Chapter 12: Kay Gets Wet!

Sunday mornings I laze around in bed until I feel the need to get up. I like to watch the Sunday morning news magazines and talking head shows on TV before I get going for the day. The cats usually join me if they aren't already on the bed when I wake and turn the TV on. I find it both relaxing and informative; it's also a chance for me to think, to let my mind wander.

After helping Kay get her desk where she wanted it in her room I had called it quits for the day so I still had to sweep the pool area and deal with the shower but I didn't think it would take me all day. And if it did, there's always a plumber available to call. Now I needed to get moving, at least as far as the bathroom.

A little fruit and cheese for a quick and easy breakfast and I was out, working in the back yard. I had finished the sweeping and put up the lounges with their pads. I know I was procrastinating but I was also thinking about the shower problem. I had already gone back through tracing the water line in the cabana and through its wall to the outside shower, nothing new there. There were definitely no kinks in the line and no valve in the line to have been partially shut so why wasn't I getting the flow outside that I got inside? It didn't make sense and I was still scratching my head when Kay came up behind me eating an orange. She was wearing shorts and a tee shirt again. I was learning this was her normal everyday outfit. It showed off her trim figure and nice legs so I wasn't going to complain.

"Still have the problem?"

"Yeah and I still haven't found the cause either."

"Can I take a look?"

"If you want to, you're more than welcome. So far this is kicking my butt. Maybe you'll see something I'm missing."

She went into the cabana and after a minute or two I heard the inside shower run long enough for her to check the flow there. A couple of minutes later she was in front of me running the outside shower with the same results I had. She went over to the shed and came back with a short step ladder, a rag and an adjustable wrench.

"Have you figured out something?"

"I'm not sure yet. We had a similar problem on the farm a few summers before I came out here to school. Now we didn't have city water, we were on our own well and the shower we had a problem with was in the barn. Our shower had just about stopped running all together, both hot and cold. It had started just fine with the flow dropping off slowly like you said this one did. Give me a minute and I might fix your problem, if I'm lucky." She set the ladder slightly to the side and went up to the shower head, standing so she wasn't directly in line with the shower. She took the rag, wrapped it around the shower head where it connected to the pipe and put the wrench on it. A moment later she was looking into the pipe end of the shower head in her hand. "Rob try the shower so we can see the flow without this attached."

I stepped to the other side, reached for the handle and turned on the water. A nice, solid stream came out of the pipe end. I quickly shut it off so we weren't getting splashed. "What the... ?"

Kay was smiling and handed me the shower head. "You have a simple problem out here; the shower head itself has a clog building up in it. That's why the flow has dropped off slowly. It would have stopped altogether in a little while. We should probably pull the shower head inside and look at it. I think it's clogging up too; it just hasn't gotten this bad yet. You can either clean the shower heads out, which is a pain with this type, or just replace them. They're not too expensive."

I was looking at the shower head in my hands. "I think I love you! I never would have thought to look at the shower head and would have ended up calling the plumber. So you just saved me that service call and earned your pay for the week, hell, for the month." I looked up at Kay and she was smiling as she came down off the ladder.

"It really isn't that big a deal. Logically something had to be blocking the flow and if it wasn't out where we could see it, like a kink in the line, the problem had to be inside the pipe. The shower head holes are smaller than the pipe so they were the obvious starting point for an internal blockage."

"It wasn't obvious to me."

"Yeah, but you didn't have the advantage of going through this same problem a few of years ago the way I did. To be fair, I've got to tell you it took me and my brothers four days of messing around with the damn thing before we figured out the problem. And we did dig up the line all the way back to the water heater. When it happened on the farm, Dad told the three of us to figure it out, he was too busy. At least that's what he said. I really think he just wanted us to do it on our own to see that we could. At the time, things weren't as set up as they are now for what was going to happen long term to the farm. It was a learning experience for the three of us and kind of a test Dad was running. I think he knew all along what the problem was. After we fixed the shower by taking the time to clean the shower head out he told us it's cheaper to replace the shower head than try to clean it out properly. He said to always remember your time has value, especially on a farm where there is ALWAYS something that has to be done. He was testing our problem solving skills and teaching us the value of our time. He may not be what you would call modern but there is nothing wrong with the way he taught us some things."

"What was with the rag on the shower head? I thought you were just going to use it to wipe up the water."

"That's another trick Dad taught us. If it is a fitting or something that is out where it is seen all the time you don't want to put tool marks on it, so you wrap it with a rag and you can still use the tool but not leave any marks."

"That's a good trick; I'll have to remember it. I guess I need to make a trip to the big box orange store and pick up a couple of shower heads. Do you know of some way to prevent it from happening again?"

"Not really, you'd have to have some way to filter the water before the shower heads. You probably have sediment in the water heater too but I don't know how much or what to do about it. I guess you'll need the plumber after all."

"That or I can just remember this if flow drops off again. Do you want to come with me or do you have something else to do today?"

"I still need to finish putting things away in my room but that won't take too long. Do you think it's okay for me to plug in the little fridge now?"

"You can plug it in anytime you want to now. Once you do, it should be cold inside of an hour. I don't mind waiting for a while if you want to go with me to the store."

"If you really don't mind waiting, it should only take an hour or so for me to do what I want to in the room, maybe less. I would like to go; I like tools and stores where I can get them."

"Okay, get going. When you're ready we'll take the truck. If there is anything else you need to pick up, we can get it at the same time."

