"No, this is Cindy"

There are adventures and there are misadventures. Last night was a misadventure; so much so that I couldn't even begin to find the humor in it until this morning, and even now it's not that funny.

Seth and I were hanging out upstairs in the living room when I heard what sounded like a waterfall below is in the basement. Sal was down there working on bracing some of the walls he had framed. I chose to ignore what I had heard, until Sal came upstairs and told me we needed to call an emergency plumber.

I asked what happened. 

He informed me that in the process of trying to stand the wall up, it became wedged in the water main piping and ultimately snapped the pipe. I ran downstairs to check it out. I tried turning the valve off without success and assumed that it had broken before the shut-off valve meaning there was no way to stop it. While Sal held the pipes together with his bare hands, I called plumbers and the township to have the water shut off at the street.

It took several phone calls to find an emergency plumber, and at one point Sal was fighting the water in the corner, Seth was crying loudly, and I was trying to hear the answering service on the other end of the line. She answered and what I heard was, "Mississippi." I replied, "Mississippi??" She laughed and said very slowly and clearly, "No. This is Cindy." Then as she was asking for our information she kept giggling at various intervals. Needless to say it, it made me laugh a little too, and quite honestly, none of this was funny to me.

After I had everyone lined up, I went back downstairs, put on a pair of gloves, and decided to try the valve again. It miraculously turned and shut off the water.

I called the township back to cancel their guy, and we waited for the plumber.

We probably could have waited until morning, but it makes me nervous to have a baby in the house and no water. To me, the peace of mind is worth the added expense, although I was very unhappy about this unexpected bill.

Sal lost a couple of boxes of books thanks to water spraying everywhere, but the damage to my things was minimal. Incidentally, I had suggested he move those things to the attic to store rather than having them in proximity to the main and hot water heater and my advice feel on deaf ears. Right or wrong, I feel no remorse.

To the tune of $428 our problem was fixed. Sometimes I love seeing a day end.