Silver Linings

I’ve had a few things go awry lately, but instead of dwelling on the negative I’m going to take a page out of LeSombre’s book and look for the silver linings.

We had some sudden bad weather after a relatively mild late fall/early winter that dumped a foot of snow on us and brought temperatures down to the negative teens.  Yes, NEGATIVE teens.  In Nevada.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live anywhere near Vegas and winter here is the real deal, which is why we have such great skiing.  It’s just extremely unusual for it to dip so far into the negatives and the last time I can remember it going so low was in the 80’s.  (don’t quote me – I’m not a weather dood)

Since I live in the back of beyond things always go wrong at my house in the winter.  We have a well, which is one high-maintenance motherfucker when the temperatures dip.  We have a pump house that’s been Tyveked and insulated and heat taped and heat lamped to within an inch of its life and STILL one tiny little pipe froze this morning and cut of my water supply at a crucial moment in my hot cocoa preparation.  I was lulled into a false sense of water security because I got to have a nice toasty hot shower and flush the toidies before cutting me off.  Chocolatus interuptus.  I chose to ignore the universal weight loss smackdown message staring me right in the face as I looked back and forth between the empty faucet and the yummy goodness of the cocoa powder in the bottom of my cup, and instead got out the phone book and called the well dude.  I may or may not have shed a tiny tear for the loss of my cocoa, but that may also have been a tear of fear over the potential cost of this latest water shenanigan.

Silver Lining: The well dude was at my house within a half-hour of my phone call, and he brought with him a blow torch.  I love a good blow torch!  I could digress and get all nostalgic about the time I got out the blow torch for my cakery and pulled off a hat trick that saved the day, but it’s not really relevant except that I really do love a good blow torch. Anyway! The guy was at my house all of ten minutes before the water was gushing out of the pipe again and he only charged $105, which is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the things that can go wrong with a well.

Other random silver linings from the past few days:

• If your Jeep is going to get stuck in four-wheel drive, it’s better to have it stuck in 4HI than 4LOW.  I can still go on the freeway in 4HI.  It has since unstuck itself, which makes me think that the lever was probably actually frozen in place.
• That moment when your windshield washer fluid goes from a solid block of ice to usable window cleaner is golden and makes me smile every time.  It also makes me remember to stop letting the oil change guys fill it up because they don’t use the kind with anti-freeze in it.  Washer fluid without anti-freeze should be banned.
• I got to see a rare gold (sparkly gold, not yellow gold) Fiero stuck in a snow bank.  Who even has Fieros anymore and why would you drive one in a foot of snow on unplowed roads?  No wonder it was crunched at both ends!
• When your office parking lot is covered in 2 inches of ice, you don’t have to slow down for the speed bumps because they’re not there anymore!
  

So it’s been a trying few days, but there have been bright spots.