Kay turned and scooted back into the house. I finished cleaning things up from what we were doing and was going to put up the ladder but remembered I would need it to put the new shower head on when we got back.

When Kay was ready, we took the truck to get the new shower heads. On our way there we talked some more. "Is there anything I can do to minimize the problem you see coming with your parents? They knew you had a roommate before, didn't they? You can say I'm just a housemate. There is a lot more room in my house than you had in the apartment and they didn't object to you sharing the apartment. I mean they had to have realized, as college students, you and your roommate are adults. Do they not realize you weren't living in a monastery and that college students aren't known to always be celibate?"

"I'm sure they know about college students and what they do. My older brother went through college before me and he didn't make any bones about not being celibate. He didn't brag or otherwise flaunt it in front of them but he didn't hide it either. He never brought any girls home with him from school but he did talk about a few of them indicating he was considering them for more than a casual friendship. It was apparent they did more than hold hands when they went out. My younger brother is starting college this coming semester and I'm sure he will act and respond to the girls around him the same way. I'm their little girl though; they don't give me the same latitude towards my interactions with the opposite sex. Out here in liberal California, men and women may be close to equals but home in rural Kansas, not so much. Their expectations for my behavior and the behavior of my, now dropped out, roommate is at a higher level simply because we are women. Unless I drag it out in front of their eyes and tell them, blatantly, I'm no longer a virgin, they are going to continue to believe I am. I'd never do that to them. When I tell them I've moved into the house of a man, an older man at that, they aren't going to get beyond that to the part where I tell them I have my own room and it's on the other side of the house. It won't matter to them how I say it, they're just going to think the worst of the situation."

"Do they not trust you or is it they would think you'll be in danger from me?"

"Logically they trust me, emotionally is another matter. They didn't ever meet Robin in person but they did talk with her on the phone a few times and she was smart enough not to say anything to shock or upset them. They told me she sounded like a nice young lady. That was their code for she was safe and okay with them to be my roommate. It doesn't help that I'm in the Aerospace program either. They still haven't accepted that as a reasonable vocation for their daughter. I'm sure they are still hoping I will come to my senses, as it were, and return to the farm and farming life. It's not like they have anything against the program, I'm sure they would actually see the benefit of it for someone else, a MALE someone else. Me they want back on the farm, in the farming life, helping my husband raise the crop of wheat he plants in the ground while he helps me raise the crop of grandkids he plants in me. It's how it was for their parents before them, it was how it was for them and how they expected it to be for all their children, including me. They don't see or won't see that I wasn't happy on the farm. I tolerated it and did what was expected of me but I wasn't happy on the farm or with the farming life style."

I parked the truck and we went into the store. Kay led me past the plumbing section which is where I would have thought to find the shower heads. She took me back to where the bath and kitchen fixtures were on display. After a few minutes of looking around at all the possibilities, we picked up a couple of shower heads. A simple one, with a wide dispersion pattern for outside and one with multiple spray pattern settings for inside. I also picked up, at her suggestion, a couple of washers with built in filter screens. She told me they would clog sooner but they could be taken out and easily flushed clean for reuse, unlike the shower heads which would have to be replaced.

"Anything else?" I asked her.

"Yes, you need some Teflon tape to put on the threads when you put the new shower heads on. It will make it easier to put them on and they won't leak at the pipe connection. If you don't mind, I want to walk through the tools section just to see what's there."

That's what we did. She didn't find anything worth getting but she looked at several different tools. I never realized how many specialized tools there were. I'm fairly handy and do most all the work on my boat myself using simple and common tools but there were some things I could see using on the boat to make some chores and repairs easier. If I had to do more work on the boat than I did now, I might consider some of those tools.

"Kay, whenever you're ready, we can go and I'll treat you to a lunch."

"You don't have to do that Rob."

"I know I don't have to but I want to. I'd still be scratching my head trying to figure this out or I would've called the plumber by now. You've saved me both time and money; we have to eat anyway so why not have lunch while we're out."

"Can I pick the place? Nothing fancy but I don't think it's someplace you'd think of going to."

"You have pleasantly surprised me before so why not."

"Great, then I'll drive."

I gave her the keys. "Sure, why not."

We checked out and she drove us to what I thought was a hole in the wall type of place by the college.

"This place makes the best homemade soups and they serve them in bread bowls they make right here. They make for a very nice lunch."

We went in and I told Kay to order for us. The soup came and she was right, it was a nice lunch. The place wasn't too busy and I asked Kay how they stayed in business.

"During the summer they don't do too much business but when school is in session, this place is packed at lunch time and most evenings. It's not a restaurant guys normally take a date to but study groups love this place. We grab a meal and then head to the library or the student union building to do our studying. The meal isn't too heavy so you don't feel like taking a snooze after it. They have three or four different soups that are regular on the menu then they have about a dozen other soups they make and feature on different days. Two of my favorites are the creamed mushroom onion soup and the cheddar tomato. They are both heavier soups but I like 'em, especially if it's damp or there's a chill in the air. If you want something lighter, they make a turkey vegetable with dumplings and if you want something very light, they make a Japanese Miso soup that can't be beat."

After lunch we headed back to the house and then to the cabana. It didn't take long before we had the new shower heads in place and tested out. They worked great and I once again had full flow in both showers. Kay knew what she was talking about and fixing the problem without calling a plumber put me in a good mood.