Snap, crackle, and burst

The fractures continue. As I was hopping off the truck last night around 8:00, my next door neighbor walked up with her dog to talk to me. She let me know that my piping/spigot on the front of the house had burst and a shower of water was pouring out. Fortunately, another neighbor shut off the main water supply to the house to stem the flow.

While we were driving around the neighborhood, I found a similar problem at a house I was delivering to. They had a timer hooked up to the water spigot, and the plastic device had burst flooding the driveway. The fix was simply turning off the valve, but it made me think "glad I insulated my plastic pipes". Clearly it wasn't enough to prevent a freeze.

So after gulping down some pizza my wife had thoughtfully picked up, it was off to Home Depot. I dashed out so quickly that I didn't remember my wallet. Fortunately, my wife had a pile of change in her car and I was able to come up with stacks of quarters and dimes totaling $6.40 for the repair.

The pipe on the back of the house is still intact, but we will be turning off the water to the house while we are at work and while we're sleeping. It looks like it will be a number of days before there is any hope of a thaw.

More snow is forecast for today and tonight. The forecast led many school districts to close for the day though no flakes were falling. I can remember as a kid anxiously listening to the radio, waiting for them to come around to my school district and tell me there was no school today. As an adult it is quite different. A world blanketed in snow inspires quiet, but most days there are places you must get to and you can't stop to play in the snow. A white Christmas sounds fantastic, unless there are serious hills to get to your family's house.