There are times when nothing seems to go right. Sunday afternoon the water in the shower was less than hot. I’ve never paid much attention to the water heater because I’ve never even run low on hot water. At my request, when I moved in, a water restrictor was installed on the shower head. So I seem to have infinite supplies of hot water. I can warm and stretch my back for as long as I like. But Sunday, as I said, the water was less than hot. By the time I got out of the shower it was freezing cold.

I called the gas company. They offered a thirteen hour window (7 AM to 8 PM) on Thursday to relight the pilot. I asked if they realized how unreasonable that was, and a bit later a supervisor said someone would be there the next morning. Morning turned out to be 2:30 in the afternoon. The repairman said the little white box on the side of the tank was “fried.” The landlord said to call a particular plumbing business in San Luis Obispo. They had a man out at 10:30 this morning who, after 45 minutes, determined that the little white box on the side of the tank was “fried.” He made a lengthy call and determined that they could have one shipped from the manufacturer, and it should be here by next week. “Then replace the water heater,” I said rather sternly.

He had another long conversation, waited for a callback, and said, “They’re going to overnight it.” I just received a followup call to say that he’ll be back between 2 and 4 tomorrow afternoon. So I should have hot water tomorrow night, provided the little white box was indeed the problem, and provided he has no problem installing it. Which moves us up to Wednesday night. He’ll get the work done… if he has time.