You Just Don't Miss It

Yesterday, my blog was rudely interrupted by our first homeowner breakdown.  Our water heater.  My guess is that is has been slowly dying for a while now.  Sunday morning there was a puddle of water on the ground.  It was not a small puddle either.  It was a good size one.  This can not be good.  With the help of our neighbor--since neither one of us is the handy type--Rich and he emptied the now broken water heater and turned it off at the source.  Rich put in an order with our home warranty people.  Yay, home warranties!!!  No homeowner should be without one.  It's just not right!   Anyhoo....back on track.

Monday morning came and the home warranty people called by 8AM.  Now to me, this is good response time.  But then this is my first experience.  They informed me a contractor would be contacting me.  And so he did within 5 or 10 minutes of the first call.  Impressive.  Until...."The soonest I can be out there is Wednesday."  ummm...no.  I turned him over to my husband.  I did this for two reasons:  Rich saw the damage not me.  And repairMEN respond better to men.  Whatever.  Well man or not, he had the same song for Rich.  So we are supposed to go 3 days without hot water.  So not happening.  I need a shower.  I was getting riper by the second!

I quickly called the Home Warranty people back and explained the situation.  He said that until it has been 24 hours we can not be considered priority.  I assured him that it had been 24 hours.  This IS a priority.  He clarified with 24 hours from the time we made the claim.  Okay I get that.  He then said that he would try to find someone else who could come out today.  He succeeded.  They were at my door in about 30 minutes.  I barely had time to "freshen up." 

They looked kind of like thugs.  One more so than the other.  Is this a good idea after all?  Should I have waited?  They worked quickly and then told me they were leaving to get the new water heater.  They were back within an hour.  I asked how long it would take to fill and how soon the water would be hot.  15 minutes to fill and about an hour and a half to heat. 

It turned out that the one that looked the "thuggiest" was really super nice.  He has 4 kids, three of which go to the same school as my little middle. The other guy was a little creepy.  Creepy like keep your kids away.  I was bigger than him both in height and weight.  I could easily take him.  Don't mess with Mama Bear!  *ahem*

After they left, and I had water and hot water on the way, I started thinking about things we simply take for granted until we do not have them.  Things like hot water. water--mine was shut off while they worked.  Electricity.  Cars.  So my question for the day is:  What do you take for granted?  What did you do when you had to go without?  Did you appreciate it more after you got it back?  I know I did.  My shower was so lovely and warm it was hard to get out. 

Isn't it purdy?