In His Grip

Here's a little tale Mark lived I like to call "In an old house, nothing goes quite according to plan..."

I went home around noon, and was going to replace the outdoor water spigot because it leaks like a sieve, and the water goes right down our foundation into the basement. I had the parts ready from a couple days ago so was ready. I couldn't get the thing to budge! After much wrestling with my dad’s old (and big) pipe wrenches, it started to turn, but didn’t come off. I ended up accidentally pulling some of the pipe through the wall (no big deal because it was a hard plastic and was not anchored anywhere – which I discovered at the same time). So I started wrenching again, and realized it wasn’t going to work. I saw the iron fitting was sleeved into the plastic and held with a hose clamp so I went downstairs to get my screwdriver. When I entered the house, I heard it. A sickening sound of spraying water, not a little, but a LOT! With all my twisting outside I actually broke a fitting in the basement! It was spraying like a fire-hose!

I ran outside to get my vise-grip to turn the water off, and plunged into the deep. Of course the water sprayed all the way to the water shut-off in a straight line – the path I had to take. Figures. I got drenched with very cold water, but got the water shut off. Miriam was gone through all this, so I yelled for all the kids to come help me get the wet stuff out as quickly as possible and we did. Nothing was ruined, just wet rugs and a small piece of unattached carpet and boots. So, my punishment for leaving work early was a two hour plumbing job that should have taken a mere 15 minutes. I found it rather humorous once the water was shut off and I saw that nothing important was wet. There was a lot of water on the floor though! The kids thought it amazing at first, then funny. Then I asked them all if Mom needed to know about it, they said “naw”, but then I told them she’d probably find out anyway. Sure enough, when she drove home she saw the line of wet boots and the futon frame against the garage drying. She didn’t dare go downstairs for fear of how bad it was. But, we all got a good chuckle out my “superman” strength of breaking the pipe, then my “superman” speed in shutting the water off.

Pretty exciting huh?

Mom's note, I'm just glad he cleaned it all up!!!