Merry Christmas...from the plumber?

Apparently Santa Claus comes in many forms. And this year, he came dressed as middle-aged, slightly cranky, overweight plumber. If you haven't heard, we had the blessing of greeting our local plumber not one, not two, but three times in one week. Ah the joys of home-ownership! Apparently, anytime I would run a load in the washing machine, water would spill out on the floor. Hmmm. Was it coming from the ridiculously old washing machine, or the ridiculously old cast iron pipe in the floor? After many hours spent staring at the back of my washer to catch the water culprit in action (I swore someone was playing a trick on me to see how many times I would stare at the back of my washer) I determined it was coming from the pipe. Hooray for not having to buy a new washer! Boo, for having to call the plumber.


So the plumber comes the first time, fixes it and leaves. The next day, more water. He comes back, fixes it and leaves. And wouldn't you know, I get up the next morning and there's water on the floor in the laundry room again. Only this time it's coming from the drain on the floor where the dehumidifier drains into. It's clogged. Really? I had to call him again. Seriously, this must be a joke.


So he comes a third time. In the middle of augering (yes, that's a new word I'm quite familiar with now), he comes out and says to me, "hey, you think it would be okay if I give the little guy something?" I'm thinking "yeah, sure, if you've got a McDonald's toy in your truck you're dying to give away, you can give it to him." So he goes out to his truck and comes back in with, and I'm not kidding, a 3 ft long Nylint die-cast 18-wheeler. "Do you think he would like this?" the plumber said. My jaw was on the floor. I was like "Uh, he would love this! Are you sure?" "Yeah," he says, "wrap it up for Christmas. It's just been sitting in our truck taking up space and he looks like he would really like it."

So thank you to our plumber Santa. We're going to have one very happy little boy come December 25th. But please, don't ever come back to our house!