Look Out, Kid

For the last several weeks, I've had Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues running through my head, as one thing after another went wrong with the house we're renting.  The song's lines about the pump not working because the vandal took the handle, Maggie with a face full of soot, and the man with the bad cough, together with the sing-song rhythm of the song lend themselves to a new version, personalized to our situation, that lists all the infrastructure woes we've had over the past month with our wood stove, the pump, the propane, and the drain. 

This week, the water pressure went way down and because of that, we lost all hot water.  Then, to get the pump fixed, it had to be disconnected, which meant no running water at all.  At the same time, the propane was still being funky so the oven only worked sporadically and we'd been living out of coolers for more than a week.  Before that, it was the cap on the wood stove pipe being blocked so we could only have a fire if we let the house fill with smoke (see my previous post).

We breathed a big sigh of relief yesterday when the pump was fixed and reinstalled, and miraculously when we re-lit the propane refrigerator that same evening, all seemed fine.  Here's a funny connection:  our landlady, who photographed and knew many of the great figures from the 1960s, traded one of her photographs of Bob Dylan for the services of the fellows who fixed our pump. 

We got a fresh delivery of propane today (which set us back over four hundred dollars).  We'd been worried that the snow in the forecast would prevent the propane truck from being able to make it up the road to our house.  But just as we relaxed and Mike took the first hot shower that has been taken by anyone in this house in a week, the main drain in the bathroom, which the shower drain runs into, backed up into the room.  He mopped it up and it dried out over night.  Then I dared a shower this morning, but after about three minutes when I peeked out around the shower curtain I saw the water coming up out of the drain and moving across the bathroom floor.  I quickly rinsed and got out.  I don't know what the problem is:  it could just be the cold and that the line is frozen somewhere between the bathroom and the garden area where the grey water drains into.  Or it could be the usual cause of shower blockage:  hair in the drain pipe.  Right now I'm a little too exhausted from all the problems to really care enough to investigate. 

 Subterranean Homesick Blues

Johny's in the basement
Mixing up the medicine
I'm on the pavement
Thinking about the government
The man in the trench coat
Badge out, laid off
Says he's got a bad cough
Wants to get it paid off
Look out kid
It's somethin' you did
God knows when
But you're doin' it again
You better duck down the alley way
Lookin' for a new friend
The man in the coon-skip cap
In the big pen
Wants eleven dollar bills
You only got ten.

Maggie comes fleet foot
Face full of black soot
Talkin' that the heat put
Plants in the bed but
The phone's tapped anyway
Maggie says that many say
They must bust in early May
Orders from the DA
Look out kid
Don't matter what you did
Walk on your tip toes
Don't try, 'No Doz'
Better stay away from those
That carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose
Watch the plain clothes
You don't need a weather man
To know which way the wind blows.

Get sick, get well
Hang around an ink well
Ring bell, hard to tell
If anything is goin' to sell
Try hard, get barred
Get back, write Braille
Get jailed, jump bail Join the army, if you failed
Look out kid
You're gonna get hit
But users, cheaters
Six-time losers
Hang around the theaters
Girl by the whirlpool
Lookin' for a new fool
Don't follow leaders
Watch the parkin' meters.

Ah get born, keep warm
Short pants, romance, learn to dance
Get dressed, get blessed
Try to be a success
Please her, please him, buy gifts
Don't steal, don't lift
Twenty years of schoolin'
And they put you on the day shift
Look out kid
They keep it all hid
Better jump down a manhole
Light yourself a candle
Don't wear sandals
Try to avoid the scandals
Don't wanna be a bum
You better chew gum
The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles.

To mix my literary references, so it goes.