If Murphy’s Law is, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” the Mechanical Law would be, “What can break down, will break down.” That’s the one that ruled at our house last week.
My parents had most of the same appliances the entire time I lived at home. I think they bought them at a yard sale Noah had after he got off the ark. They had a freezer that lasted for about 55 years earlier. It was a commercial-type chest freezer that was about the same length as the USS Alabama. It was still running and freezing when Mom went to Heaven.
Back in those days, we had two televisions. No, not at the same time, but two total. We probably would have had only one, but the first one was a black-and-white set, so when color television came out, Dad had to have one. We didn’t throw them out when they quit working; we called the TV repairman. Sometimes it took him weeks, if not months, to get it working again. These days there are no TV repairmen, so when our television quits, we simply throw it out and go buy a new one. Fortunately, they aren’t as expensive as they once were.
I’m not sure how many water heaters Mom had, but I only remember one. Jean and I have lived in our current house for almost 17 years. This week, we replaced our water heater for the second time. The first one came with the house and flooded the ground floor when the tank rusted through. The second one was 12 years old and started leaking last week when it rusted through. Those things must be like northern cars on salted roads; except, I don’t think we have salt in our water. This time we caught the leak in time before it flooded the house, or so we thought. After the installers had everything hooked up and water running, we discovered water also running through the ceiling in the kitchen. A capped water line in the attic blew its cap when they turned the water back on. The leak soaked four boxes of family photos that were stored in the attic. We managed to rescue almost all of them.
We had bought a new faucet for our kitchen sink. I had planned to install it myself, but I simply had not found time in the last two years… or was it three? I can do some plumbing, if you don’t mind if it leaks a little. Since we already had the plumbers there, I figured it wouldn’t cost much to get them to install it. I missed the mathematics because I figured incorrectly. The good news was that the new faucet did not leak.
With everything dry, and hot water flowing, we were good to go with everything working. Since we had not been able to run the dishwasher for a couple of days, it was loaded with dirty dishes and waiting for hot water. I put in a pod, pushed the button and went to bed. The next morning, when I went to put up the clean dishes, I discovered they were still dirty. I pushed the button again, only to I realize I didn’t hear water running. I thought, I hoped, I prayed, that they had accidentally left the water turned off to the dishwasher. Mechanical Law showed up once more. We now have a new dishwasher to go with the new water heater.
Hey, when it was all said and done, nobody died, nobody is even sick and we have a house full of new appliances.
Bill King can be reached at bkpreach@yahoo.com.
