The Cold Strikes Again

Knowing that last night was to be the coldest night, and feeling the chill, even though our thermostat read somewhere in between 68-70 when I went to bed, I piled on the clothes and blankets and snuggled deep into our huge, comfy bed much earlier than normal.

At 12:40am I received a call from my husband, and I thought for sure it was 4am. So, I mumbled something, hung up, and went back to sleep. Waking up this morning was difficult, you know, because the house was just SO frigid, despite the heat being turned up higher than it has been all year.

I stumbled to the shower and tried to lift the faucet handle. It didn't move. Starting to wake up, I turned to the sink and pushed its handle up. Worked like a charm. Back at the tub, I gave a good yank to the handle and it creaked on. No problem.

It usually takes the water running for about a minute before the water is warm, so I tentatively stuck my finger under the waterfall, only to find my little digit scalded. Being early, it was difficult for me to process the problem underlying the scalded finger. After about five minutes, I realized that the cold water to the shower was frozen.

Abandoning the bathroom drama, I escaped to the kitchen to check the sink there. Its pipes are on the outer wall (unlike the bathroom--or so I thought) and I figured it would be the first to freeze (in fact, this happened last year). Kitchen sink water was hot and cold as indicated by turning the appropriate knobs.

Only the shower, of course, was affected by this frigid night.

Here I am at noon, still in my jammies, and working diligently from my laptop. I called in to work and let them know the issue, in addition to the fact that my Internet was down for two hours this morning (thus emailing them a note earlier had been out of the question).

Around 9am, the Internet began working and I was able to log on to the system and begin my work day. But I am still left with nothing in the bathtub but hot, potentially dangerous water.

A maintenance guy I've never met before has just showed up and, in fact, after he crawled under the apartment to the pipes, he found the frozen pipe joint. I can now hear the cold water rushing in the tub. He fixed it, right at this very minute (12:10pm). Thus, I suppose I'll spend this afternoon at the office and have to shower soon.

It has been an adventure this week. Cold like I've never known it. Internet down. Frozen water pipes, and all of this I'm enduring alone.

Have I slipped back in time? Is it the winter and blizzard of 2007, when I'm alone and not married and have no one to manage the household problems but my own, inexperienced self?