An Offering to St. Plucky

One of my superpowers is being able to remember numerous quotes from selected cartoons & comic strips.  (I suddenly realize this is ironic, since no one is likely to make a comic book about that superpower.)  The one cited in the title is Plucky Duck from Tiny Toon Adventures.  (You'll have to look it up yourself, kids.  I'm too old to admit how long ago it was on the air.)  In the episode titled "Kon-Ducky", he proclaimed, "Nothing simple is ever easy."

Considering how applicable that statement is to daily living, I'm surprised more people don't walk around with that on a T-shirt.  Case in point:  my house repairs.  (This might get a little long.)  Several years ago, the washing machine started making screeching noises (worse than a slipping belt).  My mom's caregiver brought in an appliance repair person, who identified the problem & noted that it would be cheaper to buy a new washer than to fix what was wrong with it.  He said (allegedly, as I wasn't there to hear it) that it could work for weeks or years.  It did work for years, but then it broke.  (It would spin fine but was unable to agitate.)  During this time, it would shimmy or downright dance in the laundry room.  Also during this time, I suspect that the drain tube from the house's water filter would come out of the drainpipe it shared with the washer, and leak onto the floor.  The water degraded the tile grout, so the dancing washer started breaking the tiles.  (Yes, you could call it break-dancing.)

I finally scheduled for the tile to be repaired/replaced (a sub-story I won't go into now) and to have the washing machine replaced.  The tile repairman noticed that, in the 24 hours between setting the new tile & returning to add the grout, one of the water shut-off knobs in the wall was leaking slowly but consistently.  (An admirable puddle was on the new tile.)  So, call in a plumber before using the new washer.  The plumber identified corrosion as the problem & replaced all necessary parts (plus another repair, just to get my money's worth while he was on site.)

After the plumber left, I washed a load of towels as a test run of the new washing machine.  It worked fine.  Problem solved, right?  Well, yeah, but there was a new problem.  While on my way out the front door to get the mail, I saw water trickling down two places in the foyer wall, beneath the light switch.  Aside from the alarm of seeing water come from an electricity source, I noted that that exact spot is the opposite side of the laundry room wall, where the water shut-off knobs are.  Either fixing one leak meant that water had to find a new weak spot to come out, or the plumber broke something new while he was fixing something old.

The plumber is scheduled to return (under warranty) this Friday afternoon.  If you wouldn't mind helping me out here, take a moment to raise your eyes heavenward and offer a prayer to St. Plucky.