After cycling on Saturday, the shower I took caused a horrific backup in the downstairs toilet. I spent a couple of hours cleaning that up, while Ed tried to line up a plumber through our home warranty, which expires on Wednesday. Of course they don’t offer weekend plumbing, so the rest of Saturday, yesterday and today we had to get creative about showering and other facilities. Luckily, we have this list. Finally this morning the assigned plumber called, only to tell us they didn’t have an opening until Wednesday morning. Another long call to the warranty company, and I did get a plumber here today. Alas, he could not fix the problem. There is a blockage in the pipe indicative of a pipe collapse or other calamity that will no doubt be excluded by our warranty. Estimated cost of repair (we are still waiting to hear if anything will be covered), $2500.

Thus we continue our long string of unexpected $2500 expenses this year. Last minute plane tickets, dental bills, and a few other surprises have kept us slightly anxious of late. Our only lucky break is when the evaporator on the refrigerator broke last month, but was covered. Apparently those are very expensive to replace on SubZero refrigerators. Whew!

Oh, and it’s over 100 degrees every day, hasn’t rained in ages, and isn’t supposed to rain in more ages. Well, I guess the temperature is actually a positive when one is showering on one’s back deck.