The Plumber

I am the only plumber in my family. Plumbing, after all, is a relatively modern thing, with the convenience of pipes and running cold and hot water and toilets and showers replacing chamber pots and tubs that were filled by the bucket only a couple of generations ago. Mid-winter trips to the privey. Brrrr!

Plumbing work is heavy and dirty. There probably are not many lady plumbers. And it ain't rocket science, though it could get tricky fast once you get into its engineering aspects, the new on-demand water heating systems, for example. My forebears hired plumbers. They would open their summer houses by the ocean and close them in the fall, sometime after Labor Day when they would migrate back to their winter homes inland.

My forebears did not work much with their hands; they were owners and executives, not laborers. I must be the antithesis to all of them. I work with my hands in order to escape the frustrations of these executive pursuits. I do this because it challenges me to learn how, to be self-dependent and save money. They chose to do what they and others felt were more gentle, appropriate things. Ah, reality! Boethius would have shown how the wheel of fortune turns. The Mississippi football coach and dean of boys had his own saying for it: "The sun don't shine on the same dog's behind, all of the time."