short blog break

 Having some woeful events at home, so I need to take a couple days off

Long story short: either the diverter valve on the tub faucet is broken, or (what seems worse but possibly more likely) there's a leak in the pipe running up to the shower head. There is very little water pressure in the shower head - there wasn't any last night. I took it off and soaked it overnight in vinegar. That didn't fix it. I bought a NEW shower head - it doesn't work either.

I have a call in to the plumber; first they might have an opening when  someone can come is Tuesday but if there's a cancellation they might get someone out earlier.

I fear it's going to involve cutting out the back of my bedroom closet - the pipe access is there but the access panel is only about 2' square, and it doesn't go high enough to cover the whole pipe. 

SO anyway - I am doing a BIG declutter (moving all the books not on shelves out of the room, putting away most of the stuffed animals) and clearing out the closet in preparation for the guy coming. I have a weird, magical-thinking hope that if I get this done today there will be a cancellation, and what's more, it'll just be the diverter.

I REALLY hope it's nothing too major; the thought of being without a shower for weeks or months makes me want to weep. No, I can't impose on any one to go to their house and shower: I am well and truly isolated, the people I MIGHT have asked are dead or are helping extremely ill family members. 

I might just give up at some point and spend a night in a hotel just so I can easily get a shower, I don't know. (I don't know that there are showers available at gym facilities on campus, and there's not a shower at church. I can wash my hair in the kitchen sink and if the whole shower/tub is broken - and it seems questionable to use right now - I can fill a bucket with warm water and bathe pioneer style. But I hate this all so much)

Update: I can see evidence of a small leak now I've cleared the closet out. I'm so discouraged. I guess I close the blinds in the kitchen and bathe "pioneer style" (fill a bucket with warm water" until I can get it fixed. Or maybe I decide to stay in a hotel some evening just so I can use their shower? I don't even know. In the before-times, I'd not be at all concerned doing that, but then again, in the before times I had a few people around that I felt comfortable asking "hey can I use your shower"