Plumbing Joy and Father's Day
We've had this leak in our spare bedroom bathroom for about, oh, a couple of years. But recently, I dropped the hand-held shower and it cracked when it hit the tile, which necessitated the installation of a new shower head by my father-in-law when he was here over Memorial Day.
Unfortunately, we still had a leak.
In fact, the leak was worse so I put a bucket under it while my husband was traveling and used the water to water the plants. Oh, look at me, I'm so thrifty! HAH!
Anyway, we decided to fix it today. So far, we're on our fifth trip to the store--various stores, including this wonderful old plumbing supply store where the people knew more than you and I ever will or want to about plumbing parts. Our water has been off all day, except after the first time when we put the stuff together again in hopes that we could just get it back to the LEAKING stage so that it could leak for the rest of the weekend and then we'd call a plumber. Only that didn't work and we had a gusher so now we HAVE to fix it or cap it or SOMETHING.
We've cut a hole in the wall on the other side of the bathroom wall,
in hopes of fixing the plumbing problem without having to re-do the whole tile thing. Not that I don't love to tile but I hadn't planned on it right now and if I have to tile that bathroom, I'm not using that cheap cream colored tile again. I'm going with glass tile which has to be special ordered.Anyway, now we've got our handy friend Ian helping us over the phone and our incredible neighbor (and Coop's best friend) from down the road helping us in person and in the midst of all this, his wife is taking care of our two girls plus her three. She's going to bring them swimming in a bit and asked for margaritas so I made them and suddenly, as I was mixing them up, I started to cry.
See, it's Father's Day tomorrow. And I don't know, I was just really missing being able to call my dad and ask him about this plumbing problem. He could fix anything, my dad.
I'm 42 years old. My father died in 1989. He's been gone a long time. I still just really miss him sometimes. It makes me realize how big an impact parental relationships have on kids, and how much little girls love their fathers.
Yesterday, at the girl's summer dance camp recital, I just happened to have a camera on Jane when she spotted Coop--who had left work to come watch this fifteen minute show because that's the kind of dad he is. Look at this face:
Dads are important--at least, the good ones are.
Happy Father's Day.
Comments
I agree that Dads are important. We moved from Dallas to be closer to my parents as we have children (we're even in the same town as my folks, and Knight's Dad is in South Austin).
And LOL about the plumber. I won't even let Tom or the father in law try anymore... we just call the plumber.
I think the thing about dads is that no matter how many guys there are that hurt you, a dad never makes that list. He's strong and will protect you against the evils in the world no matter how small, and it doesn't matter how old you get, he never stops seeing you as the newborn in his arms.
My dad died early last year, and it would be JUST like him to come back as a "plumbing leak"! I mean, he was always saying he had to take a leak...maybe your dad figured as a joke on you he'd give you one back, so you'd remember him on Father's day.
I hope your leak is fixed by now. My totally swamped saggy leaky basement ceiling is now totally fixed, as were the TWO leaking toilets upstairs. OH! HI DAD!
Sarah