Nothing Happened, and Everything Did

Seems like half the time, this blog is just me saying I don’t have anything to write.

Nothing happened.

I’m just putting words down so the day doesn’t slip away.

Or I’m just putting pen to paper so I don’t lose track of time.

I think I might’ve ended up giving this blog a theme without even trying.

What?
Do you think today is following the theme?
I wish.

We woke up to no hot water.
I knew I should have gone to clean up last night.
Darn.

Cowboy said the old water heater has been duct-taped as many times as possible and there is no more fixing it.
As best as we can figure, and from what he could read on the tag, we bought the heater in ’07.
Whenever the need came up, Cowboy would put new parts in it, and we’d be good to go again.
Well, when he came in from work, he put the new part in, and a second part went kaput.
Even Cowboy knows when to wave that white flag of surrender.

From what he says and the way I figure it, we’re probably lucky one of us didn’t get boiled like a lobster.
Even after replacing the part, the temperature didn’t go down or return to its normal set point. 
It just kept rising.
Badger and I had been saying for a while that the hot water seemed awfully hot. 
By June, I was telling him I turn the cold water on because it runs hot for a good ten minutes.
He’d had the replacement part sitting in his car all summer, but he kept putting it off.
He took his naps, mowed his yards, and pretended all was well.
Then Badger sent him a video last night of the heater hissing and spitting like a mad cat.

For today, we only have cold water.
Tomorrow we’ll head out and pick up a new water heater, even though the prices are ridiculous.
We won’t be getting one as big as the old tank.
So Badger and Heron are going to have to learn they can’t take thirty‑minute cleanups while running four loads of laundry and the dishwasher at the same time.

We can keep our fingers crossed that we stumble on a sale and that they have the old tank size at a price that doesn’t involve selling body parts and promising your first‑born child.
I’m not optimistic, though.

Aside from the passing of the ancient and mighty water heater, Thursday went like every other Thursday.
We went to town, bought our groceries, and came home.

After Cowboy headed off to work, Badger went outside to practice her throwing. 
I was sipping coffee and scrolling through the drama on Facebook. 
What? 
I said I try to avoid it, not that I actually succeed. 
Before I knew it, Badger was back inside, dragging out storage boxes and trading one dog for another.

The next thing I hear is, “I wonder if this is a real giant spider or just a decoration.” 
I decided that needed some investigating. 
As it stands, we’re still not sure what it was. 
It didn’t move, but it wasn’t one of my decorations, either.

Badger spent the evening decorating the yard for Halloween. 
I can’t remember the last time I decorated. 
It’s been at least five years. 
A large part of my boogers got broken when the box had to be moved into the laundry room. 
Cats are jerks; what can you say? 
The box had no lid, so I guess that’s on me. 
Cats did what cats do. 
She salvaged enough, and if they’re a bit ratty, well, it’s Halloween. 
They’re not supposed to be fancy.
I am a bit miffed about blow‑up Snoopy, though. 
I slapped a band-aid on his cut. 
He’s inflating, so we’ll say he may have survived.

We had one incident where Badger came inside to find something and left Lady tied to the porch.
The couple was walking that German Shepherd, and Lady had already tried to fight with it in the past.
I just heard that bark; if you live with an aggressive dog, you know what I mean.
I threw everything off my lap, keyboard, cat, and cat, blanket, and literally made a run for it.
I got to the door and, oh duck, I saw the shepherd and I saw Lady straining on her leash.
I started screaming her name while running.
I grabbed her leash and shoved her inside.
It does, in all seriousness, terrify me when she goes into this protective mode.
I live with the dogs, but I have always been afraid of dogs.
Now figure out how that works, seeing that I ended up with three of them in my bed.

That was the only excitement of this long day. 

Badger went to clean up. 
She said she knew it would be cold; it would be fine.
Well, she came out shivering and a bit blue. 

We ate our supper and were watching a movie, and at some point Heron slipped in and started watching with us. 
It’s nearly 11 p.m., and we’re all heading to our beds.

Tomorrow I’ll go with Cowboy to find the heater, and Badger will stay behind to clean out the surrounding area.
This might get interesting. 
Cowboy already had the heater installed in the corner of the room when he moved my cabinet in. 
The countertop touches the water heater.
I use this piece for storage; the top holds detergent, and the bottom keeps out‑of‑use kitchen gadgets. 
He may not be able to get the heater out or put a new one in. 
All I have to say is he’d better not break my cabinet. 
It took me too long to get him motivated and able to see my vision for a better-organized laundry room to get that cabinet in there.

Before the first kitchen remodel, the water heater was a tabletop one sitting in the kitchen corner. 
Cowboy thought it made more sense to move it to the laundry room, and I didn’t argue. 
I ended up with a new cabinet in the kitchen. 
Now we might have to downsize again, maybe go back to a tabletop model in the laundry room. 
That would give us more storage, almost like having another countertop. 
We’ll see how it plays out.