Well, I have to check out of my semi-posh digs in a lil over an hour, so there's just enough time to get one last looong shower (unlimited hot water, yanno?) (when there IS hot water) (which, to the HIE's credit was all but seven hours of my approximately 90 hour stay), pack, and hide the bodies. We're up to 22 degrees at this hour, on our way to a whopping 38... which will be the first time we'll find ourselves above freezing since Monday afternoon. We are grateful for small favors.
Update, 1130 hrs: Well, we have water:
Sorta. My water line to the coach is free and we have COLD water... but no hot water... in the kitchen, and nothing in the bathroom.
Worse... everything that COULD freeze DID freeze. Even my soap:
The furnace didn't reset during my absence... as I figured it mightn't... and it is freakin' COLD inside El Casa. The furnace is blowing hot air now and we should be back to some semblance of normal within an hour or two.
In the words of John Howard Payne: "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
Fingers crossed that all will be well with ECMdP.
ReplyDeleteSoap will thaw and be usable. You didn't happen to lose any beer did you? Now that, Sir, would be tragic.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing you took a long shower before you left the palace. I hope those weathermen are right and we get a warm up soon.
ReplyDeleteDeb: No beer lost, LOL. Stuff in the fridge was warmer than stuff OUTSIDE the fridge when I got home!
ReplyDeleteChap: Thank ya, Sir!
Lou: You're right about the shower; I hope you're right about the WX.
Glad that things weren't too horrible when you got home Buck.
ReplyDeleteWow, what an ordeal, Buck. Glad you're back home in El Casa. Amazing that the water didn't freeze. And like Deb, I was very concerned about your beer stash. I seem to remember though, drinking several one time that were slushy frozen (not solid). Am I right about that memory or not? As always Buck, I defer to your authority in all things beer. I'm forever indebted to you for the intro to LaBatts! Crank the furnace up high and stay warm.
ReplyDeleteKris: Not too horrible, indeed... although it may be a while until the shower is freed up.
ReplyDeleteDan: I've drunk (drank?) beer that was over-chilled and had ice floating in it, but never anything I could describe as slushy. Still, I don't think that's impossible. That said... my beer is VERY cold this afternoon, almost TOO cold.
You're much more than welcome on the Labatt's recommendation. If there's anything beer-lovers enjoy it's turning other folks on to good stuff. I'm glad ya like it.
Buck,
ReplyDeleteJust in case the power goes out and yer stuck with an electric stove:
http://thereifixedit.failblog.org/2011/01/31/white-trash-repairs-hobo-stove-in-action/
Whatever it takes....
Heh. Pretty cool, Rob. But we have a propane stove, so we're good... power or no.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the time my dad drank-up all the money for the utilities for three months in a row. Mom had to take over the accounting after that, but there we were with no water, no heat, and no electricity for two weeks.
ReplyDeleteLuckily we had candles, and a kerosene lantern. Our neighbors let us use their hose to fill-up buckets which we would burn garbage in a 55 gallon drum to get it warm enough to take a sponge-bath before school.
I remember it was my job to get up in the morning, go fill three buckets and get the fire started. It was so cold outside I actually fell asleep and then burned the crap out of my hands as I let the bucket handle fall down and get hot.
I thought that was hell, but no, worse than that, we ran out of toilet paper. I went down to the Atlantic Richfield station and stole the two rolls from the men and womens bathroom.
When I went to survival school they asked for a volunteer to go fetch the platoon water for the day. It was three bowsers that weighed about ten pounds each when full. I raised my hand - I'll get it. Hell I had training on that... Little did I know the river was down a cliff, and climbing the cliff every day with 30 pounds of water was a real bummer.
I would get to the top, lay there panting for breath, and then usually vomiting because my heart was going triple speed, and the drill sergeant would say "naps over punk, get in line."
Anyway, cold water brings back those memories. Can you imagine that people live like that for years, not knowing the luxuries of middle-class life. I feel blessed every day I have heat and hot water (and toilet paper)...
Anon
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I was going through a rather tough time and had my gas cut off from November until January; not too bad if you live in Phoenix or Hawaii, not so much fun in Canadiana. Fortunately I still had power, so I still had water and a stove. Would light a fire every night when I got home, stoke it before I went to bed, turn the oven on to about 200*, put 2 large pots of water on top of the stove to warm up over night and have a sponge bath-shower in the morning after I had heated them to close to boiling. Yup, we both seem to know how to 'cowoy up'. (fortunately I always had enough jingle in my jeans for a roll of TP)
heh WV nastes
Hee, my mom always had a secret stash of TP. She knew us kids wasted it.
ReplyDeleteI often wonder if the people who bought my parents house ever planted a garden in the backyard. The crops would surely grow large from the amount of poop we left those two weeks.
Maybe a good short story title: "Two Weeks, a Slit Trench, and Beautiful Roses"
Wow, I thought I was the only one who had stories like this - which indicate that (a) conservatives will always survive, and (b) that reality will make a conservative out of almost anybody.
ReplyDeleteTwo things I learned is that my daily two cups of coffee were a lot cheaper once it sank in that cut-rate paper towels are cheaper than coffee filters. FWIW, they're cheaper than toilet paper, too, once you outgrow the Princess-and-the-pea syndrome.
Deb, Anon, and Rob: I ain't got nuthin' that can top those stories, or even come close to equaling them. I can't say that I've ever known REAL want or adversity. Just lucky, I guess.
ReplyDeleteDang, Buck! I never suspected that detergent would freeze!
ReplyDeleteTwo Weeks, slit trench, and beautiful roses. Heh.