Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Part Two: Things I Need to Teach My Daughter + Real Change

Okay, so the months are blurring together, and in just six weeks it will be a year since Dane died. I wrote about some things I would need to teach our daughter since he isn't here to do it, and I am steady adding to the list.

Most recently:

1. You need to know where the water shut off is in your house. And sometimes shutting it off at the street is not a possibility, so you need to know where the valve is in the house. If there isn't a valve in the house, call a plumber and have them install one. It will be $300, approximately, and worth every freaking penny when there is water gushing out of a pipe under your house, in the dark, when it is 20 degrees out.

2. You need to know how to flush a toilet without running water. Good knowledge for boating also.

3. You need to become one with the whore's bath, or as my friend Kerry calls it, the PTA bath. Especially after three hours of yoga in a house without water, and another hour and a half planned before there is water.

You may have guessed that a pipe burst in our house. Last night. In the dark. After hours.

And the best part? Seriously?

My first thought when the pipe burst (after, "Oh, shit.") was thank god I know where the shut off valve is. This may seem trivial, but if Dane was alive I would not have known that. And if I had not known that and Dane was alive but out of town like he frequently was, then I would have been royally screwed.

And then my second thought was that it is a sign of real change that my first thought (after, "Oh, shit.") was one of gratitude. And then I put on the knee pads, grabbed the headlamp, threw on the Carhartt, and dragged myself the length of the house to stop the deluge.

So there's that.

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