I had to take a bath this morning in about an inch of tepid water. I know, I know - TMI Jules. Hey be glad I didn’t post pictures. *shudder* So why did I have to take a sponge bath in order to be presentable today? My furnace broke. Threw up all over the laundry room floor. Water everywhere. Coming out from underneath the boiler. *sigh*

So no heat or hot water at Jules’ house last night or today. Did you hear that - no hot water. 6 people that need baths/showers, laundry, dishes washed - have no hot water. So we’re living like pioneers - when it comes to hot water anyway. We still have electricity and running water so we’re not roughing it too bad thank God. The wood stove is fired up and there are 2 lobster pots filled with water, constantly heating on the burners for a quick sink load of dishes, hand washing, sponge bath, etc.

It’s hard not to get depressed about it. Something always seems to be breaking down. And we are not in the position to spend a lot of money to fix it. And it’s always something big. Or a chain reaction of sorts.

Example - our septic needed to be, *ahem, attended to with routine maintenance performed to keep it operating smoothly. In the country these things are under the individual home owners control - no city system. Typically one digs down a few inches and unearths the cover to the system and the professionals come in and take care of the rest. Not at our house though. Said cover is 18 feet down and requires a backhoe to come in and dig it up just for the regular routine maintenance.

Example - because the furnace had broken down Jeff had to clean the chimney so we could safely run the wood stove. As he’s standing downstairs getting ready to clean out the stove pipe he sees a spot on the ceiling. And he touches it. NO JEFF DON’T! Too late. A big chunk of ceiling falls to the ground. This prompts a number of expletives. And further search. And discovery of 3 more similar such sites. Apparently when Jeff took my dishwasher out to see if he could fix it (see more broken stuff) he kinked (oh how I wish this was as fun as it sounded) the hose when he put the dishwasher back and created a BIG leak. And the dumbasses (previous owners) that finished our basement decided to sheetrock the ceiling instead of putting in a drop ceiling. I get that drop ceilings are ugly but when you have 30 year old plumbing in the house easy access is really the most important factor. Especially if you’re going to do that tacky textured ceiling.

So I’m trying to look on the bright side today:

• This didn’t happen in January
• This didn’t happen over the weekend while Jeff was at hunting camp
• The part may be covered under warranty
• We still have electricity and water
• We actually have the money to fix this right now (the fates MUST have known this - Murphy my name is thine!)

Wow - I’m thinking I had my head under the water a wee bit too long this morning trying to rinse all the soap out of my hair. Anyway, send us good vibes on getting our furnace fixed and getting hot water back. Or if nothing else wish for us that we hit the lottery and can ditch this money pit once and for all.