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Murphy's Law of Pipes and Propane
3:53 AM, Thursday, February 7, 2008
.. Posted in Seeking Rest in Heart and Home
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Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.From Wednesday: Today has been quite the day. I awoke this morning to a frantic son, Eric, telling me to please get up now and come down to the basement, that it was an emergency. The pipe in the basement was broken and there was water shooting out of the well in the basement. Leave it to Eric to break the pipe and flood the basement on the day we have received more rain and our town and so many around us are completely flooded. I am smiling as I type that. Great. So, now what? This is only something else to add to the dog's lacerated paw, for which I have been caring for since a week ago Monday. She cannot walk on it (she could, except is will pull the skin apart), so she must be taken out to to go to the bathroom, hopping on one paw. She has to stay in her little pen all day, laying down, keeping off of it. We have had to pay constant attention to it being cleaned and covered and her not licking it... Is the bandaging too tight? Did she eat the bandage? When I got downstairs to see the damage to the well, Jocelyn was on the phone with Matt, who is, of course, at work. He can't really take off and come home and is asking her questions to find out what is going on and what she is looking at. It is really hard to ascertain what is going on in this type of situation by asking a 16 year-old over the phone who is standing in about four inches of freezing cold water, looking for a spigot to turn off or a switch or the many different things her Daddy was asking her to look for. Not to mention Eric, who is quite knowledgeable in these types of situations to be able to come up with a really idea, but not be able to quite explain exactly what he is trying to say. He's ten, so that's ok. However, as he is trying to help, he is asking a bunch of questions and trying to come up with all kinds of solutions to the problem. Add to that the pump that is now loud and continually running as the water is shooting out into the now rising water, and then me. I have pulled my pant-legs up to my knees and gone down barefoot, because I could not see a pair of boots I could grab as I walked to the basement and down the stairs. That was fine when I was peering through the stairs to see what was going on with the well underneath the stairs. It got quite cold when I had to go down to the floor into the ice-cold water and stand there, gazing at the base of the water shooting out. He broke the pipe. Not the pvc pipe, but the real metal pipe. He broke the one right off the pump. It is obviously old and needs to be replaced. By this time, Matt is off the phone, and we are trying to figure out if there is any switch or spigot or can we hook the hose up to it. They came up with all kinds of ideas, but none were going to work. The dilemma was that they were doing their morning chores. They needed water for the animals. Jocelyn had dumped the water out in the goat stalls and needed to get them some more. I called Matt back to make sure he knew what had broken and ask him for ideas. He had the best idea: shut off the breaker. Why didn't I think of that? Well, probably because at the time I had exhausted the other options, I realized I was standing in about 5 inches of water, my feet were getting numb and there was electricity on the well. The kids had rubber boots on. I looked at their boots and my feet and decided I was better placed on the stairs. Jocelyn went to the breaker box and shut off the pump. Hallelujah! Matt and I are discussing other water options, and we decide to have her put a bucket at the end of a downspout since it is raining. Whew! Matt was calling a plumber and hopefully we would have water soon. I went upstairs to get LucyLillie from Amanda, whose arms I had thrust the sleeping little sweetie as I rushed down the stairs. She was asleep. Still raining. And no water. I looked out the front window of Amanda's room and saw that big, I mean, huge flooded area that is always at the road when it rains. Finally, a use for that overgrown mosquito trap. I had Jocelyn, Rachel and Eric take buckets down and fill them to water the animals. So, now to wait for the plumber. Matt said he would be there at one o'clock or so. By this time it was about eleven-thirty. You don't miss having running water until you are thirsty or have to use the toilet, which most of us were, and most of us needed to. We waited and waited. About twelve-thirty, we started talking about going into town and get something to drink and buy some water. Or we could go to our neighbor's. Eric said cars were turning around before they got to the neighbor's, because the road had flooded deep between here and there. About this time, we get a call from Matt. He tells me that the plumber is on his way, but may not make it because he had to take a long way around due to a bridge being flooded in town. So, we wouldn't necessarily even be able to get into town. He makes it, and as he is trying to fix it, the pipe just keeps disintegrating, so he has to replace a major part of it. I told the kids they could use the toilet and we would just pour a bucket of water down it. I'm not sure if anyone actually took me up on that. By the time he was finished, it was three-thirty, and we were all glad for some water. I think I will start filling up pitchers again and leaving them set. If you think that was something, well, it was only half the day. After the first evening barn chores were finished, about six o'clock tonight, Amanda came upstairs with some more good news. She had checked the beans we had been cooking for dinner, and the flame was out. Upon trying every other burner to see if it would light, she realized we must be out of propane. Now, before Matt went to Las Cruces last week, we knew we needed to switch the tanks over. He had just switched services, which is a story in itself, and we would need to let it run awhile longer, then switch over to the new tank. Matt called the propane company when he made plans to go to Grandma's funeral, and they were writing up a work order and would be out to do it. Not. Never happened. So, I called Matt up and asked if we ever switched the tanks. Of course we did; they made a work order and were going to come out and do that. Not. So, he called, the guy said he was coming out, and we got Taco Bell for dinner tonight. The guy who came out told Amanda that "someone was in trouble". All, in all, since we have water, heat, a stove and a working dryer as we go to bed tonight, it worked out ok. With the temps going down to the twenties again tonight, I was not looking forward to waiting until tomorrow. Bit, oh, when it rains, it pours. And it has been raining an awful lot here in Indiana. Good thing we homeschool, and these circumstances only add to the experience our children know about and have faced. Working around life and all that happens sometimes is the lesson. blessings!
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