TAKING NOTES

It felt like a normal Saturday morning. I came out of the shower, dressed, went into the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher then turned it on.

Next, I went downstairs to put in a load of laundry.

After that I headed to our bathroom to finish getting ready for the day.

As I came into the bathroom I noticed the shower stall was filled with water that hadn’t been there when I’d showered.

“Uh, oh!” I ran to the kitchen to turn off the dishwasher and quickly headed to the laundry room to shut off the washing machine.

I saw, out of the kitchen window, that my husband Steven was working in the garden. I ran to the back door.

“Steven! Water’s backing up in our shower stall!” I cried.

Steven seemed unfazed. “Okay, when I’m done out here I’ll come in and use a snake.” He stopped and looked over at me. “Or maybe I’ll use an auger instead.”

“So it’s not an emergency?” I asked.

Steven went back to getting the garden ready for planting. “Not if it isn’t still coming up.” He knocked the ice off one of the planters.

“Oh, okay.” I closed the door and headed back to the bathroom. “What’s an auger?” I said to myself as I double-checked to see that the water wasn’t coming up any further in the shower.

My son, Alex came to my bedroom door. “Do you want to go for a walk?” he asked.

“I’m not sure.” I looked over at the shower. “Do you think I need to stay and help Dad unclog the drain?”

Alex shook his head and laughed. “Have you ever helped him do it before?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “No. Not really.” I looked over at the shower stall again. “But, what if he wasn’t here?”

Alex looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Remember when your Dad went away a few winters ago and the pipes in the bathroom froze?”

“Kind of.”

“I called your Dad in a panic because I wasn’t sure what to do!”

“So, you called him and he walked you through it.” Alex still looked confused. “What’s the problem?”

“The problem is, I should know how to fix things around the house too!”

Steven came into the bedroom. “Okay, I’m done with the garden.” He looked over at the shower stall. “I’m thinking the auger will do the trick.”

“You know.” I looked over at Alex. “Maybe I should stay.” I looked over at Steven. “I should really know how to fix more things around here.”

Steven’s eyebrows went up and a smile lit up his face. “Really?” He looked back at the shower. “You do realize it could be hair or grease?” He looked back at me with a concerned looked on his face. “Whatever it is it’s going to be messy and smelly.”

I crinkled my nose. “Okay, maybe I’ll pass on this one.” I looked over at Alex. “Why don’t we take our walk and when we get back maybe I could start taking notes on where all the shut off valves are and other things you think are necessary to fix around the house.”

Steven started to laugh. “So it’s a pass with the auger?”

I nodded my head. “I’m going to stick with my plunger skills for right now.”