Pace on Earth

Freeze Frame

As I may have mentioned we have been experiencing a bit of a deep freeze here in Freddy. So this week that fact collided with the joys of home ownership. I woke up Thursday morning to a dry house; my water line had frozen.

I called the city to come and sort it out and a crew arrived pretty quickly. They figured out it was frozen somewhere between the street and the house so they had to bring in a steam machine to thaw the line. Unfortunately a water main had broken somewhere else (Southside likely) and we weren't as high on the priority list and they didn't come back until Friday morning with the machine. When they came back with the steam machine they set up shop in the basement and tried to thaw it from the inside out...with no luck. They left at noon and told me they would be back in a hour with the backhoe. And come back they did. Four city trucks, one towing the backhoe, and 8 city workers descended on the Bakery. They set to work digging up my lawn and within an hour had two 8 foot deep holes beside the house. In reality, the backhoe did the digging and 7 other guys stood around pointing a yakking. The banter of a city crew is absolutely priceless. I think each and every one of them told me I better be prepared to be without water until the spring. Good one fellas. They did eventually thaw the line and we were with water in time for the weekend.

So as a sidenote to this event was the fact that I had to be here at the house all day on Thursday and Friday. I had a pretty good idea that working from home would never really work for me because I get along all too well with the couch. What I hadn't realized was how much the social aspect of the office is necessary to me. Without an outlet for my incessant rambling I go a little batty. I was so hard up for conversation that I found myself asking the city workers in the basement what they would do if they won a million bucks. I got no direct response, just some funny looks and the following: "I think I know what your problem is; you got hard water" followed by a huge laugh and a pat on the back from his partner. Good one fellas. And back to the couch I went...

Pace out.

posted by Vitamin S @ 7:01 p.m.