Disaster Averted

"What?!?" you say. "John and Erin didn't actually meet with disaster today? It's been a whole week since something catastrophic happened!"

That's right, we just missed another exciting event. When Erin got home from the outdoor street market this evening John was already home. We baked some potatoes and ate earlier than usual since we had a meeting at a nearby fitness club to find out what ridiculously high price we would be quoted this time. (We've yet to find a fitness club, including the one visited tonight, that is less than €700 per person per year. We might just have to get fat while we're here.) :-) Just before leaving for the meeting, while rinsing dishes, John found that the hot water was not getting hot. Erin noticed the water pressure in the bathroom sink was a bit low and there was no hot water in the bathroom either. Since we had to leave for the fitness club we decided the problem would have to wait an hour or so.

When we got home, the hot water was still not working. John took a look at the gas water heater in the closet, which was blinking a zero at us. Is this how it always looks? Hmmm. We should pay more attention to these things when they are working! I mean, we look at it all the time since we keep the vacuum cleaner, the ladder, the broom, the ironing board, and the mop in that same closet. The only instructions to be found for the heater were, of course, in Dutch, so John called our landlord - the number actually turned out to be the landlord's mom who also knew nothing about gas water heaters. She did, however, promise to call her son but did not know if she could reach him tonight. Erin vowed that she would not shower until the hot water was fixed and John decided to take extreme measures at this point. He found a reset button on the gas water heater, closed his eyes, and pushed it.

The blinking zero starting counting up to 5 and another number, a 90, above the "temperature" button appeared. Aha. We both decided this looked more familiar than a blinking zero. The heater came on and the hot water from the faucets proved to be working once again. John called the landlord's mom again who said she had talked to her son and he was so upset at the people who installed the heater because apparently it does this regularly. The landlord says we should not have to push anything to get the heater to work. His mother also informed us that the landlord is calling the heater company to complain and set up a maintenance contract that will include service in the evenings. We do not know what this means or if someone from the company will be knocking on our door in a couple hours or not. Erin's just happy the hot water works again. She doesn't care if a button needs to be pushed every once in a while and John is relieved that she will be showering again!

P.S. It's 9:30 at night and the people next door are hammering away on the wall. This construction project has been going on all day. We're wondering how long this will last tonight and just waiting for them to hammer their way right through the wall into our living room!