Early morning flood...

23 April 2025: For about ten minutes this morning, I thought I was in the middle of a homeowner's nightmare. A line going into the guest room toilet burst when I was taking a shower in the master bathroom. By the time I realized it (couldn't have been long at all), water was shooting all over, pouring down into the first floor bathroom, and into the crawl space below. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

I climbed into that crawl space in nothing but a robe and turned off the water. (The toilet valve wouldn't work.) Eventually the water stopped. I used every towel in my house to mop it up. 

And like a pair of superheroes sent from above, Ron and Russ, my long-time plumbing go-to guys, came by and got everything fixed by 9:15 or so. I only had to cancel one class (that 9:10 class).

I keep thinking about how much worse it could have been. If the burst happened 20 minutes later, I would have been gone, off on campus from 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. And that water would have been going the whole time. I can't even imagine. In fact, when I do, it makes my anxiety surge.

At the risk of repeating a frequent theme these days, gratitude cuts through so much that is hard. 

I've also been thinking all day about Ron, who shared with me his grief over losing his wife in October. It's always hard to know what to say, but it was a privilege to just listen to him to about her and about his grief, to see the pictures that he shared of her, and to be a witness to such a deep love.