Day One (Yeah, there will be a day two)

I had set my clock for 8:35, but I didn't actually get up until 9:15. I gathered up the broom, dustpan, mop, bucket,and rubber gloves and headed for the cat room. The cats were very surprised to see me so early in the day. I took the two litter boxes out of the closet, swept and mopped and then thought, well, heck, since I have all this, I might as well do the rest of the floor. It really is something I should do more often, but not so early in the morning. I finished that room, did some general picking up and watched a little TV, then around 10:15, I started work on my Stroganoff. I finally had everything in the crockpot by 11:00. The plumber called while I was doing all that to say they had a little job and then they would head over. I said, "Call me when you are about to head over." (I really emphasize that and get seriously furious when people show up at my door. I can't help it. It's part of my anxiety disorder. If someone just shows up at my door I get an adrenaline rush and go into "fight or flight." Usually it's fight and I am quite the ass for the first few minutes. Sometimes, if it's not someone I HAVE to let in, I just hide in another room until they go away. I would be very easy to murder. Someone could just throw me a surprise party and I'd probably keel right over dead. I even get nervous when I see surprise parties on TV!)
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Okay so back to the day. At 11:30 I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 12:30. The phone rang just a few minutes later and he said they would be there in about 30 minutes. It was more like 45 minutes. So it's three guys and they are all running around with weird equipment that sounds kinda like whale song. It's like an electronic divining rod that locates the water. The first bad news is the line goes to the kitchen sink and THEN the bathroom. The second bad news is the connection into the bathroom is not in the cat room closet but the wall next to the closet behind the door. Now the job is more complicated because they have to take out some wall in the kitchen. The one guy is trying to talk me into making it easy for them - meaning they cut into the big blank open wall that is in my living room and the guy I LIKE is saying they can do it under the kitchen sink. Remember, these guys don't do any wall repair, just plumbing. Although I can tape and bed, I can not match the texture so I say, "NIX!" to the idea of cutting into my living room wall.
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All of this took place in less than an hour. They call me into the kitchen to discuss everything and tell me they will have to come back on Friday. I take few minutes to stare at the clock and say, "That's fine, but I'm not going to be charged for two full days work." He (the guy I don't like, who happens to be the owner) kinda stammers, "Uhm, yeah okay, we can work with you on that. We'll count the hours and if it's just 8 we'll just charge for one day." I said, "Well that's good. So I won't have to slip outside to remove your distributor cap so you have to finish today?" They laughed and said, "Well I guess a woman that can replace all her own faucets knows about that stuff too." The funny thing was I never laughed or even said it like a joke, I was just smiling my evil smile. And the other funny thing is I have no idea what a distributor cap is, I just know they do that in the movies. Oh and a little before that, the guy I like walks up and hands me a piece of crumpled paper. He says, "You know that fan up there (he means in the attic)?" I said, "Yeah I need to get that fixed." He says "It's fixed. The instructions were jammed inside." I thought that was hilarious. Now I don't have to remember that I keep forgetting to call an electrician about that.
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I told them they could leave but they HAD to cap off the leak. They stayed another hour. They capped the leak, put the hot water heater back, taped up the hole in the wall in the cat room and checked for leaks. There is not hot water in the guest bathroom tonight, so My Sweetie has to shower in my bathroom in the morning. Also I could not find Lilly and was afraid she had gotten taped up in the wall, but as usual, The Mysterious Vanishing Cat eventually turned up. The best part was taking a long hot shower tonight. Wednesday morning before Meals on Wheels, the hot water ran out right after I washed my hair. That's the FIRST thing I do. It was NOT pleasant. And speaking of Meals on Wheels, they called this morning and I thought they were going to ask me to sub when I saw the name on my caller ID and was thinking how ironic it was that I was actually awake, yet I was waiting for plumbers. But, no, they want me to train someone on Wednesday. I think this is my third one. I got really lucky last time, so I don't expect this person to be as cool as that person, but maybe I will get lucky again. I think I will make them drive and do most of the work. That's how you learn, right?
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So anyway these plumbers will be back around 10:00. Hopefully they will get everything done with no more SNAFUs, and not charge me more than $1700. And they did save me the price of an electrician!

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UPDATE: As of 12:15 my time, they were out of the house. Everything works. They didn't charge the $200 for insulation and knocked off another $50 because I am a magical being. Grand total $1400.