In Hot Water

On Wednesday night I told Olivia she could take a bath after dinner.

I fed the girls and as I was washing the dishes (we have a dishwasher but it seems, these days anyway, just easier to wash the dishes after each meal than to rinse them, stack them in the dishwasher and let them sit for days until it’s full enough to run) I realized the water wasn’t getting hot. It was warmish but not hot.

At 7:00, Alyssa laid out the Scrabble board and I had to tell her I’d already promised Olivia she could take a bath. Alyssa moaned her frustration but got over it.

Olivia and I went up and got the space heater running and I started the water. I turned it to warm.

I told O I was going to go get her pajamas. She was already nude and climbing into the tub. When I got back she informed me that the water wasn’t hot. I checked and saw that she’d already turned it to the hottest setting. I felt the water and she was right, it wasn’t hot.

I called down to Tom to ask him if he’d used a lot of hot water earlier in the day. He said he hadn’t, that we needed to let it run. Duh! I told him we’d let it run and it wasn’t getting hot.

He ran the hot water in the kitchen sink, still believing that it just needed to run through the pipes.

Huh. Okay. Except, it still never got hot.

He went to check the water heater and noted that the pilot light had gone out.

Olivia declared she was not taking a non-hot bath and climbed out of the tepid water. I can’t say I blame her.

I wrapped her in a towel and she sat in front of the space heater to cook her feet.

Tom spent the next hour trying to get the pilot light to light and stay lit. It didn’t happen.

He finally called a heating/cooling guy he’d had out months before to work on our furnace and the guy was nice enough to walk Tom through taking part of the water heater apart. It turned out some kind of thingamajig had gone bad. I think it had the word thermal in it but I can’t be sure.

The next morning, Tom surprised me by having four pots of hot water on the stove ready for me to use to wash my hair since I couldn’t (wouldn’t?) shower. He really is my hero.

Later that day he solidified his hero status by call the local hardware store in hope they’d carry this thingy. They did.

Nine dollars and forty-five minutes later, the pilot light was lit and the water was heating. If the heating/cooling guy had come out to do this himself, it would have cost $100.

We really do live a life of luxury. Turn a knob and there’s hot water, all you could want. Plug in an appliance and there is heat. Open a refrigerator and there’s food.

Even one night and morning without hot water makes me realize how incredibly blessed we are to live in this country, this home, this life. To have a husband who can fix even the slightest of problems seems almost selfish to me. But I think we’re going to keep him. Who else would heat water at 5am just so I can wash my hair?