Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving, Part Two

EVERY frickin' year.  It never fails.  Conventional wisdom sez... and I'll quote... "You can stop worrying simply by leaving faucets at the end of plumbing runs turned on just enough to barely drip." 

Yeah, right.  Been there, done that, set a drip last night while the temp was still north of 32 degrees, and we awoke this morning to NO water.  We're froze up.  A slow drip is NOT enough, you need a stream.  I should know that, given my drawer is stuffed full of these gotdamned tee shirts.

Well, we do have four gallons of emergency water... we're not ENTIRELY stoopid... and the forecast is for 40 degrees.  I should get my shower sometime this afternoon.

12 comments:

  1. Ah, takes me back to the days on the farm. Wake up to a wind coming out of the north and when the plumber was there to fix a leak during the summer, he unplugged the heat trace and never plugged it back in. Good times finding the little electric heater and dragging it down to the pump room to try to get the water going again!
    You could always try heating some on the stove and doing the sponge bath routine. Not satisfying as a shower, but it'll do in a pinch.

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  2. You could always try heating some on the stove and doing the sponge bath routine.

    I did that for a solid week a couple o' years ago, Deb. I was right at the point of checking into a motel just for the simple pleasure of a long hot bath when the weather broke. You can do the sponge bath thing fairly easily; washing your hair is an ENTIRELY different matter!

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  3. 'Specially when it's as long as mine!

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  4. You ever gonna go a year without frozen pipes?

    Stay warm!

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  5. Well, I SWORE this year would be the year... and I remembered to set the drip last night. But the best laid plans, etc. I think this is just one way the cosmos has of getting back at me for enjoying myself too much in the past. (sigh) Fate.

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  6. I mentioned it last year, but you refused my tap on the shoulder, so I will say it again - the reason men wear jeans is so their penis won't drop in the dirt.

    It's called insulation. If you insulate the pipes (dick), then they won't freeze (fall off)...

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  7. Andy: Yep, but we're all better today.

    Anon: Some of us just don't learn.

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  8. Having spent some time doing maintenence in a trailer park here, I can testify that no method is perfect. Heat tapes burn out and stingers get unplugged.

    But crawling under a mobile home with six inches of standing water in order to shut off the valve is unpleasant. Doing it when it's -10 F outside is downright ugly.

    And the water supply valve is always a good long crawl from the access hatch.

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  9. Doing it when it's -10 F outside is downright ugly.

    I can't IMAGINE! Although I did have My Guy Andy The RV Doctor come out and repair a leaky valve last winter... in the snow. But it was only something like 25 degrees outside... not -10.

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  10. And when I write "crawl," I mean squirm on my belly, because the suspension doesn't actually permit a hands-and-knees path. Fun Fact: insulated coveralls weigh three times as much when they're soaked in water.

    Ah, good times....

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