A Close Encounter with Water

I had one of those close calls yesterday that remind us that fate sometimes smiles upon us. It was plumbing gone way wrong.

Just as we were both walking out of the house to go downtown to get allergy shots, I heard a loud crash and then a hissing sound in the kitchen. It seemed to be coming from the sink. It was when I opened the cabinet doors beneath the sink that a torrent rushed out.

My husband threw me a bunch of towels and then headed to the basement to turn off the water to the entire house. But there was so much water I just couldn’t keep up with it. Then it stopped and so did the noise.

At first I was clueless as to what had actually happened. On closer inspection, it appeared that the water filter under our sink had come unmounted and crashed to the bottom of the cabinet, cracking the plastic housing in the fall.

We managed to get all the water to the sink turned off so we could once again have water in other parts of the house.

Then the task of finding a plumber began. “How about Wednesday of next week?” or simply no answer and an answering machine. None of those would do as we are entertaining 10 people for dinner tomorrow night and there is much work to be done in that sink. Finally a plumber who was available today.

It’s only after the practical problem-solving steps that you sit back and say, “That would have been a fucking disaster had it occurred 5 minutes later, or worse yet last week when we were in Germany.”

This close encounter with water will be added to the short list of averted disasters that sits somewhere in my brain. I say a blanket THANKS to a higher power or to fate that allowed this to turn out alright.

Our household inventory of towels have been washed and the sink is once again functional. Life goes on and my respect for the power of water is ratcheted up just a notch.