No Water

I snapped this photo last night when we went to Willie's Icehouse for the "Willie's Night" fundraiser for Eric's school. His school gets a small percentage of the profits from "Willie's Night" once a month. I saw what looked like a hug between Natalie and Eric, and I said I wanted a picture. Natalie, of course, said that she didn't want a picture, which is why it looks like she's trying to get away from Eric. Eric obliged as always--I love my Eric hugs!

It was a nice family dinner, even though we had to meet there. I brought Alex after I picked him up at school. Patrick brought Eric and Natalie after Natalie's physical therapy appointment. Natalie is now going to be fitted for a support belt for her hips. The physical therapist isn't sure if it will work, and she doesn't know what else to try, so we'll try using a loaner. We'll buy one specifically for Natalie if the loaner works for her. This is week four of Natalie not swimming after her latest injury on October 19. It was nice to see her smiling, even for a little while.

It was also nice for everyone to have a little smile, because the rest of the night was not that great. We did not have running water at our house last night. Patrick explained it to me earlier today, when the plumbers were installing the new water softener, the new water heater, and the pressure regulator. Yes, we just spent around $5000, but now we have water.

We didn't have a pressure regulator, so the water pressure was very high going into our house. The pressure wasn't so high in the past, so we didn't need the pressure regulator, but apparently it's high now. It's high enough that it basically pushed the resin that is in the water softener into our water lines and plugged them up--hence no water. Patrick suspected that our water heater was going to need to be replaced soon, so he had the plumbers inspect that also, and sure enough, it needed to be replaced, so he went ahead and told them to replace that too.

When it happened, Natalie was in the shower. She complained that the water was yellow-colored and that there was something in the water that looked like beads that got in her hair, so she stopped the water and got out. Poor thing was wrapped in a towel in her room waiting for a resolution. Thankfully, I had texted my friend Alicia, who lives around the corner, and she offered up her bathroom for showers. I took Natalie over there so she could finish up her shower. I washed my face and brushed my teeth while I was over there with her, and we used bottled water until the plumbers came this morning. I took a shower at the gym this morning.

I'm on call tonight, and I arrived at work early. I joked with some people at work that I came early since I had to go to the bathroom and since we didn't have running water at home, it was just as well that I came to work. Poor Patrick has been cleaning up since the plumbers left. It's a great start to our Thanksgiving holiday. We're just thankful that the water heater didn't explode as it did for our neighbors, especially because our water heater is in our attic. I'm thankful that our friend let us use her bathroom. We're also thankful that the plumbers were able to fix the problem today. Last but certainly not least, I'm thankful that Patrick figured out what was happening, because I had no idea about resin in the water softener until he explained all of this to me today.