a hot shower

Is a hot shower too much to ask? Is moving into a house you love, near people you love, in a state that you love too much "good?" Does having all that move you into the "you've got too much good going on to deserve anything else" category? It must. We've lived in shower-hell for three and a half weeks now. I think I mentioned when we first moved in we couldn't use the master shower because the faucet wouldn't work. Then the water heater didn't work properly. And the upstairs shower was apparently made for people without elbows as people with elbows can't possibly bend them to wash their hair without hitting the walls (seriously, showers in RVs are bigger than our upstairs shower). Then we realized that the downstairs shower didn't drain properly so that using it meant that you were constantly standing in an inch of water that you had to attempt to squeegee out when you were done lest you breed mosquitoes in the bathroom. That was weeks ago. Last week, we finally got the tile people to come out to fix the shower bottom...you know, eliminate that pesky standing water-malaria spreading issue. They found that the original tile moron (because he doesn't deserve the title tile "guy") put a screw through one of our pipes, which clearly had to be fixed. Oh, and the water heater crapped out again. Turns out the water heater was hooked up incorrectly. So, the pipe had to be fixed anyway. Upon fixing it, they realized that one of the fittings under the house was wrong. We had no water for six hours last Tuesday. At least I think it was Tuesday. Soooo- the tile situation sat on the backburner that day, and the retiling of the shower lasted through the weekend meaning we were relegated to taking showers in the little people shower. Then the water heater crapped out again. When they came to fix it yesterday, they found another leak under the house, which meant no water for eight hours while they waited on a plumber. While waiting on the plumber, however, they did reattach the shower door, which I did appreciate...even though they lost some of the screws and they have to come fix it because it won't seal properly as it is.

Okay, are you lost yet? Are you running to your bathrooms to thank your shower for always working? Are you thanking your water heater, too? You should.

I was so happy to be back in a warm, draining, full-sized-human shower last night, even though I continually had to turn around and re-shut the door, that I stayed in there for 20 minutes. Environment, be damned. As the shower I had yesterday morning at the gym had been my best shower to date in Tennessee, last night's shower was almost like having died and gone to heaven. Or like having died and come back as George Clooney's pillow. It was great.

Of course, M had a cold-ish shower this morning, so I'm not sure our water heater woes are entirely behind us. It's completely insane...that's not even the end of the list of the plumbing issues. The tiny shower has a leak. The bathtub blew out it's washer and has to have the water cut off unless we're filling the tub. The dishwasher doesn't get anything clean. We're getting there, though. And I still love this house. I love it. I keep having these visions of how great everything will be when everything is done. Oh, I just can't wait.

I hope you're all having a fantastic Thursday. I'm off to put some geraniums into pots before they blow off the front porch in their little plastic tubs. I had planned to re-pot them yesterday, but I didn't have water, remember? It's amazing how many things you can't do without water. Amazing. I don't recommend trying it.

I'm out, peeps.