Pity Party

Why is it that when you're having a tough week, everything seems to go wrong? This particular week, I awoke on a Sunday with a horrible head cold, the kind that fills your head with pain and pressure accompanied by the added bonus of aches and pains all over. As most of you know, when you're a Mom, your ailments aren't all that important to the people {or tires or toilets} around you. Life goes on.

This happened to be a week that my husband was traveling so I was on my own {plus  two teenage daughters}. The previous evening, my 16 year old informed me that her replacement phone which arrived by mail on Friday came with a crack in the screen {of course it did}. This was something that needed to be taken care of immediately in order to avoid being charged for the damage. So my day wouldn't be completely centered around consuming as many fluids as possible and hunkering down in bed trying to fight off this cold. 

I headed upstairs to make myself presentable so I could pop in and take care of the phone situation. Just before exiting the bathroom, a small puddle behind the toilet caught my eye. I gave it a quick flush and water started spraying from underneath the tank lid! This too would have to be taken care of immediately. 

Having replaced the mechanism inside the tank before, I knew what needed to be done. I turned off the water supply, sopped up the puddle, hopped in the car and headed to the hardware store to purchase a new pump. I quickly found what I needed and headed downtown to take care of the phone. 

This is when I noticed that my tire air pressure light was on. Just what I needed, right?? New priorities, new plan. I pulled into a Jiffy Lube and inquired as to how long the wait would be to have my tires checked. I am constantly driving over nails and random pieces of metal that somehow find their way imbedded in my tires so I assumed I'd need a tire plugged. Apologetically, the young man informed me it would be 40 minutes or more. Thanks, but no thanks! I cruised in to the closest gas station and for one dollar, I filled all four of my tires to the recommended specification. {I happen to know it's 32 psi} Voile! The air pressure light went off.

I got in and out of the phone store and headed home to take care of the toilet. Replacing the "guts" of a toilet tank is quite simple. Turn off the water supply behind the toilet, flush a couple of times so the tank empties and remove the pump by unscrewing it from underneath the tank {there's complete instructions inside the package}. Simply, insert the new pump and do everything in reverse. I finished up the job and gave it a celebratory flush. Perhaps too soon to celebrate. The small pipe that connects the tank to the water pipe in the floor was leaking! This most likely was due to the fact that the pipe is 17 years old and all the wiggling and yanking I did to get the pump nut loose. No problem, I knew what to do. I hopped back in the car and headed to the hardware store. I grabbed a new pipe and raced home. This fix should take about 2 minutes, then I’d be off to bed to sleep off this cold. And it would have if I had gotten the right length pipe. This one was too short!

At this point, I may or may not have sat down on the floor and had a little pity party. Here's the thing about being able to do things for yourself, sometimes it's easier than you think it will be and sometimes it's harder. But either way, it's always okay to have a little cry {especially when you're sick}. It gives you a little clarity which is just what I needed at that point. One last trip to the hardware store and I was home again, with the correct pipe, a functioning toilet and a self-prescribed nap!

The moral of the story is that fixing something yourself is often easier than you think. If you’re not sure, google it, ask an expert or just try it and see what happens. You just might surprise yourself. You’re probably made of more than you think.

You Can Do It!