Sandy the Survivor!

Last night as I came down to do a small load of laundry I heard water running, like it does when you are watering your lawn. Now since it has been too cold here to do that (water my lawn), I became rather suspicious. The noise lead me to my hot water heater and there to my horror I saw water flowing out from the bottom.

Right, so what do I do? Panic? Well actually I didn’t this time. I told Nick to go next door and get my neighbour Al. Back he comes, Nick, Al and Pat all to inspect the hot water heater. Al inspected the bottom of the heater where the water had been running out, he commended me on knowing enough to turn the water valve that ran into the heater off, (thanks Al, I knew I had it in me to be a little bright about some things), filled me in on the history of hot water heaters, then gave me the name of a plumber friend he use to work for. More hot water story experiences, a reminder that my house was getting older and for sure there would be more maintenance problems in the future which was going to cost me a ton of $$$$, and some tips on my taxes (Did you know you can claim your kids education on your return? No Al but I will look into it… perhaps next year as this year I already filled out my taxes.) and then off they went.


The tax information sparked Nicholas to go into a crazed rampage because he still had not done his taxes from 2005 because he could not find a T4 slip that has been buried in the rubble of his room since he received it. He ranted on about how everything was falling apart in the house (oh did I mention the iron he needed to iron a shirt at this very same time stopped working?), and how he could never find anything and how we should just sell the damn place then stomped out of the house into his car and was not seen until this morning.

Rather than fall apart, I took the bull by the horns! I wrote an email to my boss telling him of the situation and how I would be taking the day off. I called the plumber Al suggested and left a message on his machine. I told Heather when she got in last night that she would have to skip a shower before she went to work in the morning, to which she boldly pronounced she was not adverse to a good cold shower first thing in the morning (atta' girl!), then I went to bed and surprisingly had the soundest sleep I have had in a very long time.

6:00 am I was up heating water in my pots, washed my hair and waited for the plumber to return my call. By 8:00 am this morning I decided it was time to look in the yellow pages, rather than wait for a return call.

‘Aroplumbing’ “Fast Friendly Service”, the guy in the photo looked a little too friendly. ‘The Punctual Plumber’… “Relax and consider it fixed!”… I don’t know, that sounded too much like Gary’s line when he knew something had to be fixed and really didn’t want to do it so I had to nag him to death to get it done. And really, how punctual can a plumber be? ‘AAAAabacus Plumbing’, I am always suspicious of someone who has to be first on the Yellow Pages list with all those A’s in front of their original name, why not stand by the quality of your service “Zoe’s Plumbing, we guarantee to be at your home shortly after you call, do an exemplary job, guarantee our service AND won’t gouge you because there is a shortage of plumbers in the city!"

How about ‘Julie’s Plumbing & Heating’, no offence to women who are quite capable of doing a fine job in whatever profession they are in, but somehow, I just can’t see Julie being alpha dog over some 6 foot guy with a plumbers wrench in his hand and the crack of his ass showing as he bends down to figure out just what the hell is wrong with your plumbing!

Lastly, how about ‘Pete the Plumber’ ? I’ve seen Pete’s vans all over town. There is a comic symbol of a blue Hulk-like figure, (like the guy swallowed toilet bowl cleaner or something) on all his work vans. Pete tells me in his ad that he “wants to educate me about Flat Rate Pricing” and that I can call and talk to Pete personally if I’m not happy with his service… probably all the guys Pete hires are named Pete and if he does such a fine job why ever would I need to call him to tell him I’m unhappy in the first place? And really, what professional has a comic book character-like figure as it’s symbol of excellence?

So who did I call in the end? Well, I called 'Ace Water Heaters Only Inc.' A family business, for 36 years that has “Fast & Reliable Service, Low Prices, No Extra Charges”, and has “Standard installations usually within 1 hour.” The phone was answered immediately by a lovely woman who explained to me the basics of hot water heaters (of which I was most knowledgeable since Al’s lecture on the history of hot water tanks of last evening). She quoted three prices and suggested what I should choose with my given budget and said she would not charge me for taking away the old heater, which, I might add they recycled rather than just throw it in the local dump.

It took the guy 20 min to get to my home, another 20-30 min for him to replace and install the new heater and take the old one away. He was pleasant and informative (to Nick for by this time he had returned home and I sent him downstairs watch over the guy and educate himself on how to install a water heater, while I sat in the kitchen with the howling dogs.)

Now we have hot water once again.

Oh ladies and gentlemen, how we so take for granted the luxuries that we have in our culture. Running, hot water, what a concept, how our lives turn upside down when we don’t have it.

I love experiences like this, just reminds me how fortunate I am, what a pleasant life I lead. Also teaches me that there is no point in panicking over things I have no control over, that if there is a job to be done, common sense, a cool temper and $1052.55 (or my first born… PLEASE Take my first born!!!), will solve the problem.


Who says I need a man to get things done! Just call “SANDY THE SURVIVOR!” (Ok it was a guy who fixed it but that is a minor detail!)