If Mom Ain't Happy...

When I call Paul after rehearsal each evening to tell him I am on my way home,  I always ask him, "Anything new?" He always says, "No, nothing." It's just that routine people fall into, I guess. Except last Thursday when I asked, he said, "There is a bit of a problem with the water. It's real rusty." When I got home I discovered his statement was no exaggeration.  Our water looked like Lipton Tea. Gritty tea.

Great. Just great. Paul, of course, had done considerable research as to why this sudden change and started running the water outside onto the lawn. If there was a solution, he said, that would be the answer.

My course of action?

We had a service guy out the next afternoon. He could talk the leg off a mule. 

Let's just say he got off subject quite often. Whenever we could steer him back to the subject,  he assured us our water was safe to drink but there obviously is rust down there in the aquifer and the orange tea colored water would be back. Paul was having success with his method of running water onto the lawn. I fixated on the fact it would return and said, "What filter system works best for our house?"

Mr. Talkative happened to have the perfect solution to the problem. We just had to listen to him tell about the conversations he and his wife had on their first AND second dates before we talked about the filter system.

We agreed to have a filtration system installed. Me, because I wanted the water problem to go away, and Paul, because he wanted this guy out of our house.

The water was clear by that evening. The install was set for Wednesday morning. Tuesday night, just as we were going to sleep, Paul softly whispered into my ear,

"You know, we can call and cancel that appointment tomorrow morning. We can just take our chances on the well."

My reaction?

Mark Dayton has had more success with the Republicans than Paul had in negotiations with me on the subject.

Being the intelligent man that he is, he knew when to say,

Yesterday the system was installed. I'll admit our basement furnace room looks a bit like a chemistry lab.

And, I just kissed my summer paycheck goodbye.

 But, I slept well last night.  So did Paul. Because it's not over. He always will get in the

He's already told me how many flat screen TV's we could have bought with that money as we walked through Sam's Club yesterday. I'm sure I'll be reminded often. For many years. With clean water.