whirlwind weekend

I had already decided that there would be no time for church on Sunday and I was okay with it.  Now, I enjoy going to my church and meeting up with all of the fun people, listening to lessons on how to unscrewup my life, and grab some coffee and donuts while attending my 'life group.'  It's a warm and cozy environment and I do enjoy it.  But on this particular weekend, breakfast out with Rick sounded a bit more inviting ...

I worked on Thursday night (I typically do) and again on Friday night (unusual for me) in addition to my everyday job, so I was feeling entitled to take a weekend off and just chill/Christmas shop/ipad surf/veg out on crime dramas.

And none of that happened.

A friend invited me out to lunch and to a vendor fair ... and I went.  Once home, I decided to clean my house.  Just 'cause.  And it was a good thing I cleaned my house ...

Because around 8:00 pm, my daughter came home from work and screamed, "WHAT'S GOING ON????"

"Huh?  What?  Nothing that I know of."  And I began to explain that I'd been shopping and I was just sitting down to ... but she stopped me.

"Are you aware that there's a waterfall in your garage????"

"Um, no?"

And up I got and off I ran and there I saw it.  The biggest force of water nature had ever produced.  One of our water heaters had gotten the bright idea to see just how fast and how far it could shoot sediment/debris/WATER into our garage and house.  It was like a race.  One water heater was racing the other one.  Know who won?  Not me.

Elizabeth screamed for Kyndra and the three of us just stood there shouting, "DO SOMETHING!"  I was actually frozen.  My feet would not move.  My mouth did, though.  I just screamed.

I did spy a black knob on the spurting heater that said ON/OFF/PILOT and I began twisting it with all my might.  I am a lot stronger than I thought ... or that knob was just ready to jump to its death ... because it came right off in my hand.  Thanks, knob.

Kyndra was the only one who reacted properly in this emergency.  Not only did she grab EVERYTHING on the floor of my garage and start pushing it to the driveway but she also called her dad asking for advice.  She got said advice and grabbed a chair from a corner, pushed it to the water heater and tried to follow her father's advice of reaching up to the top of the heater and cutting off the water.  Chair not tall enough ... so Kyndra continued being smart and grabbed our ladder and climbed up to the top.  She found the valve and off the water went.

I was still glued to the garage floor yelling 'HELP' while Elizabeth had found her cell phone and was calling every plumbing company in town, to no avail.  She spoke to lots of answering services, though.  A lot of UNHELPFUL answering services.

Know what I did?  After my feet came unglued ... I called 911.

"Ma'am, what is your emergency?"
"Water.  We have water.  Everywhere."
"Ma'am, can you tell me a little bit more about your emergency?"
"Water.  We have water.  Everywhere."

Yeah, good Kris.  I was so helpful in this situation.

So, the fire department came and told us we needed a new water heater.  Duh.  And they showed us where all of the important knobs were, should this ever happen again.  Note: It better NEVER happen again.

The rest of Saturday was filled with sweeping, mopping and undrenching lots of drenched papers/boxes/furniture, etc.  Sunday's plans were suddenly changed, too.

So, I didn't make it to church on Sunday ... but not because I got a nice, leisurely breakfast out with Rick.  Nope, I didn't.

I spent the entire day with Roto Rooter.

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS LATER ... we have a new water heater and some scalding hot water in our house.

And there went that trip to Hawaii that I was dreaming about.


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