“Each period of life has its own purpose. This later one gives me the time to assimilate all the others. The task of this period of life is not simply to endure the coming of the end of time. It is to come alive in ways I have never been alive before.” Joan Chittister.

Nice writing, Joan; I never thought a toilet would be a valued mark of the journey.

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Of all the things I once feared, worrying about a broken toilet was never one of them. I went to the bathroom occasionally, never had any issues, and spent most of my life worrying about things I didn’t need to.

Don’t worry, I won’t go into details, but when our toilet broke down today, I was genuinely worried. I’m 79 years old, and toilets aren’t a convenience for me; they’re essential to life, sleep, and peace of mind.

Being helpless around house problems has always been my nature. I tremble at the first machine breakdown.

I don’t talk or write much about toilets and bathrooms,  but they are important to me, and I need them to work.

I never even thought one would be out of commission. Another lesson learned. When it comes to a good toilet, I am no hero kind of man. I am a wussy.

We saw water all around the toilet, and it was threatening the wooden floor beneath it. We weren’t sure where the trouble was coming from, but there was some leaking. I’m past the age of crawling into basements or even onto bathroom pumps and toilet interiors.

Maria is better at it, but even she has limits.

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We called Dan Rogers, who came over and said we had to move the toilet, tear up the floorboards and wood strips, and make sure the floor wasn’t rotted. He spent several hours hammering and stripping. It’s not rotten; it was just wet.

Don is a wonderful gift in an emergency like that, and he spent hours scraping out and replacing the plywood flooring. He is calm and competent.

We thought we had it. The floor was sound; we thought we had got the leak, and we were ready to go out and celebrate.

I was startled by my response, which brushed on panic and then receded. We have a compost bathroom upstairs to use in an emergency; I have places I can go; I can even use the toilet if I turn. Why was I so afraid?

It had to do with the fact that I was older, and more vulnerable, and my body was less predictable, and I was taking different powerful medicines, and every one of them had side effects at times I don’t need to talk about.

Dan figured out that the moisture came from the years of temperature changes. In warm weather, the toilet sweated; water soaked the back of the toilet and the ground beneath it. We need to replace most of the tiles.

A messy problem for sure, but not a nightmare. If you want to live in an old farmhouse, prepare for surprises. I love being near a bathroom. They understand me.

Dan finished his work and left. We were relieved. I was relieved. He does wonderful work and has become a good friend of mine. He is number one on my emergency list. He is skilled, honest, and fun.

Dan had gotten it all patched up, and we were much relieved. But this is an old toilet in an old bathroom in an old farmhouse, and I am an old man with various needs.

We were not relieved for long.

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It worked fine for a while. All we had to do was order a Condensation Kit, and the dripping from the toilet onto the floor stopped. That would stop the dripping.  That was one part of the problem. The other was a leak from somewhere else.

When we went to use the bathroom, we saw the old leak was leaking again, and the toilet would flush, but we couldn’t turn off the water that filled the tank as usual.

Maria scrambled back and forth to the hardware store to get a new flapper to stop the toilet from filling, and had to go back three times. I ended up ordering one on Amazon; hopefully it’s coming tomorrow.

We should have known better. When something goes wrong, it always takes one or two rounds to clear it up in an old Farmhouse, full of mysteries and surprises. Nature is our friend, but it gives old farmhouses trouble, especially in the age of rain and heat waves and awful winter storms.

All things considered, we’ve done well. But the bathroom is giving us trouble.

Dan is coming back tomorrow to figure out what is happening. Round II. Ron and Maria will sort it out.

I’m mildly anxious but have figured out a way to get around it. I’m still mildly unsettled, I won’t lie, but I know I will figure it out, and if we have to get another toilet, we will. Life will go on.

Life – aging especially –  is all about acceptance, and it won’t spare me from the challenges and changes. But since I am one of the changes, I can at least accept it and move along. This is nothing but life.

I’ll sleep well tonight, but it might take a little longer to fall asleep. And I’m prepared to get up in the night, which anyone my age knows is likely. Aging is exciting.

No two days are the same. I’ll work it out with my toilet.

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Almost Done

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Dan did a great Job. It’s almost done; we know I’ll do more tomorrow.