Saturday, August 8, 2009

Not really superstitious

So far this morning we've had two unexpected events:

1. The power bar I use in the guest kitchenette simply wouldn't work. I plugged in the kettle, the coffee maker, turned it on and off - nothing. I plugged the coffee maker directly into the outlet and it worked. So the problem was the power bar - one of the cheaper models that doesn't have a reset button. Ok, so we found another power bar and brought the 'broken' one downstairs to check out after breakfast.

2. After serving breakfast to our guests, we were sitting at the kitchen counter eating our own meal. We heard a hissing noise, looked at each other and then quickly got up to see where it was coming from. The bathroom - hot water was spewing from under the sink, at the connection at the top of the hose to the tap. I tried to turn off the shut-off valve but the water was too hot and was burning my hand. Miguel turned off the power to the hot water tank and closed the water supply from the tank. In the meantime I'd gone into the kitchen and retrieved an oven mitt and managed to turn off the shut-off valve at the sink. One of us had done the trick, we just weren't sure which one - hoping it was me because that meant we could turn the hot water back on so our guests would not be inconvenienced. We tested and luckily it was the shut-off valve at the sink that stopped the flood. Made us realize how lucky we'd been to be here when that happened because if we hadn't been, the hot water tank would have burned out, as would the water pump up on the roof. An expensive little leak, for sure, not to mention flooding the bottom level of the house and having that mess to deal with. As it is, the bathroom floor got a good soak with very hot water, and even though I was not happy when Tony installed a floor drain in there, it served to allow the water to simply drain off the floor instead of me having to mop it up. So...thanks, Tony!

After breakfast I checked the power bar and the darn thing works now. I don't get it, there is no reason. Guess I'll just keep it as a spare and hopefully it will work when needed - maybe it needed a vacation.

3. Like I said - I'm not really superstitious but is there a third goofy issue waiting to happen today? Only time will tell, the day is still young. I sort of thought I might be tempting fate when I laid sideways in the new hammock Miguel put on the front terrace for me - I could easily have tipped backwards and smashed my head, but I was careful and not only did I not smash my head, I actually found a very comfortable position and got the cramp out of my back muscles.

So I'm still on the lookout for a potential third issue - maybe just knowing it could be right around the corner will make us more careful today and it will be avoided. Or maybe that 'curse' that everything happens in threes doesn't hold water (hope that didn't just tick off the fates and now they will surely get me!).

4 comments:

Jackie said...

I would be careful about using that power bar. Sounds like it may have some kind of short in it. I think I would toss it just to be on the safe side.

Ann said...

Hope there isn't a #3! But that'w what usually happens--glad you were there for the water heater problem--it could have been a lot worse!

Anonymous said...

well? it's the next day..... dont keep us in suspense:-))
have you broken the curse?
carl/debbie

Sue said...

Jackie - you have a point, thanks.

Ann - yes, it could have been a disaster, thank goodness we were here.

Carl - check the next post...lol.