Things Fall Apart

When David left to start planting this spring, everything was in pretty good shape around here--except for the perpetually dripping bathtub faucet. We don't pride ourselves on being particularly "green," but the faucet definitely demoted our status if we were ever the palest shade of sea foam. On and on it dripped until I finally became immune to the sound and then the rest of the house's plumbing started to rebel.
I believe the toilet handle was next. Always temperamental, it suddenly became increasingly touchy, usually continuing to run right along side its friend the bathtub.
Teresa walked into some water near our basement wall one day, but since it was in our utility room with a floor drain and no carpet, I didn't get too worried about it. David also figured it was water coming in through the wall, even though we have never had a problem with water before. Then it started to get worse. And worse. Everything I had on the floor on the north side of the room was soaked. About a week ago, David found the problem--our water heater was leaking. I literally cheered when he found it. It meant it could be fixed without extensive work to our house's foundation. But--it still had to be fixed and repair was at least a week away. It would have to wait until after planting.
So, it became my job twice a day to sweep the water down the drain. (We found that the floor conveniently slopes away from the drain.) Even with a bucket catching some of the water, it was still dripping from an undetermined source. Then the drain started getting slower, and slower, and slower. It was at that point, with the bathtub dripping away in the bathroom above that I started to get nervous. My husband has talent in many, many things, but plumbing is not high on the list. Neither is calling a professional. Would anything ever get fixed?
Then, on a sort of similar note, my clothes line fell down. It was then that I started to get really grouchy. I do laundry. Alot. I do laundry probably more than I would really have to because I like to see the piles of dirty clothes go away--if only for a day or two. Everytime I went down to do laundry, I not only saw the water mess accumulating along the wall, but knew that the wash and dry cycle would take longer without a clothes line to hang the bedding and jeans on outside. I can take a lot, but when something interferes with my laundry, it is the last straw.
Finally, finally, we were able to go to Aberdeen last night to get a new water heater. We were even able to go to a nice dinner and a movie, thanks to my in-laws for keeping the kids at their house.
I'm not sure if it was the time out with my husband without kids, or the fact that he was downstairs installing it right away this morning, but grouchy wife and mom was replaced with happy wife and mom today.
The weather was beautiful, David was around the farm for most of the day, the boys were at Bible school this morning, I mowed the lawn, got my haircut with Teresa along--she was wonderfully behaved by the way--and, to top it all off, my garden continues to come up and actually look good for the first time ever.
Meanwhile, the bathtub continues to leak. But there is hope. David plans to get at that soon. As for the slow drain, I heard the most welcome suggestion from my husband this morning, "Maybe you should call someone."