Sometimes foresight is such a pain in the rear. Those times when having the privilege of saying "I told you so." provides no comfort, no satisfaction.

The Grouse House is without water. Has been for hours, will be for hours more.

Maybe days.

And I told you so.

You see, we've had a leaky faucet. I won't tell you how long said kitchen faucet has been allowed to leak without replacement, but lets just say the Earth has passed through more than half its orbit while our tap leaked. In that time, washing dishes has been easy, since most have endured hours of slow hot washing before you ever put soap and cloth to them.

So it has had its benefits.

Also its drawbacks. We'll neglect to mention the wastefulness, and expense, of water trickling 24/7. And the constant fear that if the sink ever gets plugged, we'll awaken to a total mess all over the floor and cabinets.

Portions of the sink have accrued a visible layer of calcium carbonate. You know, the stuff stalactites are made out of? The hard rock layer that covers geysers and hot pools. And swimming pools filled from natural hot springs.

Yeah, we got that lining our sink. We're talking geologic time, here, folks.

So yeah, its been neglected for too long. And must be addressed within the next week or so.

Now, part of the complications related to replacing the faucet... no, it is not just a washer. They're washerless taps. Our hard water has corroded a pathway through the tap. Tore it apart months ago to figure that out. A pathway that has expanded over time. What was once an annoying drip is now a steady stream.

Or would be, if we had water at all.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Aaaaanyway, we have to take this story back eleven years or so. When we replaced our water line (since the town replaced the water main, we all wisely replaced our house lines at the same time). When I had previously replaced all our water appliances in the old galvanized lines, I wisely put in shutoff valves on each and every one. So you could work on any problem and not interrupt function for the rest of the house.

That foresight, you see.

But our professional plumber?

Refused to do the same when he replaced our ancient galvanized lines with new copper pipe.

With a little valid reasoning, I guess. Since almost everyone was replacing lines, there were quite literally no copper valves to be had in town. And waiting a day or two to have them shipped in would have delayed his schedule a day, preventing him from working his way up the steet from house to house as the street crews worked the main.

"You can always put them in later," he said.

Naturally, we always had better use for the family funds. "Later" never came.

So, to replace a simple faucet, we gotta shut off water to the whole house.

Oookay.

Now, years back, the wife rearranged all the boxes of junk in our basement, and in the process, barricaded the path to the water shutoff valve in the corner.

I warned her then (That foresight again. Do we see a pattern here?) that if we ever needed to shut off the water, she was moving all those boxes out of the way.

And that has been our holdup. Figuring out a time when I can play plumber when she is also willing to play mover.

Me, I've been flexible. All I ever said was, it cannot be on a Sunday, because these repair problems always, always end up larger than expected, and you need to have the hardware stores open to get whatever unforeseen part or tool you need.

'Cause I can foresee we're gonna need something.

So, today she decides is the day we have to work on the faucet.

Today is a Sunday.

(How's your foresight working? Can you see where this is leading us?)

So.

Old faucet comes off just fine. Gotta take off the old elbows and flanges too, though.

Cold comes off easy.

Hot is a little harder. And then, just like that, the wrench gives.

And I know why, without looking.

Rather than the joint unscrewing, the copper pipe inside the wall has buckled. And cracked.

I shoulda used a second wrench. But the first pipe was so easy...

Youngest son, who had bemusedly been watching all this, wisely decides it is time to run errands in town.

And I, who watched a plumber 11 years ago, have to suddenly become a copper-tubing expert, with solder and torch.

'Course, we ain't got no torch, tubing or solder.

And the hardware store? The only one that's open at all on Sundays?

Closed 15 minutes before we got there.

Craaaap.

I told you so.