Crisis

We settled into a comfortable routine at our Park City rental. The Carolina aunt brought groceries and we settled into our respective bedrooms, unpacked and eased into our vacation.

That was the first night. Trouble greeted us the next morning.

I guess each of us discovered the problem during our morning wakening. You rise and shine and make a trip to the bathroom. I completed my routine and had a fistful of soap when the faucets creaked dry.
It was 6 a.m. Mountain Time, but 8 a.m. for us East Coast folks and we discovered that somehow we had lost running water. The water pressure the night before had been fair, but it was there and it was sufficient for a shower.

Now we found only the downstairs bathroom still had a dribble of water.

My son woke up while I was downstairs discussing a game plan with my relatives. He woke us and did his bathroom routine. I walked in as he scowled at the toilet’s failure to flush.

“Mommy, the toilet is dumb.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.

Collectively, we agreed to try calling the condo’s owner at 7 a.m., realizing that although it was a Wednesday, it was also the Independence Day holiday. A group made a trip to the nearby relative to use the bathrooms.

Then we called the owner to report the problem. While on the phone with her, she offered some instructions on how to switch the main water valve. That’s when my husband discovered a related problem – the stank 8-inch layer of water sitting in the basement.

To their credit, the owner sent her husband over from Salt Lake and called the Park City utilities and within an hour, we had a pair of men, running around the house and investigating what’s gone wrong.
They figured out that the main running into the house had busted, explaining our lack of water.

By the next hour, we had packed up and headed to a different rental, this one, just a few blocks off the main downtown area. Our new house had few bathrooms, but the advantage of Foosball, airhockey and a ping-pong table in the basement.

And most importantly, it has water.