We can do it. They can help.

Switchback is coming to town this weekend. This, of course, makes me very excited. She is, after all, going to be my maid of honor. And it's not like I bestow that title to just anyone.

Since she's around to chaperone, then we'll stay at Murray's house for the weekend. Normally when I'm in town, we stay at his parents'.

Since she's staying at the house for the weekend, we needed to address an issue that we've neglected for the past several months. The guest bathroom shower does not have hot water. That is so not cool. I mean, it's not the end of the world or anything. She could have just used Murray's shower. But still. I really really wanted it to be done for when she's in town.

The first step in any undertaking such as this is to call El Senor. Which I did. If El Senor lived in the same city, the next step would be to make El Senor come over and fix it. It's what I've done my entire "independent" life. But that wasn't really available to me as an option.

So I explained the problem to El Senor and because he knows everything, he diagnosed what the problem possibly was, and explained how I could test it. He said I had to turn the water all the way to hot to see if anything was coming out. If nothing came out, it meant there was a hot water blockage and I'd have to take off the faucet and pull something out and replace it or whatever.

So I turned the water all the way to hot and nothing came out. So my problem was at least partially diagnosed. Then Murray came home while I was in a rage about not being able to figure out which valve turned the water off. Poor, poor, patient Murray. Then I got in a rage about not being able to take the thingy off the faucet because the screw wouldn't unscrew because maybe it was stripped or maybe I just wasn't using the right tool, but it was near impossible to tell anyway because the thing was tiny and down a hole; not easily accessible.

Anyway. We made a trip to Home Depot because I thought that I had to replace the whole faucet. But then I remembered that Home Depot's motto is "You can do it. We can help" so I realized that they were obligated to help us figure out the problem.

So we talked to a guy who had us talk to another guy who kindof explained the problem in terms I could kindof understand. And then the first guy gave us the part we needed (a cartridge) and we were off.

At home, after a fair bit of plumber's crack and only one curse word, we had the faucet completely disassembled (did I mention we figured out how to turn off the water?). And we found out that the new cartridge was actually the wrong part. So we went back to Home Depot right before they closed, got the right part, and went back to finish the job (with a quick stopover at Macey's where we got ten white pumpkins for a steal).

So we finished the job (all this time not actually knowing with 100% certainty that this was the right thing to fix the hot water situation). And when we turned on the water, we found out that I'd installed the thingy upside down, so in the off position, water was coming out at full force. So we turned the water off again, and I reinstalled it all and we turned on the water again and somehow I had still managed to install the thing upside down. But the third time I did it, it worked. And the hot water works. And Switchback had better appreciate it.

And now Murray and I are officially plumbers. But we won't be booking any appointments until after November 3rd. And we only specialize in reinstalling cartridges. And we charge $300/15 minutes.

Who knew that by not relying on El Senor, there was a whole world of empowerment awaiting me?