Am I misremembering or is Polissa's brother or another family member actually experienced in plumbing and was going to help them out before Joh got pissy with him?
Nope, you're not misremembering.
I suspect the relative in question was volunteered for the task by Grandma or Auntie. At least a year ago, Polissa said that "the men of the family" would be doing the actual work of repairing the trailer, and all she and Josh had to do was pay for materials. Given what we've learned about Polissa's low standing within her extended family, I doubt very much any of those unnamed and undifferentiated men stepped forward to offer their services.
When Josh was first pitching a fit about not getting the promised help with the plumbing, my impression was that the relative in question refused to make Josh and Polissa's sense of urgency his personal emergency—he wasn't going to be on call, and drop his own plans to rush over and spend days crawling around under the trailer and providing skilled labor for free. For all I know, this person never expected these two incompetent mooches to get their shit together and actually move in.
So they moved in, there was no water, and knowing Josh and Polissa they expected help to come immediately. When told they'd have to wait, Josh threw a tantrum, and the relative noped the fuck out (and who can blame him). No other help came, so Josh, bless his heart, manned up and has attempted to do the job himself. It seems, however, that he's hit the end of the road as far as his meager abilities.
I'm all for a little DIY, but electrical work and major plumbing are where I draw the line trying out repairs myself. There's no way Joh gets the plumbing fixed on his own in a way that doesn't wind up in catastrophe shortly after the water is switched on.
I totally agree. I have lots of DIY skills, but major plumbing and electrical are the two I'll pay a pro to do because if you fuck them up, you've got a disaster on your hands. (Also, with plumbing, I'm dealing mostly with copper, which is more difficult to deal with than the PVC used in trailers.)
There's a part of me that wants Josh's plumbing repairs to succeed because while he's a hot-tempered retard who foolishly drove away the person who could have helped him, at least he's realized that no help is coming, and tried to do that very unpleasant job himself. It's hard to find redeeming features in him, but he is at least willing to work, and even takes a bit of pride in working, so just for once it would be nice if something he did actually succeeded.
On the other hand, fat, lazy, yeasty-crotched Polissa sweating and complaining her way through an entire Southern summer and beyond with no running water, getting stinkier and growing more yeast colonies by the day, will never not be hilarious. So I'm torn.
