OK, so, there was water on MIL's bedroom rug a few days ago, right by the bed. Her home health care worker was very concerned. She thought there must be a plumbing leak. I went over there, checked all the obvious places, found nothing, so I felt and smelled the damp spot on her rug. Smelled like urine to me. I also felt all around the damp spot. Dryness everywhere else. Hmmm...

Health care worker thought it was way too much dampness for a mere 'accident'. She insisted that it had to be coming from somewhere else. OK. I said I'd be back in a few days with a flashlight to look under the house, and if need be, I'd call a plumber.

Well, the home health care worker was very concerned that I didn't come and do that the very next day. So, rather than call me and say "I think this is really urgent!", she took a different approach and called a state agency worker to report it! They then called my sister-in-law and gave her the big lecture on the "health hazards of broken plumbing" and insisted that it needed to be dealt with immediately! She then called and left a frantic message on my answering machine wondering why I hadn't done anything yet!

I still thought they were making a big deal out of nothing, talking about bad air, even suggesting that there might also be a gas leak! Obviously, they all had a greater sense of urgency and direness than I did, which made me wonder if perhaps my standards were too low... which, they probably are.

The truth is, I've never had the luxury of getting anything fixed as fast as they expected it, even when something really is broken, and believe me, I've lived with plenty of broken things. Still am! But after all that, I felt I had no choice but to call a plumber to appease everyone, especially the state worker. He came, he checked everything from top to bottom. $130 later, guess what? NO LEAKS FOUND! At least not of the household variety.

OK Henny Penney, you can stop crying wolf now.