My Broken House

So, the week before Marcus left on his annual surf trip, things around the house started breaking. First, the master shower started leaking into the garage. The plumber investigated the problem and then gave us an estimate of around $4K to rip out the shower tile, replace the leaking shower pan and retile the shower. Ouch. (We may just use the kids shower for the next two years.)

Two mornings later, I noticed that the cordless phone in the kitchen was blinking “Line In Use” (which of course it wasn’t). So I checked out the phones and found they all had busy signals. I called AT&T to let them know that our land line was not working, and they reassured me that they could send someone out within the next 7 to 10 business days. Wow, that is what I call customer service. Maybe the phones will be working before Marcus gets home from his 9-day vacation.

Next, our Roku box went caput. The Roku is an electronic device that routes video from the computer to the TV. We frequently watch movies/TV shows from Netflix instant streaming on our TV using this box. I was looking forward to catching up on a couple of shows that Marcus doesn’t care for while he was out of town, but the Roku decided to throw in the towel.

The final straw happened this morning. The modem died. It’s been working sketchily (is that a word) for a while now, but now it won’t come on at all. So I am without my #1 while-the-kids-are-asleep pastime, the internet. I called AT&T, and, in true form, they will have a new modem out to me in 5-7 days, for the nominal fee of $74.

Now I have no shower, no TV, no phone and no internet. Thankfully, I’ve got family in town to keep me company while my house falls apart. But, if my car dies or the power goes out, I’m moving in with a friend. (By the way, I posted this at the library.)