This time he's away, it's the hot water heater. Last night, in a Lassie-like fashion, our Blue Merle Aussie was makin' a ruckus at the back door which naturally prompted my mom to see for what reason now he was acting stupid. And then I hear, "Oh no !...Uh-oh..." which naturally gets any person to respond, "Oh no. What's the matter??" but what they're really thinkin' is, "Alright! Drama!" So, in my concerned but secretly excited manner I head to the garage to find a spray of water projecting out of a hose coming from the water heater which has thus created a lake in the corner of the garage.
Now, before I continue, I must comment on how influenced I am by television. Because even though I was feeding off the rush of something dramatic happening, visions of this episode of that oh-so-wonderful show, Mythbusters, immediately flashed into my head. And I got the worried face on...
Needlesstosay, I had images of hot water heaters exploding through the roof and, yes, even bringing a sad, water-heater-turned-missile death upon me. But, being the "eh-hem" brave soul I am I stood on a stool and turned the only lever we deduced would stop the flow a of water. And, what a McGruber I am, it worked! I saved my family and my house from a perilous misfortune.
We cleared away some of tools and other random items from around the hot water heater base and after all that action and adventure it was time for me to take a shower! ...without hot water :o\ So, I sucked it up and told myself I'd rather be clean for the night at the price of showering in ice-cold water.
The water pressure was sucky but I kept trying to focus on the positives... You know, "At least we have hot water all the time. At least I can get clean tonight." Well, all that positivity was shattered when the water pressure of my already frigged water slowly died. And yes. In the moment, felt singled out by God to suffer that night. Ha... Well, my mother made the heavenly decision to turn the hot water back on until I finished my shower and just let the water spray out for a couple more minutes until I was finished. So she heads out the garage to save my freezing, soggy bum.
But, I wait for a couple minutes anticipating her angelic voice informing me that the hot water is available for the next several minutes. And then I wait a couple more minutes... and a couple more. And she finally comes back and says, "You're done, ya?"
Well, apparently she assumed I'd just turn the water on and get started after she left. And I was sitting crouched in the shower like a third-world country child waiting for her to come back. Anyways, the water got turned back on once again and that 2 minutes of warm water... well, there's not much that can be said to describe something that magnificent. I felt like I'd won the lottery after that hot water started comin' out.
All-in-all, I discovered that I think I could do well in a "you get three minutes to shower" environment. And these kinds of situations always do give me a greater sense of appreciation. Hot showers... we take them for granted so often.
I later found, after mom had gone to bed, that the water had seeped under the wall into the pantry/laundry room. So, in my pajama's, I cleaned up another lake in our house. Thankfully we had a close family friend who also serves as our contractor/handyman come by the house this morning and fix it. Hallelujah. Hot water again...
Speaking of fixing things. Did you know Home Depot is open at 6am?? That's just crazy. I found that out last night when I heard Mr. David was coming a little after 6am to fix it... after he made a stop at Home Depot to get the parts. Way to make yourself available Home Depot. I admire that...
Appreciate the next hot shower you take...
