Disaster?

I was at work yesterday when my wife called in a state of panic from our new home.  Water was pouring through everywhere, and what could she do?  What could I do, I wondered, particularly as at the time she rang I had a newly bereaved family with me, who had come to view father in our chapel of rest.  Everything seemed to be falling down about our ears, all our plans and expectations in ruins, and we were helpless.

Well, we knew where the stop tap was, at least, not that that solved the problem instantly.  A friend who does some plumbing work was quickly mobilized and, bless him, dropped everything to rush over a help.  The central heating system was the problem - a combination of things, including, it would seem, the failure of safety equipment that should have directed excess water outside, rather than allowing it to fill the roof space. Damage has been done, though we think - and hope - not as much as we'd feared at first.

And we have to look at the positives.  That can be hard at first.  We'll not be covered by insurance, as they don't cover this sort of thing until the policy has been in operation for fourteen days.  Putting everything right will cost us three or four thousand pounds, not money we have readily lying around.  And we remain worried about things like electrical damage.

But I have to admit that it's better that it should have happened now, before we move in.  We'd expected to spend money on the central heating anyway, and at least this means that anything we get done will be "root and branch" rather than tinkering at the edges.  And getting it done will perhaps allow the house to feel more "ours" at the outset.

It's easy to be spooked into thinking about kismet, fate, to be tricked into a sense that this is a project doomed from the start by bad luck.  Such a way of thinking can become self-fulfilling;  but it shouldn't be.  I think I have a past history of just getting on with things when the going gets tough.  I do not intend to give in to anything, and certainly not to unfounded speculations about jinx or hoodoo.  Someone said (though I can't remember just who) that we're never given dreams without the means to make them come true - except that often the journey from dream to reality involves a lot of hard slog.