Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Water Heater

This past week, I have been without hot water. You wouldn't think this would be a problem - I mean, I live in a fairly hot climate. Either the water is already hot or a cool shower would be refreshing.

However, we have our air conditioning on so blasted high that we open up our freezer to defrost our kitchen. So its imparitive to have hot water in the morning. Yet, we have suffered.

My roomate, Steven, went to our landlord, asking him to come up to take a look at our water heater. He thus came up, and as I followed him into the laundry room, he began to stare hard at our broken machine. He then started to walk slowly away. I bordered on being annoyed - he hadnt' even touched the water heater, much less fixed anything.

He went to the wall opposite the heater, and headed for a switch on the wall - the switch to the light that was out in that room. He flipped the switch and gave me a satisfied smile that said "I fixed everything." (His English is limited, and Arabic certainly isn't my first language).

I was confused. Not only had he forgotten about the water heater, but he obviously hadn't fixed the broken light, either. "What about the water heater?"

"Fixed." He pointed to the heater hanging from the ceiling. A sly smile creeped onto his face.

I up behind me and saw a little red light at the bottom of the heater that I had never seen before. And then it dawned on me. The water heater is turned on and off by that switch. And the light in the laundry room - nope, its not broken. There's actually another light switch in the room.

Just be happy I'm not teaching YOUR kids.