No Shimming Over Here

So the local plumbers never showed up yesterday because they were busy trying to figure out why another house in the neighborhood had three feet of water in their basement. When I called to the office they told me the whole story in detail, including the part about the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) being there three times and how they flushed dye through the system and now the poor people with three feet of water in their basement now have three feet of green water in their basement and why, yes, we can live with banging pipes that wake the dead, thank you very much, just keep the DEP and green dye and floods on the other side of town.

Have I ever mentioned that living in this place is great practice for when we own our own home? We are practically experts on ancient heating systems and plumbing so old some of the pipes are made of terra cotta and drafty windows and toilets that spontaneously explode and leaky faucets. And don't forget the stray feral cats that inhabit the backyard and and the skunk that moved into our shed at our weekend place (where we are supposed to "get away from it all" but it is hard when "it all" follows you) and is it too early to sign up for assisted living because having someone come in to help bathe and dress me and periodically administer medication sounds pretty good right about now.