Thursday, December 18, 2008

Surface & Dive

You know how sometimes you go to bed, cuddle down under the covers and just know it will all look better in the morning? I’m soooooo not there tonight.

Truthfully, it’s been kinda a rough year. The job is good, the husband is great, but the rest of it…meh.

Last night was worse than it has been though. Our water heater crapped out last Saturday. It was leaking gallons of water everywhere in the basement (blessing: it’s situated away from most of the valuable stuff and drained into the only working floor drain) but was still making enough tepid water so we could do quickish showers (though hair washing has been done in the sink with cold). So we’d turn it off and wait for the next time we HAD to use it or just go shower at the neighbors. Let me state for the record: cold showers during the holiday season do not stir up a festive spirit.

Today we finally got a new hot water heater installed. Yay!

I just tried to take my first hot shower in nearly a week. The water only trickled out. Boo.

It turns out when they replaced the water main out in the street a few weeks ago, the nice clean line increased everyone’s water pressure. Apparently the savvy homeowners who know about the effects of new lines on old houses got themselves down to their water shut off valves and twisted them until ordinary water pressure was restored. Us? Well, we thought it was weird we could suddenly exfoliate in the shower without even trying, but just went along our merry ways with extra-shiny skin.

Side note: hyphenate adjectives that describe adjectives when they are placed before a noun (e.g. extra-shiny skin low-flow shower head).

Return to regularly scheduled programing:

This extra pressure is probably what lead to the demise of our poor water heater’s tank. That, or perhaps the fact that it was installed in the same year Claus von Bulow was found guilty of attempting to murder his wife.

So this morning found us showering at the gym. I think I’ll do it again tomorrow. The fix-it guy (another hyphen, thank you), will be back with a regulator that will allow normal water pressure in our pipes again in the afternoon and then we can be done with that particular brand of silliness. Thank goodness I have a hubby who can work from home now and then.

Past that, we have an offer on the house. Yay! But the mortgage company has changed the numbers we have to work with to get rid of it. Boo.

Tax guy says it’s an ok deal. Real estate agent says it isn’t. Dad thinks it’s ok. CFO at work thinks it’s crap. Financial counselor from church is not ready to make a recommendation, but seems to be leaning toward it’s livable, but very bad for a very long while. The deficit we’d still be liable for is a dreamender when added to our other debts. No starting the adoption process in 2009. No going part time to care for a baby. No trading up for a car that has under 120K miles on it and doesn’t need monthly trips to the shop. And our credit will still go up in smoke. BUT, we’d be free of that house….and it’s only money.


The final thing that’s been on my mind is Grandpa. He’s continuing to slide. It’s tough to talk to him on the phone and have him forget who I am every few sentences. I’m usually one of my aunts to him. Bums me out.

The communication moratorium has been lifted (we went to court with the tenants, nothing happened, we get to go back January 28th), but I’m kind of a Debbie Downer at the moment and having a hard time getting started talking to friends again since we’ve been blowing through all 1500 of our minutes trying to sort out the house. And then:

A girl fell to her death at our church last night.(www.crossroads.net)

The "Taliband" gang was busted in our neighborhood a few weeks ago.

And our deaf neighbor had his house broken into last Friday. Who does that?

Um, God? Could you please recheck your plan on this stuff? ‘Cause it seems kinda, um, well, crappy, to be part of some universal purpose.

But really, all is not doom and gloom. We get to see David’s family in a few days, both have somewhat secure jobs, have just completed Financial Peace University (and loved the group we went through it with). We have our health and each other (I love, love, love the patient, encouraging, gentle man I’m married to.). It really doesn’t matter that that nice couple we were starting to really connect with turned out to be swingers. We’ll still love them, just at a bit more of a distance emotionally.

So that’s the first update in a long time. It’s not as hearts and flowers as I’d have liked, but it is what it is (and I hate that phrase and use it anyway). Eh, tomorrow I dive right back in. This too shall pass.