Thursday, June 15, 2006
The Shoemaker's Children Revisited
Back in the beginning of my blogging days, I told the story of the shoemaker's children having no shoes as it related to my being married to a plumber and (big surprise) having unresolved plumbing issues. Last Sunday afternoon my husband and I spent a pleasant afternoon aboard the boat of another plumber and his wife and lo and behold, she made the shoemaker analogy within the first half hour!!
Apparently Carol had decided to water the new plants she had had put in and needed to attach the Miracle Grow dispenser to her hose to water and nourish the young plants. Well, her husband, the plumber, had years before put in what we call a commercial hose bib which basically means it has no knob to turn and requires a special key to turn on and off. So Carol attempts to squeeze the hose together long enough to remove the existing nozzle and attach the new dispenser. Needless to say, she wound up soaked head to toe and called her husband who was already aboard the boat to share in her misery. After he walked her through how to turn the water off, he offered to come home and help but was told quite firmly not to bother.
When Doug & I arrived at the boat, Ed couldn't wait to fill us in on his wife's mishap, laughing all the while, yet admitting he was in for it when she arrived. And right he was....it took all of five minutes for Carol to bring up this damned hose bib and the trouble it caused. It seems she had been after Ed for years to change it to the regular kind anyone can turn off and on.........this is where the shoemaker came in. I was immediately sympathetic as I have had a non-functioning toilet for three weeks now. Despite threats and promises, I sit here still with a toilet that only flushes when you reach into the tank (YUCK) and manually lift the flushing mechanism. Granted the water in the tank is clean, but still.....nasty!!
As Carol and I lamented the lack of attention to our plumbing needs, we finally came to the conclusion that the only solution was for us to call the other's husband's company for service and give the guys the bill!! Now where did I put the shoemaker's...I mean Ed's number??
Back in the beginning of my blogging days, I told the story of the shoemaker's children having no shoes as it related to my being married to a plumber and (big surprise) having unresolved plumbing issues. Last Sunday afternoon my husband and I spent a pleasant afternoon aboard the boat of another plumber and his wife and lo and behold, she made the shoemaker analogy within the first half hour!!
Apparently Carol had decided to water the new plants she had had put in and needed to attach the Miracle Grow dispenser to her hose to water and nourish the young plants. Well, her husband, the plumber, had years before put in what we call a commercial hose bib which basically means it has no knob to turn and requires a special key to turn on and off. So Carol attempts to squeeze the hose together long enough to remove the existing nozzle and attach the new dispenser. Needless to say, she wound up soaked head to toe and called her husband who was already aboard the boat to share in her misery. After he walked her through how to turn the water off, he offered to come home and help but was told quite firmly not to bother.
When Doug & I arrived at the boat, Ed couldn't wait to fill us in on his wife's mishap, laughing all the while, yet admitting he was in for it when she arrived. And right he was....it took all of five minutes for Carol to bring up this damned hose bib and the trouble it caused. It seems she had been after Ed for years to change it to the regular kind anyone can turn off and on.........this is where the shoemaker came in. I was immediately sympathetic as I have had a non-functioning toilet for three weeks now. Despite threats and promises, I sit here still with a toilet that only flushes when you reach into the tank (YUCK) and manually lift the flushing mechanism. Granted the water in the tank is clean, but still.....nasty!!
As Carol and I lamented the lack of attention to our plumbing needs, we finally came to the conclusion that the only solution was for us to call the other's husband's company for service and give the guys the bill!! Now where did I put the shoemaker's...I mean Ed's number??
