Let's Talk Cold

As I write this the weather source on my screen tells me it's 4 degrees here in my home town. 4. It's such a big number when you're two years old and such a very, very small number when you have to take a dog outside. Or if you have to stand out and wait for a school bus-- so much so it's safer just to close the schools.

Turns out 4 is also a very, very small number when you want water to run through pipes, like the ones running up the wall to my shower. Yesterday morning, after sleeping snug as a bug through an equally cold night, I woke up, stepped into the shower, turned the handle, and (cue crashing cymbal sound, please) nothing.  The plumber finally called at 5 o'clock last evening to say he wouldn't be able to make it over. He was too busy with frozen pipes. Really.

Now, I'm the first to admit I don't know squat about home maintenance. Hell, it took me three tries to spell it right. But Tam's dad knows about these things and, bless his heart, he was over here by 9PM and in the crawl space with heater's to start getting the shower thawed out. Two hours later there was a fairly constant dribble coming from the shower head, a dribble that could be adjusted to hot or cold, and so we felt pretty certain we were well on our way to resolution. "Leave it run" was the advice I heeded-- against my wife's doubt's.

At 4:30 I awoke to the sound of the water flowing much more freely-- but no more coming from the shower head. Quite a bit appeared to be coming from the floor or wall or somewhere; just not out of the head of the shower where one would like to see the water flowing in a bathroom. The only good news is that when I turned the shower off I did not hear water continuing to flow.

Fortunately for us we have a double shower and Tam's half is working. At least it was last night. My half may be facing some rather serious surgery. We'll see. In the meantime, I'll scrub down in the other half of that big cold marble shower and try to remind myself how lucky we are to enjoy four seasons and just how beautiful these clear cold Michigan winter days can be. At times. Especially after a nice hot shower.