It is WAY past my bedtime. In fact, it was bedtime that got me into this predicament in the first place. Had I just gone to bed I would have been obliviously snoozing right now. Instead, I'm zombie-fied and using this blog post to help keep me awake. That said, you will have to forgive any incoherence in this post. I don't stay up this late. ever. on purpose. never.
So the story goes like this...I'm putting the house to bed and realize that I forgot to drip the faucets in the guest bath and lo and behold the pipes are already frozen. This has happened in this bathroom once before when I didn't have a fully-functioning HVAC, just after I bought the place and was realizing what a money pit it was going to turn into. We have a good heating system now and we, just a few years ago, torn all the siding off, re-insulated some parts (obviously not the right parts), wrapped the whole thing in that insulating wrap stuff, put on new siding, and put in "new to us" windows and it was all hunky dorey. until today.
It is 16 degrees out and it expected to be 11... and I don't want anyone saying global warming is bogus, because this is uncharacteristic, bullshit weather for Texas, January or not. So, here I sit, on the floor of the guest bathroom, babysitting a scary evil pre-historic spaceheater that could and probably will burst into flames if I so much as turn my back on it. For the last hour and a half I've been sitting on the edge of the tub, on my sweatshirt, which I stripped off because it is full-on, fuckin HOT in here and about every twenty minutes a drip comes out of the faucet. For the first hour, I crocheted like I was watching TV; two stitches, look at the faucet, two stitches, look at the faucet, 2, look, 2, look.....SERIOUSLY!!!
Now, I'm fighting fatigue, but I googled "frozen pipes" and they said if one burst you had to cut off the water to the house and blah, blah, blah. And I'm telling you now, that even though it is too cold for snakes and spiders and bugs and "stuff" I AM NOT sticking my arm, up to my armpit, into that dark, scary hole to turn off the water. Who the hell puts a turn off valve 2 feet down in the ground? Is that normal? My google answers kept telling me to know where the pipes are and insulate them and if they do freeze use a blow dryer or towels soaked in hot water and I'm thinking what kind of house do these folks live in.....I know where the pipes are and they are IN THE WALLS....they said to use a good blow dryer. I'd like to know where you get one of these "Good" dryers that can thaw pipes through the drywall? COME ON!
So here I sit and I'm thinking: I better not get any more boy jobs in the next few days because I am having some crappy days here all strung in a row. Two days ago, I tweaked my back. Yesterday, I was driving the truck when some apparently crucial piece fell off and the power steering went out and the tweaked back went up to 10 on the pain alert scale after I wrenched the wheel around to navigate Mom's gate. After a horrible night's sleep, I woke this morning in excruciating pain and had to take the cats to the vet, two Pet Taxis stacked in the front seat of a two-seater convertible...NO ONE was happy about it. Then I got to put my head under the hood of the truck to figure out what had fallen off. Then I got to visit not one, but TWO auto parts store (and thankfully I knew what I was talking about because generally I have to give some old codger a verbal ass-kickin' for calling me "little lady" or some shit when I don't know the name of what it is I need).
And now it is after midnight and here I sit, afraid to go to bed, but about to keel over right on the floor....if I hadn't run some water in the tub earlier I might be inclined to climb in and curl up, but the evil spaceheater would know I had stopped watching and bad things could happen. I'm going to have to make a decision soon about what to do...
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