cleared everything away from the puddle, and gave thanks that my tent was dry. I played with the valve that seemed to be leaking - only to cause more water to spray out. So, I called Chuck. Again. And he came over. Again. Happily, it was a simple bolt-tightening thing.
After he left, I decided that maybe this is God's sense of humour. What we do here is Baptismal ministry. We all have ministry by virtue of our baptism. Perhaps there's so much water in my basement because God wants to make sure that I get the baptism metaphor. She does have a sense of humor.
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3 comments:
I once prayed for motivation to clean out my basement. Within the week a clotheswasher hose broke, flooding the main level kitchen and dining area and then pouring into the basement. While slogging through water at 5:30 in the morning I started to laugh. "God thank you for your answer to my prayer. I wish I hadn't needed the sledge hammer treatment, though!"
So now that you've gotten the message, maybe you'll get a break from water-related disaters. Sorry to hear about all the water trauma, but I'm glad you have good support (and a good plumber).
In our household, messages come from spiders. We've had quite a few in this house, but the doozie was really in our house in Las Vegas. A big BIG black widow spider who set up a maternity ward under a desk in the garage. I don't care WHAT message you have for me, please send something a bit less, well, venomous!
Let me just say that I grateful that the water in the basement did not require any cleaning and did not involve any venomous creatures. Yikes! :)
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