Minor disaster

Here's a new one. Yesterday afternoon during our piano lesson, I went out to the kitchen to prepare the tea. Tommy happened to be outside near the front garden talking on the phone.

I had a little extra time, so I decided to wash some extra dishes that had piled up and a bunch of the kids' placemats. As I was rinsing dishes and the sink was draining, Tommy came in and said, "Mom, you need to come out here. Leave the water running."

When I got outside, there was a small fountain bubbling up in our front garden. It appears that the drainpipe from the sink has burst. So I emailed the property manager, Makiko-san. Usually she responds within 30 minutes. But I heard nothing back from her. Since I didn't think anyone should use the sink, we ate dinner on base last night. Afraid we'd forget and pour more water out into the garden, I put an "X" of masking tape over the kitchen sink before we went to bed.

Still no email from Makiko-san this morning. At 10:30 or so, I telephoned, and she said she was waiting to hear from the plumber. It's now 3:45 p.m. and she hasn't called back. So I guess we're eating out again tonight. I'm wondering why they are taking so long to investigate this. It seems like kind of a big deal, and Makiko-san is usually amazingly efficient.

And we wonder how this happened. Was it during the winter and we never noticed? Or did it happen in the earthquake (5.8 magnitude) last week?

I'd sure like to have my kitchen sink (and the dishwasher, which drains there) back soon. The kids are excited now, but eating junky dinners on base will get old pretty fast.

Time to pray for patience (of course, this sort of event is usually the answer to such a prayer--I only seem to develop patience by practicing it again and again and again) and to Sts. Zita and Martha, patronesses of domestic workers and cooks. A quick prayer to St. Vincent Ferrer, patron of plumbers, wouldn't hurt either.

Hopefully, this will be resolved before the weekend. And thank goodness we still have running water in the house. Oh, and I'm thankful that we are renters and not owners at this particular moment. I KNEW there were blessings in here somewhere ;-) Thanks Blessed Mother Teresa for prodding me to keep looking for them.