Victory! Mostly....

We have hot water!  But, man what a magilla!

On Saturday, Scott went out to get our new water, heater-upper installed.  He was going slow, making sure to complete each step correctly instead of rushing.  I thoroughly appreciate this as it's a gas water heater and I don't relish the idea of an explosion.

Then Will woke up from his nap with a fever.  He'd been complaining his ear hurt the night before, so we were fairly sure he had an ear infection, the fever just confirmed that he needed to go to the doctor.

I flung him into the car and headed for our local Urgent Care clinic.  Wow, lots and lots of cars there meaning lots and lots of wait time.  After a moment's hesitation, I made the decision to try the CVS Minute-Clinic.

I make about $500 a year doing focus groups and online surveys and I'd heard about the Minute Clinic at one of the focus groups I attended last year.  One of the participants recommended it highly for simple things that needed attention on the weekends.

Wow!  Can I say this was a slick set up?  You sign in at a self-sign in kiosk outside the exam room then have a visit with a nurse practitioner.  She said, yes, he did indeed have an ear infection.  Then the prescription was electronically sent over to the pharmacy counter.  We were in and out of there in 45 minutes.

My new hierarchy of medical attention:

ER= you might die or you have broken bones

Urgent Care= serious illness or stitches on the weekend or after hours

Minute Clinic=My child has an ear infection or I think he has the flu, I'm in need of antibiotics on the weekend.

That's a good thing that came out of this weekend, I found the Minute Clinic!

When I got home I went out to try and help Scott get the water heater into it's little closet, three feet off the ground.

Hot water heaters are heavy.

We couldn't do it.  We could not get it into the space it needed to be.  We tried a number of things but we couldn't make it happen.

At that point we were both so sore from trying to heft the damn thing we decided to call in a pro.  Said pro arrived Sunday to explain that if he was going to install it, it would have to be installed to code.  And the codes have changed since the house was built in 1991, when the water heater that went kaput was installed.

However, he was very pleased at the water heater we'd purchased, said it was the second best one we could have picked.  The only one that would be better would be the Energy Star model that costs double what we paid, but our selection was an excellent one.  It was funny how excited the plumber was about our new appliance. 


He was here for a really long time on Sunday.  Like, a really, really long time while Scott and I stayed in the house, cowering at the thought of how much the bill was going to be. 

It was a lot.  So much for that emergency buffer we had.  *sigh* But that's why one has an emergency buffer right?

Once our new tank was in and we had heated water on demand again, I told Scott you didn't realize what a luxury hot water is until you don't have any.  I keep thinking back to the books I've read where water had to be heated on the stove before being dumped into the washtub for one to bathe in.  No wonder people only took baths on Saturday night, it was a huge pain in the ass.

Next project on our list?  Scott and Zoe will be working on her science fair project this week as soon as the magnets he ordered arrive in the mail.  They're going to use ring magnets and make them hover around a pencil.  There's also a solution that will show the magnetic waves in the bottom of a glass dish or some such thing.

I'm in charge of getting the project board and taking pictures.  I'm glad there's no electricity involved or we might go into debt getting something else fixed.

Amanda's beauty tip of the day:  If you've seen a product on an infomercial you think you might like to try, but there's discussion of some kind of "club" you'll be enrolled in that sends you the product again every 60 days, buy it on ebay instead.  The 'club memberships' are almost impossible to cancel and will cost you a ton of money.