Curiosity 35: Water & power

Plumbing crises always happen on a holiday or long weekend, right? 

We'd been noticing some vague water pressure issues the past few weeks (disappearing water, a dribble from the showerhead), which usually righted themselves—but eventually we called the plumber, who identified a minor problem and, we thought, fixed things. 

Until last Friday—the day after Thanksgiving—when, snap: no water, anywhere. 

(Well, not entirely true: the outside water is on a separate line, so, thank goodness, we were able to fill buckets of water to flush the toilet and—all important—make coffee.) 

Our usual plumber was fully booked on Friday and closed the next day, so we called a smaller company, and the owner came on Saturday. He thought he'd traced the problem to the water softener, but when he rerouted the water lines around it, there was still nothing. He went away shaking his head.

On Monday afternoon, our regular plumber came, and soon (with the help of many phone calls) the problem was diagnosed: it was the water softener—a crushed strainer basket, which had sent millions (I am not exaggerating!) of tiny resin pellets into all the faucets and other water-relinquishing gizmos throughout the house, very effectively stopping all flow. They managed to get a few crucial fixtures working—the toilets (whew!) and the bathroom sinks, as well as a handheld showerhead—but the rest needed specialized parts to be ordered. 

This morning (Wednesday) we learned what the cost would be, and gave the go-ahead for purchase. Though why this didn't happen yesterday I don't know—and it miffs me a bit. Don't they recognize that we need our kitchen sink? Anyway, it'll be a couple more days before the technicians return, apparently, so for the time being we are still stuck filling buckets if we want to do the dishes. At least now there's hot water from the showerhead to fill them with... 

Concurrently with the water crisis, on Monday all of a sudden we had no electricity!!! But then I vaguely recalled a notice from PG&E a couple of weeks ago informing us that they would be replacing a power pole in the neighborhood and the power would be cut during installation. Okay. Predictability is strength. And sure enough, within a few hours everything was back to normal on that front. Thank goodness! 

And thank goodness, too, there are plenty of coffeehouses in the area to retreat to when our world gets shaken to its very foundations.

Update 12/7: At this point, we have filtered cold water in the kitchen, and one bathroom is fully functional. No kitchen sink, no main bathroom (well, a dribble of warm water, not hot), no utility sink, and I am questioning whether the washing machine is working the way it should. Who knows about the dishwasher. The plumber won't be back until Monday—in part because we're leaving town tomorrow through the weekend, but still: it's been almost two weeks.... I am so ready to get my kitchen sink back....