This post on Facebook got a few comments…
Always, ALWAYS shower on Saturday nights…because as sure as you don’t, the power will go off and on and off and on, the tub faucet won’t shut off EVER, so the water will have to be shut off and you’ll be stuck at church with soapy arms and pits, dirty hair and a foul-smelling mouth. Thank God for dry shampoo, hats and old water from a water bottle, is all I have to say. Well, actually, I have a lot more to say on the subject, but I’ll leave it at that.
Some wanted the “more to say on the subject” so here we go. It’s not too late to stop reading if you are of the faint of heart persuasion.
I woke up yesterday morning at 5:56 to the bright fan light abruptly turning on by itself. I got up and turned it off, realizing we must have been out of power for a while. Nate had already called the power company hours earlier and they came out, but there was a loud explosion in our street at one point, so it sounded like the power company was having some troubles.
If you have been reading this blog for any length of time or if you own a house yourself, you know that there are seasons when everything in your house either breaks, explodes or floods. Or is that really just us? Don’t answer that. We’ve been in one of those seasons for a LONG time now.
It is taxing and it drives me to eat.
But that’s a topic for another day.
Before I continue, I must also say I prefer this season to seasons of not getting along or seasons of sickness…
Anyhoo…season of house and the things in the house falling apart…that is what we’re in. And back to yesterday morning~ of course, it was a Sunday. It couldn’t be a scuzzy Saturday! That would just be too easy.
I was cuddling Indigo, playing Scramble with friends (my latest game addiction) on my phone and lazing way longer than I should, intellectually speaking. I know there are a million ways for a Sunday morning to go wrong and have written about a few of those ways on this wee ole blog.
Let me digress (again~ goodness, how many digressions am I gonna take on this single post?) to say that our Saturday WAS indeed a scuzzy one, complete with lazing around and the kids playing on their new RipStiks~ hello, new reason to get on my knees in prayer!
Knowing it might be the last truly beautiful warm day we would have for a while, I caved when the kids asked if they could wait to take their baths in the morning. They played until the last possible minute and even though they desperately needed cleaning up, once they sat down, they were so sore and tired, I just sent them to bed.
Big mistake. Never ever succumb to this temptation.
So, when Indigo and I did hop up yesterday, we knew we had to scramble. I ran his bath water and didn’t run much water because I planned to take a shower while he was in the bath. I would wake Greyley up after my shower so she could get hers. Lucky Smart Duck Nate had taken his shower earlier like the good man he is. And since he vowed to me on our wedding day, 18 years ago (that very day!), that he would shower every day, he was feeling extra keen on keeping that promise.
Normally, Nate would already be gone, but due to the power outage, he had already had his hands full and was running late too. I don’t know, he might have tried to take me down in Scramble too, but that’s neither here nor there. Thank GOD he was still there.
I leaned over the tub to turn Indie’s water off~ he was already in there, splashing away~ and the faucet for the cold water just kept turning and turning and not stopping. There was already so little water in there that Indigo was getting cold right away and I said, “Uh, Nate…this faucet isn’t turning off.”
He tried and realized it wasn’t going to stop.
I don’t know why I didn’t turn the hot water on at this point and fill up the tub. Next time, I will think of that. But instead, I dunked Indigo in the water as fast as I could and helped him rinse his hair out while his teeth started chattering. Nate went down to the basement to turn the water off, Indie lifted the plug out of habit and that’s when I realized I needed to leave for church in 30 minutes and still wasn’t clean. I jumped in the water puddle that was left and began sudsing up, not bothering to plug the little that was left. I should have…but I didn’t. Again, next time, I shall know better. I got good and soaped up as the last trickle of water went down the drain.
I guess it’s a blessing that I hadn’t started on my hair.
I jumped out of the empty tub and began drying off the soap. In case you’re wondering, dried soap on your armpits feels very sticky. Deodorant doesn’t help. When Nate turned the water back on for a minute, the water went nuts out of the faucet and we scrambled to keep it from flooding out of the top of the tub, but I did take that opportunity to also splash my pits. It helped immensely. I didn’t manage to get my arms too, for the pits were the main concern.
