The Players
Last Saturday morning, to my dismay I realize there is no hot water. None, zilch, zero. In fact when I turned on the water and it wasn't getting hot, I thought to myself, "what if it never gets hot???" I mentioned this to Buzz (who was sleeping) and he said that he forgot to pay the water bill and laughed. He'd been out drinking the night before so I let him sleep. I went down to the basement to get some clean jeans (doesn't everyone keep their clothes in the basement?) and I was met with soppy, wet carpet. Inside the laundry room I see that the hot water heater is spewing water. This is where I made my first mistake. Instead of panicking and running upstairs to wake Buzz, I casually called him on the cellphone because I was running late for work. I told him that the basement is flooded and the hot water heater is leaking and I don't know how to turn it off so he better get down there to turn it off.
On my way to work I call him a few times and he doesn't answer so I assume he's dealing with the water situation. 25 minutes after the original phone call I am almost at work and call him again. Turns out he hasn't even gone downstairs yet because he's been feeding Ella and you know, "what's more important the basement or Ella?
To make a long, argumentative story short, Nick St. Leger comes over to save the day. Jeanie comes to watch Ella and Nick and Buzz head to Home Depot to buy a new hot water heater. Nick has installed, or helped, or seen, or watched a TV show on installing hot water heaters three times in the last year. Everything seems to be okay, they finish the job and have Jeanie come and smell for gas. The hot water is back on and Nick is packing up his tools in the basement when...
Gas starts shooting out of a pipe at an audible rate. Does that make sense? You can hear the damn gas coming out of that pipe! This sucks because the pilot light is two feet from said pipe. So Nick yells something like, "Get out of the house!!! Run!!!" Jeanie and Ella go out the back door and run way down the street. She took that grand baby and never looked back. Buzz grabbed the dogs and watched as Otis casually peed right outside the house that was going to explode. Nick ran out the front door and yelled to our neighbors across the street (who are always sitting in their garage) to call 911 and say we have a gas leak. Here's the worst part: Buzz has to tell both sets of next-door neighbors to evacuate their houses because they might, you know, explode.
No wait, that's not the worst part. The worst part is four fire-trucks, one ambulance and one SUV pull onto our tiny street and set up shop. They turn the gas off, open all the windows and use some fan to blow out all the gas. I'm pretty sure they were wearing spacesuits too.
I arrived about twenty minutes after all the chaos. Don't worry, I paid my dues. I spent the night shop-vaccing water out of the basement.
For real though, I really appreciate Nick offering to help Buzz at the drop of a hat and saving us a bundle on installation. And thanks to Jeanie for taking care of Ella.
Last Saturday morning, to my dismay I realize there is no hot water. None, zilch, zero. In fact when I turned on the water and it wasn't getting hot, I thought to myself, "what if it never gets hot???" I mentioned this to Buzz (who was sleeping) and he said that he forgot to pay the water bill and laughed. He'd been out drinking the night before so I let him sleep. I went down to the basement to get some clean jeans (doesn't everyone keep their clothes in the basement?) and I was met with soppy, wet carpet. Inside the laundry room I see that the hot water heater is spewing water. This is where I made my first mistake. Instead of panicking and running upstairs to wake Buzz, I casually called him on the cellphone because I was running late for work. I told him that the basement is flooded and the hot water heater is leaking and I don't know how to turn it off so he better get down there to turn it off.
On my way to work I call him a few times and he doesn't answer so I assume he's dealing with the water situation. 25 minutes after the original phone call I am almost at work and call him again. Turns out he hasn't even gone downstairs yet because he's been feeding Ella and you know, "what's more important the basement or Ella?
To make a long, argumentative story short, Nick St. Leger comes over to save the day. Jeanie comes to watch Ella and Nick and Buzz head to Home Depot to buy a new hot water heater. Nick has installed, or helped, or seen, or watched a TV show on installing hot water heaters three times in the last year. Everything seems to be okay, they finish the job and have Jeanie come and smell for gas. The hot water is back on and Nick is packing up his tools in the basement when...
Gas starts shooting out of a pipe at an audible rate. Does that make sense? You can hear the damn gas coming out of that pipe! This sucks because the pilot light is two feet from said pipe. So Nick yells something like, "Get out of the house!!! Run!!!" Jeanie and Ella go out the back door and run way down the street. She took that grand baby and never looked back. Buzz grabbed the dogs and watched as Otis casually peed right outside the house that was going to explode. Nick ran out the front door and yelled to our neighbors across the street (who are always sitting in their garage) to call 911 and say we have a gas leak. Here's the worst part: Buzz has to tell both sets of next-door neighbors to evacuate their houses because they might, you know, explode.
No wait, that's not the worst part. The worst part is four fire-trucks, one ambulance and one SUV pull onto our tiny street and set up shop. They turn the gas off, open all the windows and use some fan to blow out all the gas. I'm pretty sure they were wearing spacesuits too.
I arrived about twenty minutes after all the chaos. Don't worry, I paid my dues. I spent the night shop-vaccing water out of the basement.
For real though, I really appreciate Nick offering to help Buzz at the drop of a hat and saving us a bundle on installation. And thanks to Jeanie for taking care of Ella.
3 comments:
Too funny. But, really scary!
I am glad everyone got out safe and sound. Now that all are okay.....Would they be willing to reinact the yelling scene ?
i can't only imagine the chaos going on! So glad everything's fine and love the story!
Post a Comment