PLUMBING PROBLEMS Part II

MORE plumbing problems. Can you believe it?



For the past several nights, I've been hearing some interesting sounds coming from the kitchen side of our house. It sounded a lot like the ice maker on our refrigerator, so I wasn't particularly concerned or anything. Besides, this has been happening while I'm up during the wee hours of the morning, and noises seem amplified in the peace and quiet of the time. Yeah, I thought, it's just the ice maker making ice. (HaHaHaHaHaHa).

Well, by now, it shouldn't surprise you to know that .........

This morning, at about 7:30, my wonderful, morning person husband woke me up to tell me that there was water leaking in the basement underneath the refrigerator. Now, if you've read my previous post about the shelving brackets, you are quite aware of what our basement is like. So to have water dripping there is potentially DISASTROUS!!!

Equally potentially disastrous, late yesterday afternoon, I noticed that some of the hardwood planks in front of the pantry (behind the fridge) were warping ever so slightly, just enough to catch my socks as I slid over them. I didn't think too much about it because, as I said, it was only slightly uneven (HaHaHaHa).

It's now pretty obvious that water must have been trapped between the hardwood flooring and the subflooring, causing the hardwood to absorb it and warp. GREAT!

Now before he woke me up, John had already shut off the water to the refrigerator ice maker (the only possible source of the problem), moved the items below the leak, cleaned up the water puddles and placed a receptacle underneath to catch any residual water drips. He did all of this even though it made him leave for work later than he would have liked. WOW, WHAT A SAINT!

But the most interesting part of this whole PLUMBING PROBLEMS Part II situation is this:

I found a wonderful, affordable plumber to help me with the PLUMBING PROBLEMS Part I situation we recently experienced (and I recently wrote about). He was going to come back this week and fix some other little plumbing issues I had, but my schedule had been so hectic and I had been feeling so overwhelmed, that John suggested I hold off on the plumber for a week, just until things settled down a bit around here. Good idea, I thought. So I planned on calling him today to schedule time on Monday.

Do you think, on some level, John knew?

THE OBAMA FACTOR

Well, the phenomenon that I call The Obama Factor has hit home in a big way!!!

A few days after the presidential election, I was visiting my dear friend who lives just up the street from me. As always, she and I had a wonderful visit - sharing, laughing, and sincerely enjoying each other's company.

On my way home, I walked past another neighbor's house, who happened to be sitting on her front porch. So, of course, I stopped to chat with her, too. Now, this elderly woman has been my neighbor for about 20 years and John and I are two of the very few people who have not had an entanglement of some sort with her - until now that is.

We began our visit friendly enough. I asked her how she was doing and told her how nice she looked that day. Then, to my surprise, she burst forth with the following statement: "Now that Barak Obama is president, it's about time you young people have to take care of old people like me".


I asked her what she meant and she explained that she voted for Obama because he's going to make sure that we young people take care of the old folks like her who don't have much money. You know, spread the wealth.

WOW!!!!! ZAP!!!!! ZOWIE!!!!!

I advised her that I already pay for those less fortunate with my taxes. She countered that she pays taxes, too (on her Social Security).

I advised her that, as a self-employed person, I pay both the employer and employee part of Social Security and Medicaid taxes. She countered that if I didn't like doing that, perhaps I chose the wrong profession.

I advised her that since John and I are not considered underpriviliged at all, our children didn't qualify for any financial aid for college and we had to pay for it ourselves (in the amount of about $200,000). She countered that she shouldn't have to and certainly WAS NOT going to pay for our kids.

ZING!!!!! POW!!!!! KABOOM!!!!!

Yet this woman, who thinks we owe her so much, has in the recent past had major upgrades installed in her old house thanks to "interest free, pay when you sell" loans from the city. She also takes advantage of the maintenance services our city offers to its Senior citizens. Now these services are provided in large part from the property taxes we all pay (including her), but again, we pay about 3 times the amount in property taxes that she does.

Now please don't get me wrong. We are not uncaring. We are not unconcerned for those less fortunate. We always try to be good Christians. We donate faithfully to our favorite charities, both financially and materially, and have done many, many things for this neighbor and others. So can you imagine how dumbfounded I was to realize that the help we've given this woman over the years was not so much appreciated as it was expected?!?

HOW DARE SHE? How dare she, or anyone else for that matter, think that we owe them something. We have worked hard for what we have. We've earned it. John has spent a long time and a lot of effort becoming an expert in his field so he can provide nicely for his family - not so he can provide for her! Besides, she has a son only a few years older than we are who should be taking care of her. We have our own elderly parents. We have our own obligations. If she resents us for having more than she does (if we even do have more), perhaps SHE chose the wrong profession years ago. HOW DARE SHE?

Sensing that she was real close to telling me she expected me to put a check in her mailbox every week, I left. As I did, I turned to her and said "just keep your hands out of my pockets".

Spread the wealth, indeed.

My neighbor's words were quite telling. I call this new-found sense of entitlement The Obama Factor.

SNORT!!!!! GAG!!!!! PUKE!!!!!