I Heart Water

We went away for two weeks.

Now, since we've owned this house, we've not left it alone for more than hours at a time. I did not honestly think we had to sit around looking after the house, as it's a house. We've lived in a house before and left it for extended periods. It was always perfectly fine when we returned home.

Of course, this one wasn't okay.

Yeah, it looked fine. Everything was where we'd left it and from the outside it appeared to be perfectly normal.

It felt good to be back, out of the car, and not going anywhere anytime soon. The whole upheaval of the holidays was over. Brilliant!

I went to get the dog some water, as she hadn't had any in quite awhile.

I turned the tap and nothing happened.

"Did you turn the water off?" I called out to Pilot Boy.
"No. Why would I do that?"
"I don't know. It doesn't work," I replied, moving the tap up and down some more.

Nothing happened.

Seriously. Nothing.

It is winter. Since it got "cold" we've seen signs telling people to leave their taps dripping, which to us former residents of Alaska sounded idiotic. It doesn't get that cold here.

And it DID NOT get THAT cold here while we were gone. Sure, they had some winter weather, but it wasn't THAT cold. And our house is NEW(ish).

Pilot Boy didn't think the pipes were frozen (it was 60 degrees), so he called the water company. I  payed the bill (and the new bill I had in my hand claimed I did as well). But, he called them and asked if they'd turned it off.

Nope. Our pipes must be frozen.

It was sixty freaking degrees out. And the day before it'd been forty. Why are our pipes frozen?

Pilot Boy went about calling plumbers and "thawing" the pipes.

Nothing happened. At least unlike the a/c guys, the plumbers all ANSWERED their phones. They couldn't show up that day but they ANSWERED.

Pilot Boy at some point talked to this guy he knows down the street who'd been around and he told him it'd been warm throughout the entire time we'd been gone. (Except the day we left, of course.) Basically, our pipes shouldn't have been frozen.

(I lived in Alaska for three years. It actually GETS cold there. Our pipes never froze. And we left in the dead of winter quite a few times during those three years and never came home to frozen pipes.)

Let me tell you something: it sucks not having water. You do not realize how much you use water until you don't have any. Yeah, our toilets flushed and you could get two flushes out of them before they needed to be reloaded and yeah, we went out and bought drinking water, but you can't do dishes, you have to carry around water to wash your hands, and you cannot bathe. (Well, we could if we went to the gym or the neighbor's house, but still. I'm pregnant. I don't want to shower in a stranger's home or a gym.)

Luckily, the plumber showed up the next afternoon. He was confused when he was told we have frozen pipes and no water pressure.

"It's been warm," he informed me.
"I know," I said.

He went to investigate at the water thingy in the front yard and discovered it was turned off.

"Did you call the city?"
"Yes. They said they didn't turn our water off."
"Someone turned your water off."

I could only shrug.

He turned the water on, then turned it off.

During his quest to find the water thingy (you know, the thing that turns water to the house on and off), Pilot Boy had done something to cause the sprinkler system thing (I've no idea what it is but it's for the sprinkler system) to spout water off straight into the air next to the house. The plumber had no clue how to fix it, as he'd never seen anything like it before. He suggested in the spring we call the company that installed it and have them look at it. Or they (the plumbing company he worked for) could look at it. He did shut it off, cutting off the water supply to the sprinkler system.

Then he turned our water back on and oh, how it was lovely to have water again. (After I spent an hour running water through the pipes and getting all the stale water out or whatever my dad said I ought to do. I had no clue, but it made sense at the time.)

Moral of the story?

Someone turned our water off. Our pipes were not frozen, our water was off. Thanks city. You're really on top of things.