Tuesday, December 23, 2008

With the freeze we get an icicle tree


So I was picking up the mail after work Monday and I looked up and saw the above.

Now all the other bushes looked normal so there were two possibilities: Chris is decorating the trees and only got one done or there is a BAD water leak somewhere. So hoping against hope I went in and asked Chris if she had decorated one of the bushes. After getting the expected answer (no) I went out and sure enough there was a hairline crack in the outside faucet. Which was shooting a fine mist of water about 12-15 feet and with the cold it was pretty much freezing on contact.

I showed it to the kids and gave each of them a small part of an icicle to munch on. It was pretty easy to convince Lexi that icicles grew on trees but Nate (being seven) was skeptical but did not connect the spraying water to the ice until he asked why I was not letting them get their own icicles.

So I called the plumber and ran up to work and grabbed my laptop so I could work from home Tuesday. Chris filled up a bunch of buckets, pans, containers with water and when I got home I shut off the water. The plumber showed up around noon and fifteen minutes and $125 later we had the faucet fixed and the water running. Luckily it was only the faucet that was cracked - I was deathly afraid that the connecting pipe had cracked too.

More than the campout did this experience teach me the simple pleasures that running water brings: a bath, hygiene, drinks, flushing toliets. Though we had plans for all of them except the last one you still miss the ease in which having water on tap can bring. Fortunatly it was only for a day.

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