High Maintenance

"So you need to be at W______  for 6pm..."
"Yes, but the KHT is late home, and won't be ready by then,
so you will need to take me and come back and pick her up and take her to her sports club."
"Then I will join you at W, and take you home, before the church maintenance meeting at 7:30pm, which I will leave at 7:50pm to collect the KHT, drop her home and then return to the meeting."
DH outlines the exciting schedule ahead of him as household taxi.
"I have set an alarm on my watch"he announced.

Later that evening the KHT reappeared in the kitchen.
"Does anyone know an electrical expert?
"Dad will be home soon."
"No, I want an electrical expert!"


DH returned from his meeting
to a leaking pipe under the sink.
The cupboard is emptied
onto one of the armchairs in the kitchen.
From church maintenance to household maintenance - never a dull moment for the lucky churchwarden.











I go upstairs.
The KHT's bedroom light is off.
I open the door and throw the jacket, which had been abandoned in the lounge,
in the direction of the bed.
A muffled cry of outrage emerges from the darkness.
I recall the random conversation from earlier about the need for an electrical expert.
"Has your light blown?" I enquire.
"Well it hasn't been working since Thursday!" comes the indignant response.
"Why didn't you say!"
There is no answer, because we both know she can give no answer.
"I can lend you a small light."
"No, it is fine. I will just ignore it."

I go downstairs to where my husband has his head in the cupboard under the sink, trying to detect the source of the irritating leak.
"Just to add to your joy, the bulb has blown in the KHT's room."
Kitchen roll is spread on the shelves under the sink.
The precise location of the small but persisant seepage eludes him.
It will not be solved this evening.
DH switches his attention from plumbing to electrics
"Hmmm. Probably a bayonet fitting!"he announces and goes to find and fit a replacement bulb.

DH reappears in the kitchen
"It has not been working since Thursday!" he announces incredulously.
I provide no answer because we both know that there is no answer.