Oh, of course I can handle one more thing…

As I’m giving Walker his bath tonight, Larry asks me, “Did you put the laundry in the machine?”

“Um, no.”

There was a rather insistant hissing coming from the garage so Larry went down to investigate. Walker had been having a bit of a difficult time as he’s anti-nap these days. He takes 5-30 minute naps a few times a day which isn’t nearly enough, so he’s a little cranky at night. Tonight was no exception so I thought I’d divert him with a nice relaxing bath. He likes his baths. As I’m making “Soapy Baby” (one of our favorite games), Larry yells up from downstairs that the water heater has broken and we have water all over our floor. Now, I remind you that we’re publishers. That means we have books in our garage. Yes, books. So adding 40 gallons of hot water to the floor of the garage turns books into pulp. YAY! I have Potentially Cranky Soapy Baby in my hands and Larry is running around downstairs moving boxes. I remind him to turn off the water which he does but water is still pumping out the bottom of the tank. I calmly finish Walker’s bath so he doesn’t realize anything is amiss, and I get him dried off, diapered and clothed.

Walker decides this is not a job for small boys so he lays in his crib and watches his bees go ’round and ’round while Mommy goes downstairs and reads the directions for turning off the gas to the heater. Done! Now, we have to find a plumber. I have one but he’s not calling me back since he came to fix the kitchen sink and I’ve been trying to get him to return because when I turn off the water, it takes about 3 seconds for the water to completely turn off (it must be draining from the hose). I call my stepmother for a plumber recommendation since it’s 8:15 and I’m not about to get some opportunistic guy from the yellow pages who smells panic and wants to turn it into some serious GREEN. Jane is driving to Nevada City so as a responsible driver, she graciously pulls over and looks up the name of her guy in her Palm Pilot. I call the plumber’s cell as Larry continues to sweep water that is draining out of the tank from the garage into the driveway. The plumber is very sweet and senses the edge in my voice (and at this point, Walker is no longer interested in the bees and is using his “outside voice” A LOT). He sweetly confirms that we turned off the water and gas correctly and tells us how we can connect a garden hose to the tank to take control of draining the water rather than having a slow-running 40-gallon leak that could go until 2am. He’ll be here in the morning. In the meantime I’m researching tankless water heaters. Might as well take the opportunity to go green.

Walker finally went to sleep. I guess he’s not interested in water heaters. I’ll keep you updated on the progress. Good thing it’s hot out here so a cold shower isn’t such a sacrifice.

I’m picking up Thayer from the airport tomorrow morning. Apparently the waves were small in Indonesia so he spent a lot of time lolling around with the surfers on the yacht which isn’t as much fun as risking a broken neck in the middle of the sea. I’ll get the details and pass along the most entertaining stories.

I leave you with this advice, if you don’t have the name of a good plumber, make sure you get one before you really need it.