And the Rain Came Down: Putting off Small Repairs

: Image by Augapfel via Flickr

Scenes from the House of a Little Bit Broke:

We’ve got a big birthday party coming up this weekend for my son, who’s turning five.

Naturally, then, this is the week that his little sister comes down with croup, and has been up all hours the past two nights in a row.

My husband and I are so tired that the world is taking on that funhouse quality, where each scene requires a double-take, a blind-man’s grope: “Is this really happening? Did I say or do something, or am I still just thinking it?”

So no surprise that as I was on hold with the pediatrician this morning, when I heard something that sounded like rain, I looked at my daughter with confusion. “Is she peeing out of her diaper?!” No, that is not the sound of water hitting the floor. What is that? It took me a second to look up, and see water dripping from our ceiling, onto a freshly laundered dining room chair cover.

“Honey?!” I bellow up stairs, needing to act but not wanting to hang up for fear of not getting my daughter in today. Where is the !@*$-damn speaker-phone option on this lousy phone?

Honey is emailing his work that he is taking a sick day so that he can take our daughter to the doctor.

Meanwhile, my preschooler has dutifully flushed the toilet, as I have been harping on him all week to remember to do.

Me: “Okay, you flush, and then you…”
Him: “Wash hands! I can do it. I don’t need any help!”

The preschool bathroom etiquette primer leaves out how to guage when your slow-flushing toilet that really should be fixed already should not, in fact, be flushed for fear of overflowing.