No Good Deed, etc.

This comes under the heading of no good deed goes unpunished.

We recently hired a new gardening service. Yesterday they treated our lawn and left instructions to water regularly. Seemed a reasonable request, particularly since this summer has been so hot without much rain.

I had been making do with a lawn sprinkler that would move only in one direction. So I bought a new one that would move properly in both directions and late in the afternoon I hooked it up and it worked fine.

However, when I went to turn it off the faucet handle would turn only so far. As hard as I tried, it wouldn't turn the water off. I tried again with all my strength and the faucet handle came off in my hand. And the water was still running.

It was early evening by this time but I wasn't worried. I went to the basement to turn off the valve that feeds the external hose outlet. I don't think that valve had been turned in years. In any case, it wouldn't budge. Not to be deterred, I lugged out my lug wrench and gave it a good turn. You guessed it, the handle came right off. Now I had two broken faucets and the water was still running outside.

I turned off the main water valve and called our plumber. I left a message explaining our situation. I assumed he'd be available in the morning. However, less than an hour later the back doorbell rang and THERE HE WAS!

He said he was watching a movie with his family and when it ended he decided to check his messages. And there we were, and here he was fixing both our faucets that same evening.

In case you're wondering why we get such good service, I have to tell you that this young man went to school with our younger son and also was in my wife's elementary school class. In other words, he's almost like family.

I guess we're just plum(ber) lucky.