Lord Love a Duck!

I have no idea what that means. My Mom always used that expression when she was exasperated. It seems appropriate today. (If this is too long to read, the point is at the end)

John and I were there yesterday and when I went down stairs with the laundry I saw that the hot water heater was leaking. John came down and opened the relief valve a couple of times and that seemed to take care of it. It had a tag that said the valve should be opened once a year so it was years overdue! We left a little dish under the pipe so we'd know if it continued to leak.

After the funeral today we stopped to be sure it wasn't still leaking. It's not but Mom is set on having the plumber in to check on it next week. We can tell her that it is fine now until we're blue in the face but she won't be satisfied until she has the plumber in.

Now for the rest of this story you need a little background. Back in early November, the cable company called Mom and offered her a great deal to switch to phone service with them. I called her lifeline provider and they assured us that it wouldn't affect her service with them. We discussed that her phone wouldn't work if the cable OR power went out but she has a prepaid cell phone for emergencies, that Country Girl had gotten for her. She decided to switch.

They came and hooked her up. Everything worked fine. Then the bill came. It was for much more than they had told her it would be. So she called them up. She got frustrated with them and told them to come take it back out! She was not happy and had gotten to worrying about service if the power went out. Everything was supposed to be switched back to her old phone service today.

So when we got there today she said that the cable company had come and disconnected her but that the phone people had not shown up yet and she had expected them in the morning. We asked if she had her cell phone out and turned on. Of course not! So she got it out so I could call the phone company and see what was going on.

Did I not mention in my last post that I am not good with electronic gadgets? I could not turn that phone on. I got mine out and handed hers to John. I called the phone company who said that they had turned Mom back on way back on Dec 15th. We tried her phone and no dial tone. Meanwhile John got her cell on (or so we thought!)

Did I mention that we stopped after the funeral? John & I were both dressed in our best suits. The phone company needed us to go outside with a phone and see if we could get a dial tone at the box there. You can not open the box without a ratchet set. So back to the basement (note to self - CLEAN down there!!!) Mom doesn't seem to own a ratchet set. So we decided to check the inside connections which involved a folding chair and cobwebs.

We weren't able to fix the problem for her so she'll have to wait for the phone company to come. I tried to call her cell from mine so she'd know what it sounds like. It had already turned itself off! John plugged it into the charger but we still couldn't get it to work. We asked her when the last time she had charged it was. Never!? Why would she have to charge it, she's never used it!

So I told her that I was leaving mine with her. She said she didn't know how to use mine so there was no point in leaving it. Now my cell is ancient by cell phone standards and therefore easy to use. It is also big enough for her to see more easily. So I showed her how to dial, talk, end, answer, end. I called her after we got home and she was relieved because she was worried that she wouldn't know what it sounded like and might not be able to answer it. I'm relieved because until we get her phone working she has no lifeline service and the cell is better than nothing.

Not knowing that she'd need it, I didn't have my charger with we so I will go back to her house in the morning with it. Maybe by then her phone will have charged and will work.

As frustrating as this whole thing has been I am very grateful that we still have Mom!