EDIT: Of course, after all that BS, it's sloooowwwwly doing its job now. For the moment anyway. Definitely on the First Thing To Repair list though.
If it's not one thing it's another.
So... as any of you following the sitcom that is my life know, I hurt my knee (more details here), and here is the Inigo Montoya summation: My left knee has hella-arthritis, my right knee probably has a torn meniscus root, but I can't get in for an MRI for another nine days. I can't drive (which means I can't work my day job) but I can do my side gigs of remote technical writing (if I can find any).
So... (she says again) I'm minding my own, feeling proud of myself for staying within budget for the Fun Things We Had Already Had Planned, feeling even more proud of myself for taking hold of my life and working to lose some of the weight that is affecting these knees in their first place. I got a really nice note from my dad (who has just introduced my stepmother(!) to my blog) for my writing style, humor, etc., and I was feeling good about myself, bad knees and unfit body and all.
And the water heater goes out.
This has happened before, including when were still moving in, over ten years ago (that time they just replaced it since it started out that way. Also, why in the hell do these things happen when I am injured and unable to drive?). It has happened several times since then - one time the plumbers even came out and took a look - but it has always been fixable by merely resetting the breaker. It happened Friday (and I had a tantrum because I had really sore knees and couldn't take a shower), but we reset it and it worked fine through Saturday. Happened again Sunday evening and Lizzy noted that it seemed to be more frequent.
And now today. Monday. Today it won't even reset at all. My dishwasher is running a cold load of dishes, evidently, because my dishwasher doesn't heat the water on its own. Grand.
So I went online, and Google told me that replacing a water heater costs about a thousand dollars, maybe $1200. It's a small house (mobile home), with a small water heater (30 gallons, I think), so I can probably scrape that up (while I stayed well within my budget for Fun Things, etc., that does not mean that my savings accounts are reasonable yet... since the last plumbing disaster). I googled how to get a water heater replaced and Home Depot said they would have a trusted, bonded, insured, sensitive clever, well-mannered, considerate, partner call me. Awesome; maybe we can work something out.
No. Not really. For $2369, we are unlikely to be able to work something out.
Why so expensive? Apparently, 30-gallon ones don't exist anymore. Well, nothing much bigger is going to fit in this tiny closet on my back porch.
Now what the hell do I do?
In the past when there has been some sort of water problem, we've gone to my mom's house a block or so away and used her stuff (thanks, mom) but I can't do that right now - I can't drive and it's not a straight, grid-layout block with a sidewalk; it would take me ages to crutch my way up there.
At least we can flush a toilet this time and the issue is hot water. We can heat it on the stove if we have to, and Lizzy already has done, cleaning out the crisper drawers in the fridge. But I also can't freaking carry it anywhere, not while using crutches.
So I write it all down, as one does (if one is me) in my patented sarcastic way, and that helps with the emotional, aaaarrrrgggghhh part of today's programming. I'm sure I'll come up with something.
Wish me luck.
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