a ray of light and hopefully a future with a peaceful shower

I've been feeling a little overwhelmed lately by (see below) and today while talking about the repairs about to take place in our flat I had a breakthrough. Actually, a revelation. Let me start at the beginning...

Our water heater doesn't like working. Sometimes we have hot water, sometimes we don't. Quite often we have to restart the pilot light - sometimes a few times before it actually takes. I've figured out that you can decrease the number of attempts you need to get it to "take" if you have the water running. Once the heat turns on again if you keep the water running it doesn't usually go out - but once the water turns off you'll probably have to restart it. I've had it happen that the water was hot and running and then suddenly the pilot light died in the middle of the dishes so I had to restart it - twice before it took and would start to heat the water again. Fortunately that hasn't happened in the shower yet.

The "shower" here is a shower head on a long hose which attaches to the faucet. The shower head fits in a slot supported by a pole attached to the wall. The pole system for the showerhead is broken - the bracket pieces that attach to the wall are broken on the inside yet it balances the pole if you place it just right and will support the shower head. I've been asking to have it replaced for a while - it's been that way for months. I don't have the technical skills or the tools to drill in to the tile, etc...

Our shower is a rectangle smaller than your hall closet. I can stand in the middle, rotate at the waist, and with my hands below my waist I can touch all four sides with my elbows. Think about the size there.

So - this is how my mornings have been. Get up, maybe eat something, turn on the shower. Go to get in the shower and realize it's cold. Go to the kitchen and hit the pilot light - repeat get in shower, cold, kitchen pilot light up to three times before success is found.

Once in the shower try not to move - if you bump the shower hose it hits the pole and knocks it against the loose bracket - the nozzle, pole and bracket all come tumbling down - down on your head, back, legs, feet and most importantly right on top of the faucet. The force of the falling hardware turns the water off.

Now, the fun part - by the time everything has fallen down, been replaced and the water is turned back on the pilot light has gone out again.

You have to exit the tiny shower, warm steamy bathroom and pad through the hall and across the bare kitchen floor in an uninsulated (or archiacally insulated) building (it's been zero Celsius lately - quite cold in the flat!) and start the whole process over again - while soaking wet.

I mentioned this morning ritual to a friend recently and she said something about with such a difficult morning the rest of the day doesn't stand a chance - getting off on the wrongest foot possible, stuff like that... and I realized she may have a bit of a point - when I'm feeling overwhelmed just trying to get in the shower my outlook probably isn't so cheery for the rest of the day.

Fortunately - hopefully - after many repeated requests both the shower and the hot water heater are scheduled to be repaired next week - it's not till Friday, but I'm just thankful there's finally a date on the calendar!