Dodged the Bullet

I try not to ask for much, but I remember always to give thanks.  Phone call to Go-To Guy:  "Use a hair dryer on the stand-up pipe."  (Nothing happened.)  "Turn the left lever down."  (Couldn't move the lever.)  "Turn the breakers off and on."  (No change.)  "I'll be there late this afternoon."  Go-To drove up just at sundown, made a quick assessment, and said, "It's a problem down at the well," and my heart sank.  The well pump is a very expensive and probably lengthy repair/replacement.  I mentally reviewed my checkbook and tried to think of how to get water for the animals (Joel has offered to let me get water from his reserve tank), and fought rising panic.  While Go-To went down to the well in the front pasture, I put the critters to bed.  It was more productive than standing around wringing my hands.  I came back and checked the pressure pump...and nearly screamed...the pressure was UP!  I yelled to Go-To, who was still down in the well housing, and then he yelled, too.  (All this yelling made Bessie go berserk.)  Returning to the house, Go-To told me it was just (just, he said!) a five-dollar fuse.  Glory, glory, hallelujah!

I don't use last names; this is a pretty public forum.  However, Go-To has started his own business and I asked his permission to give credit where credit is due.  To anyone in the Placerville environs, I most heartily recommend Hammonds Water Pump Service, Jim Hammonds, owner/operator.  Jim has gone above and beyond for me time and time again.  His name is Jim, but I truly think of him as my Go-To Guy.  In what are sometimes desperate situations, he comes when called, always calm and cheerful, and he makes it all better.

It was a balmy thirty-four degrees this morning when taking the trash down to the big road.  Yesterday I had to break through over an inch of ice on the water trough.  I'm not ready to bring out the bikini just yet, but those few degrees have made a world of difference.

All's right in my world.