House Of Mysteries #112: The Curse Of The Water Heater.

Just before the July 4th weekend, I got a call from my wife telling me that a puddle of water had formed in the downstairs basement. This was not good. Our gas water heater lives in the adjacent crawl space and I feared it had sprung a leak. I came home at lunch, got down on all fours and opened the crawl space door. Yep, standing water and a lovely smell that told me it had been leaking for a few days now. Now, what happened next was the first in a series of errors I made in what is being called: The Water Heater Incident of 2010.
What I should have done was call the plumber. What I did was shut the door and went back to work.
You see folks, I’m not what you’d call “handy”. No, I’m what you’d call “clueless”.
To be fair I was trying to close out the month at work and my stress level was already in the red so I chose to shut the door and deal with it after work.
At the end of the day I literally crawled into the mess and mopped up. Once that hellish chore was done I got to inspect the damage. Two pin hole drips were dancing out of my rusted out water heater. Again, I should have called the plumber. But by this time it was 8pm on a Thursday so I simply shoved a couple of baking pans under the water heater and collapsed on the couch. Well, I collapsed for 97 minutes because that’s hold long the shallow pans could hold water before the overflowed. Back on all fours. Smack my head and back against the ceiling, dump the pan into a bucket, crawl out, empty the bucket, collapse on the couch. This was a little game I ended up playing a lot over the next few days.
So did I call the plumber on Friday? Nah, that would’ve been smart. Instead I focused on the ultra stressful task of closing out the month at work. 10 hours later that chore was done and I came home to mop up the mess and start the 97 minute game again. But Saturday, the wife and I took action. We headed out to Home Depot to buy us a new gas heater. We figured once we had the thing my brother-in-law could come over and do the switch out for us. Simple right? Heh.
We gave the toothless wonder at Home Depot the measurements and he pointed us to our water heater. The price was fine and I just wanted to get this done so I told him we’d take it and he shuffled off to get a forklift to bring it off the shelf. As we’re waiting for Captain Useless we notice that the box says “electric”. Now, again, I’m not handy but I’m pretty sure that gas and electric are different. I drop this knowledge on Toothless and he sheepishly confirms my suspicion. Jackass.
So he fires up the Bozoputer to check if he can order us a gas model. Then we got this exchange.
Toothless: “Huh. I can’t find one.”
Me: “Okay. So what does that mean?”
Toothless: “Well, I can’t find one.”
Me: “So, do they not make them anymore or what?”
Toothless: “I’m not sure. I can’t find one.”
Home Depot, kids. Trust the experts.
Our frustration boiling we hit Lowes. More teeth but about the same level of knowledge. No gas heater for us. Confused and angry, Rachael and I decided there was only one thing to do in this situation. Stop at Five Guys Burgers and Fries for lunch. Oh sure water was rapidly filling the pans, but we needed brain food damn it! Besides have you been to Five Guys? Beyond tasty. Anyway, with happy tummies we vow to return home and at least shut off the water heater so we could stop playing the 97 minute game. The only problem with this idea? Neither one of us knows how to do this. But she’s smart and I’m…well, she’s smart and between the two of us I was sure we could figure this out. Right?
Stay tuned for the shocking second part of The Curse Of The Water Heater.

--Schoonaert

Quick

I watched The A-Team at the Dollar Theater over the weekend.

Now, I can see some of you rolling your eyes all ready. While it certainly wasn’t high art if was quite the entertaining flick. Stuff blew up, the pretty actors were pretty, and Liam Neeson did what he always does in movies: excelled at telling people what to do. Who doesn’t love Liam Neeson? The guy trained Batman, trained Darth Vader and unleashed a kraken! Has Bill Cosby ever unleashed a kraken? Yeah, I didn't think so.
Seriously, if there was some kind of crisis and I saw Liam Neeson I would rush over and beg of his council.
Anyway, the movie was a lot of fun. Next time you’re shopping, or buying a burger from Sonic, you need to rent it from the Red Box.
Speaking of which, in what genius boardroom was the Sonic/Red Box union spawned? Cheap dvd rentals combined with delicious fast food? A plan so brilliant I can only assume that Liam Neeson had something to do with it.

Well, I know this entry was short and hardly entertaining but it was my first step back to blogging on a regular basis so back off!

Be seeing you soon,

--Schoonaert