Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Winter Exacts Its Pound of Flesh

Mother nature created quite a balancing act this year.  On the one hand, it looks like Jack’s first Christmas will be a white one.  Outstanding!   On the other hand, the temp has been so far below freezing that a water pipe busted at 3am on Sunday.  Definitely NOT outstanding! 

I have to give credit where it’s due here, as I was immensely impressed by the City of Bellevue who not only had the decency to answer my wee morning call with a live body, but sent a crew out within 15 minutes to shut off the water main at the street.  They helped keep a nasty situation from becoming truly disastrous given that the previous owner of our house, in an epically boneheaded move, had buried the water shut-off valve behind drywall – something we didn’t discover until days later.  Anyway, all that “fun” is worth a separate story.

Let’s just say, this isn’t the type of thing you want to see on the outside of your house:

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And though I can’t stand shameless plugs, I have to give one here.  Right after the 3am call to the city, the 3:30am call to Beacon Plumbing went out.  Not only did the owner answer the phone himself (evidence of how much volume the weather was creating), he guaranteed a crew would be out by 7am – something no one else would do, if they even bothered to answer the phone.  I almost felt guilty when the guys had to spend another hour digging their truck out of our driveway. 

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