PIPES

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Much - or at least some - of life is about dealing. Dealing with frustrations - dealing with annoyances - dealing with interruptions - dealing with things that don't go your way. And not letting them overpower you. When I think about the number of days where I allow situations to completely debilitate me because something goes wrong ...

Yesterday was one of those days for me. I was going to blog about it last night, but I was too frustrated - so I ended up writing up about something so random as people who are left-handed.

Joelene is in Thailand till Sunday, so my plans for Friday during the day were to spend some time doing some Kevin-stuff - maybe hit the gym - run a few errands - have some lunch at my favorite restaurant - and then kick back a bit until the evening plans came. It didn't turn out that way.

About three weeks ago when it dipped below zero for a couple of days we had some pipes freeze upstairs in the bathroom. It's a new house and it just surprised me - and disturbed me. It shouldn't happen. The pipes that froze weren't even on an outside wall, so it was a big mystery to everyone, including the builder. I called the him but it was just a couple of days before Christmas and then we went out of town (I shut the water off to the house while we were gone). Once it warmed up that time, they un-froze on their own (just before we left out of town, actually), but obviously it needed to be looked into.

Then yesterday happened. Below zero temps again for two days straight. Sure enough, I went upstairs and the pipes had frozen again. The tub, the toilet and the two sinks in the bathroom - none of them were working. So I called the builder and he was gracious enough to come over right away - he's a very nice guy. And he was as concerned as I about the situation.

He went into the attic over the garage to see if he could access the problem. He discovered that wind blowing up thru our back porch had blown some insulation away from some of the pipes and they had frozen. He located the spot inside the house and cut a decent-sized hole in the interior wall of our home. He put a blow dryer in the hole to try to unfreeze the pipes - a temporary solution. He went back and forth from the garage attic space with the blow dryer to back inside the house. Eventually, the blow dryer blew out entirely.

At one point, when he was upstairs in the attic banging away to open up a spot up there to investigate the problem, I heard water running inside the house. I panicked because I thought a pipe HAD burst and was spewing out water, so I ran lickety-split to where I heard the strong dripping. Turns out, with him banging so hard in the attic, that a bottle of oil (yeah, OIL) that Joelene uses for decorative purposes way up on top of the kitchen cabinet had been knocked over from the banging. It had fallen over and the top had popped off at just the right angle, naturally, and oil (yeah, OIL) was pouring down the side of the cabinets onto the dishes and countertop and floor. Of course, to get to it, I had to step in it. It was splattering everywhere. So now I was tracking oil with my feet wherever I went, which of course I didn't notice at first.

I heard him coming back and I didn't want him to know that had happened - I didn't want him to feel badly. So I tried to act naturally (I'm so good at that) and the crazy thing is, he said to me, almost joking: "I didn't knock anything over with all that banging, did I?" "Ummm ... no," I answered. I just couldn't tell him. He would have felt terrible.

So while he was going in and out - from house to garage attic back-and-forth - I was trying to clean up the oil that had gotten all over everything while trying to look au naturel whenever he would come back in the house.

After four hours, he had done all he could for the time being. The two upstairs bathroom sinks and shower had resumed operation (although the toilet didn't unfreeze until today, now that temps are sneaking upwards). He promised to come back Monday and fix the problem for good as well as patch the hole in my house.

On his way out - (the garage door had been open the whole time he was here) - he noticed the sink in the garage. That sink had not frozen either time it dipped below zero before. But there was an icicle hanging from the spigot that hadn't been there four hours earlier when he first came. He reached over to 'flick' it off and the filter at the end of the spigot came off in his hand. Then he tried both faucets and they were frozen solid. Apparently keeping the double garage door open for four hours had frozen THAT sink.

So he left and I got a space heater and put it on the counter in front of the stainless steel fixture to try to unfreeze it. I came out sporadically to check it but it continued to stay 'stuck.' I decided to just let the heater 'go forever' and two hours later, I came out to try it. Remember I said the fixture is STAINLESS STEEL? Yeah, well I tested it to see if it had unfrozen yet. It had. And the stainless steel was as HOT as ... well ... it was REALLY hot. So I burned my hand.

It just wasn't my day and it underscored how important it is not to let situations and circumstances and stuff get up in my face. Everything has to stay in its proper priority. And there's no way that frozen pipes is anywhere near the top, even though they need to be taken care of. I'm not really even sure how to do the 'prioritization' thing, to tell you the truth. GOD IS NUMBER ONE. We hear that all the time. But I'm not sure that God IS number one - or that He should be. I mean, I'm not sure that's a very good way to say it. Maybe a better way to say it is: GOD IS AT THE CENTER OF EVERYTHING.

C.S. Lewis said: "Relying on God has to begin all over again every day -- as if nothing had yet been done."

I'm looking back at yesterday now to see how I could have better put Him at the center of that situation rather than let it get to me like it did. Sometimes I just think I stink at this whole Christian walk thing. But I'm sure I'll have plenty more opportunities to 'deal' in the near future.

And be blessed.