Our top-notch plumbing team finally removed all their equipment from our property this morning. What should have been a one-day project spilled over parts of three days. In the process, a neighbor’s irrigation line was cut, the phone line was severed, the plumber’s tractor broke down in our neighbor’s driveway (and sat motionless for roughly 24 hours – luckily the neighbors had both of their cars out of the garage), three of our neighbors along with our house went without power for seven hours on Monday (only 89˚ that day), and S. and I engaged in an epic argument with the power company regarding who was responsible for the bill.
Fortunately, the pipes have been fixed, the phones are working, our neighbor’s sprinkler was repaired, and the A/C is blowing cool air.
We had the added satisfaction of having the power company agree to reimburse us for the costs of the repairs, which apparently doesn’t happen very often. I had an argument with a supervisor on the phone, and when I asked him to please come take a look at the situation, he kept telling me it would be a “wasted trip.”
When he arrived, he was in the pit for no more than two minutes before he looked at me and said, “Send us the bill.”
My blood pressure, which was sky-high until that moment, settled comfortably into the normal zone. I believe we also set some kind of record for most service vehicles in front of one house. At one point yesterday, we had two plumber vans, one flatbed truck, one tractor, three phone company vans, a dump truck, and an electric company truck parked out front.
When we say jump, people say “How high?”
Best thing about all of this: our shitter works again!