What a morning

Yesterday morning, about 4 AM, I had to get up to go to the bathroom. During really cold, winter weather I always turn the faucet on, just to make sure the water hasn't frozen. It froze once about 3 years ago, but never again.

When I turned the water on, I heard the sound I didn't want to hear. No water flowing, just an air sucking noise. "Oh, great!" I thought. It had dropped to a balmy -14 during the night. Time for evasive action.

I scrambled to get space heaters in place. I got Lady Nottaguy-TYG's hair dryer. I had to thaw those pipes out before they burst. Since they run up the wall to the second floor, they would be a major headache to replace. I took part of the kitchen ceiling down to get warm air to where the pipes were.

At 5:15 AM, my hard work paid off. Water started flowing again. I had told my wife that if the water wasn't thawed out before it was time for me to go to work, that I would take an emergency vacation day (I have 5 that I can use per year), to get the water running. Since it was only 15 minutes after my alarm would have gone off, I went ahead and got ready for work.

I opened a bottle of diet Pepsi MAX (that's my version of coffee), and had half of it gone by 6 AM.When I went out to start my truck, it was booger cold outside. Booger cold is when everything in your nose freezes when you breathe. The truck hesitated, but started. I went back in, and headed back upstairs to brush my teeth. As I was brushing my teeth, I had a startling revelation. You know you are tired when you are brushing your teeth, but forgot to put toothpaste on the toothbrush.

I prayed with my wife & kissed her goodbye (which is our morning ritual), and headed out the door. Two minutes later I came back in the door because I had forgotten my lunchbox. Off to work through the frozen tundra.

At work I put myself on one of the most unpleasant jobs in the plant. I knew that would keep me awake. I sang a tune and did the happy dance when I got home.

No frozen pipes this morning. This is good.