Thank the Lord for dry shampoo. I’ve already talked on here about how long I could probably go without washing my hair with the curls/frizz, but I’ve always been a little scared of testing that theory, except for when I’m sick. I don’t even want to know how long I can probably go. I just wash it every other day and leave it at that. But it was already past my comfort level, thanks to my slothfulness on scuzzy Saturday and so I spruced it up with the dry shampoo, did curly pony tails and can I just say that I got loads of compliments on my hair…ha! Fist pump high in the air! Curse you, you wretched faucet!
Around this time, we realized we were out of a bass player for the morning service and while Nate tried to pull the washer and dryer out (it’s on the other side of the wall to the bathtub), he was also trying to hunt down another bass player. Who says men can’t multitask?
Greyley stumbled in around this time and wondered why there was no water in her bathroom.
By now, we were scared to turn the water back on and were running very late, so Indigo and Greyley got plastic baggies and packed our toothbrushes and toothpaste and we hurried off to church. If you’re new to this blog~ my husband and I work for our church/the music department. I’m sure if we didn’t we would have skipped yesterday, if not to A) celebrate our anniversary, then B) to figure out this mess. But we do, so we went and had a good time. It was a nice reprieve. We also had a delicious lunch at Red Lobster, using a Christmas gift certificate (woohoo!) and then Nate surprised me with these lovelies…
Aren’t they beautiful? We were still in great spirits and maintaining our humor about the whole day. We enjoyed some ice cream and laughed at Indigo’s attempt to wipe all the chocolate ice cream off his chin. It just would not go away…where’s an almost empty water bottle when you need it???
And then we got home and tried to tackle the water situation again. Nate had called a plumber friend on our way home and he’d told him what he needed tool-wise, but suggested he continue looking for the shut-off valve for the bathtub. It was our friend’s Easter and so he was in the thick of celebrating. Nate finally got the washer and dryer out~ not an easy feat with where it’s located, how massive it is and the mostly wood/partly carpet situation underneath…only to find out that there IS no shut-off valve for the bathtub. It’s an older house. It’s not there.
This is all over a couple of hours of sweat, aggravation and more aggravation. I started getting snippy with the kids (and their blasted RipStiks~ WHY, for the love of all that is holy?) and tried to keep all of us as clean as possible because we had a church concert to go to in just 5 minutes. Again, we do the stinkin’ music at our church, so skipping was not an option at this point. (Yes, I realize I had a bad attitude. Pray for me.) We used leftover water from water bottles to brush our teeth and this time I wore a hat. Perfume was also in the mix. Someone even told me I smelled good and I had a good giggle inside, but just said, “Thank you” like my Mama would.
Nate dropped me off outside Cub grocery store to get snacks for the guest band performing at our church that night. I ran in alone since I’m the speedy quick one and I went through the self check-out lane because all the others were so long. I had scathing words with the electronic scanner for being such a nitwit and finally got out of there, breathing sighs of relief when we reached the church parking lot.
Once we had the refreshments all nicely laid out and greeted our guests and met the ones we didn’t know, my friend asked if I had any medicine for his headache. When I went to get my bag is the first time I realized I’d left my purse at Cub. In the self check-out lane. In a not-so-great part of town.
Nate rushed over to Cub. I fought the near hysteria that threatened to take over my addled brain. I called Cub, GOT SOMEONE (can you believe it!), she let me spill out my guts without giving anything away until I had said some key word (still not sure what that was), but FINALLY she said SHE HAD IT. Oh, thank GOD. I went weak in the knees and tried to stop the sweat that threatened to take over since I didn’t know how long I’d be stuck with it.
The concert was excellent~ Jonathan Thulin and Charmaine. Watch for their single to come out soon, “Dead Come to Life.” They’re insanely good together.
It was 10:30 before we got home. We didn’t even attempt to do anything but use the bottled water we’d brought home…it would have to wait until tomorrow.
We collapsed into bed and fell asleep watching youtube videos on plumbing.
The saga continues today. I can’t even begin on that or I’ll never get this post finished, but I will tell you that after pony tails and then a hat, the hair is not faring too well, my friends…not well at all.
