the rest of the story

On Saturday we went to the cemetery with Grandma and Aunt Nancy. Danny paid his respects to his Great Grandma Mary. And I remembered again that 20 years after the day after she passed away, he was born. Danny also spent a good amount of time chasing birds and looking for headstones of babies. I don't know why for either of those.

Cate did this the whole time we were there.



We stopped to eat at Cocolito's on the way home. Tamale for me. Not sure about everyone else because my tamale was too interesting to notice.

Sunday was pretty much a regular Sunday. Kids getting into trouble while nobody's watching. Church. Grumpy kids. Bed.

We had big plans to go bowling on Monday since I had a coupon and Dan didn't have to work. Then we'd hit up another cemetery in the afternoon.

My plans were foiled when I heard an explosion as I was in the bathroom after my shower (the other bathroom, not the one with the shower...the one on the other side of the wall from the water heater). Right after the explosion I heard rushing water and saw the rushing water flowing out from under the wall. I freaked (of course) because I thought the explosion had something to do with the gas (because of the proximity to the water heater). That's scary stuff.

Dan turned off the water and the pilot light on the water heater.

I got dressed and he called the plumber. Why do these things happen on holidays? I'll tell you why. Dan was home from work, that's why. If I had heard an explosion and rushing water inside the wall when it was just me and the kids home I probably would have called 911 and then run out onto the lawn in my bathrobe. No joke.

The plumber guy came and cut a whole in the bathroom wall. Here's what he found.



He cut that section of pipe out and replaced it with a blue one (it's over here in case you missed it). I'm thinking it was about 10 minutes later and the explosion happened again. This time I wasn't in the bathroom. It's a good thing too since we figure what made the pipes explode was really hot steam. This time no wall was there to contain it and I saw it billowing out of the bathroom. I freaked again and was very glad that the kids were outside playing and didn't hear or see any of it.



Dan turned everything off again and called the plumber again. He didn't call back as quickly this time so there was a lot of playing outside and walking around grumbling (mostly by me).

Dan called again a little while later and back he came. He fixed the pipe and checked out the water heater. I'm not really sure about all the details since I was really ticked off at this point and kids make it hard to concentrate most of the time. The diagnosis was broken water heater. We had the tankless variety. It's mounted on the wall and heats the water instantly instead of having a big tank that sits there filled all the time.

I liked our old water heater. Sadly, they are pretty expensive to replace (not nearly as expensive as it was to install 10 years ago though). Plumber guy said he'd be back the next morning to install our new water heater. The tank kind like everyone else has. I guess Dan has to just get used to limiting his showers instead of taking his leisurely time like he usually does.

The rest of Monday was spent at McDonald's (because I can't really be expected to cook dinner without hot water), the cemetery and driving around in the car.



I got to wash dishes like the pioneers on Monday night. Heat up water on the stove and dump it into the sink. And you thought you were roughing it when your dishwasher broke? Ha.

Tuesday morning the plumber was here bright and early. He took out the broken water heater and I took a picture of it because I'll miss it so.



And that's the rest of the story.

I know you were on the edge of your seat waiting for the update.

You're welcome.