Went to a Super Bowl party and ate of everything. Had a fight with Ed who was angry that I had biked and come home “late” thus making us late for the party. How can you be late for a party? The game had not even started when we got there but sometimes a spouse likes to be angry.

Left at 9 to give Brunswick his medication – it’s a 30 second walk from their house to ours. Went to bed early because half a Super Bowl game just takes it all right out of you. I don’t know who won, I don’t give a rat’s ass. But did talk to some nice women who weren’t watching closely either.

So it is that I was up at 2 and it is now 4:30 a.m. and I am writing this. I have spent the last 90 minutes rereading my 1993 diary, the year Jay died. The first half of that journal is lost due to some technical problems with the computer years ago. I will spare you the details. The narrative was absorbing and I stayed with it. My pain was palpable.

It is raining again. Earlier I was awakened by a rhythmic thumping of drops on the air conditioning box that is outside our bedroom window. Ka thump a diddle, ka thump a diddle. I remembered my bike in the driveway so I got up, opened the garage door (it makes a racket but Ed did not awaken) and brought it in.

Early Saturday morning I saw a note from Ed warning me about water on the garage floor. Indeed. I saw that the water was coming from a valve on the water heater. Ed had not noticed that the water leak was ongoing and had gone to bed. I got a piece of something that I wedged under the valve and caused the leak to redirect into the sink basin next to it. Then I got Ed up. He was not happy but he rose to the occasion. Steve, master handyman who is working on our neighbor’s house, came over and confirmed that we needed a new water heater. We went to Lowe’s and bought a new Whirlpool, 40 gallons. It had to fit in the space. A guy at Lowe’s named Bill, was full of information and told us everything we needed to know. I helped clear the space and mop up the water and wash the floor under everything because years of neglect take their toll. Ed then installed the water heater and only had to make one trip back to Lowe’s to get connecting thingies because the originals weren’t long enough. It was a good decision since the old ones were corroded anyway. So we have hot water again and all in one day. Ed was magnificent. Ed, the plumber.

xx, Teal