I am so not OM....

Our shower faucet is leaking, which is just about the most boring type of household dilemma one can have unless you're Mr. Baz, who is totally amazed by the sound of running water coming from within the tiny room that is inside the bathroom. He stares, mesmerized by it every morning, as if it's a new thing, which it's not because it's now been three weeks of steadily running water. I know, tie me to a tree, I'm killing the earth with my excess water but really I'm TRYING to fix the problem, but I can't.

First, I called a plumber, but he took three weeks to finally call me back to tell me that he has to order the part but forgot what the shower looked like (apparently! it's been so long! who can blame him?), so now he wants to come back to take a picture of the shower. Forget it. Shouldn't he have taken a picture the first time instead of just staring at it? Didn't he go to second grade like the rest of us?

I called Mr. Rooter instead. I like a man in uniform. And a free estimate. Only Mr. Rooter said our faucet was too fancy shmancy for him to fix, so he told me the name of his "friend" who could fix it. Then he tried to sell me some fancy Mr. Rooter version of Drain-0 that cost like $17,000 (because it's fancy and is much better. So he has fancy Drain-O but he can't fix a fancy faucet. It seems like a double-standard to me). So then he said, slyly, "Trade for trade?" So my free estimate wasn't so free after all, was it? I'm such a sucker because I figured if I didn't buy the fancy Drain-O he wouldn't actually call his friend.

I wish I could fix it myself but I checked out Plumbing for Dummies, but I think I'm too much of a dummy to figure it out. Actually, it didn't look that hard. There were only 7 steps, and pictures to follow, but then it estimates the time it will take you to fix the problem and it said "1 day". What?! 1 day for 7 steps? That seems ridiculous. Although I suppose it takes people like 2 years to get through the 12 steps of addiction, so maybe it's not that long in comparison, but I fear I will have a drinking or pill problem if I have to deal with this leaky faucet for much longer, so it doesn't seem worth it.