Whenever Brian leaves town we turn off the air conditioner and turn on the attic fan if at all possible. Unless it's sweltering hot, we much prefer having the A/C off. Yesterday it was nice and cool in the house most of the day, but in the afternoon I turned on the attic fan as we were doing some work upstairs. I totally forgot that first we need to equalize the pressure in the house, so the draft of turning on the fan blew out the pilot light on the hot water heater. This has happened many times before. Brian usually just re-lights it and that's that. But I never light it myself. I have a phobia about lighting pilot lights. So I called one of my neighbors who came over to help us out. No luck this time. Every time he lit it, it blew out again. Seems we have a bad sensor or the hot water heater just finally died. We knew this would happen eventually, so no surprise there. But now we're without hot water for the rest of the week while Brian is in Maui. Before you feel sorry for us realize that this is just a minor inconvenience. My parents live a block away, so we can shower there. And we'll just eat out so we won't have to do dishes. I can use cold water for laundry, etc. Really, it's not that big of a deal.
Last night I got comments from well-meaning people who wanted to give me advice on replacing the hot water heater while Brian is gone. They were shocked that I wasn't going to do so. But what people need to understand is that Brian and I have a system that works for us. There are certain things he prefers to take care of, and certain things that are my domain. We know better than to cross over into each other's area. It's ok. For 25 years this system has been a good one and we're happy with it. The point was well made in our first year of marriage when I picked out a stereo system for him. He appreciated the thought and thanked me and then promptly took it back and asked me to not do that again. I wasn't insulted. He was right. He knows electronics and prefers to pick out his own. Communication, people!
So don't feel sorry for us. When Brian comes home he'll probably have already done online research to know what he wants to buy to replace the hot water heater. I respect that. I'm happy to let him do his thing. We'll have hot water again. Meanwhile, I'm thankful my parents are offering free showers all week! Thanks, mom & dad!
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