Monday, April 20, 2009

On living with my 80-year old grandmother

Two weeks ago: Plumber comes and fixes a leak in the pipes connecting Nona's upstairs bathroom to our downstairs one. Leaves large gaping hole in ceiling.

Last Sunday: Nona leaves the water running in her upstairs shower all day, thereby causing a leak in our downstairs shower.

Problem with plumbing: Obviously not fixed.

Plumber:
Can't come for another week.

Time leak was discovered:
10:58PM.

Time contractor was supposed to come fix large gaping hole in ceiling:
7AM next morning.

Time Mom calls contractor to tell him not to come: 11PM.

Nona's solution to plumbing problem: Leave the shower running full blast to see if it happens again.

The result: No leak.

Tuesday: Nona leaves the water running again, but this time from the faucet instead of the shower head.

The result: No leak.

My explanation: It only happens when you turn the shower on, and when it's left trickling. Stop turning the water on full blast.

Wednesday: She lets the water trickle from the faucet for an hour and then comes downstairs to inspect her work, asking me to climb up on the shower to see if the exposed pipe is wet.

The result: No leak.

My explanation: It only happens when you turn the SHOWER on and when you leave it TRICKLING.

Her decision: To ignore me.

Thursday-Sunday: She intermittently turns the water on and off, alternating between shower head, faucet, high pressure, and trickling water, and asks me to climb up on the tub every single time.

My frustration with her coming downstairs every few hours to have me do this: High.

Me to her: Why do you continue to do this? Did you not believe me when I said I saw the leak? Did you think my mother called the contractor at 11pm on Easter Sunday just to chat?

Today: She turns the shower head on low and lets it tickle for 20 minutes.

The result: A LEAK!

My smugness and I-told-you-so factor: High.

Nona's faith in my knowledge of how shit works and that I sometimes know better than her: Still zero.

My desire to celebrate 420 in the appropriate fashion after this ordeal: High. (Pun intended.)

1 comment:

Sabrina said...

Oh yeah it's 420 today!
I need to go roll a big fattie... peace out.