Feeling blue...

No. I am not depressed. But I am feeling a little blue today because I HAD TO TAKE A FREEZING-COLD SHOWER TODAY!!! Some would say that isn't so bad, but I vehemently disagree with you. Being a child of the 80's, I saw plenty of sitcoms with references to cold showers. I just never saw the attraction. In fact, while I was growing up, I would turn the cold water all the way off and see how long I could stand in the stream before I felt like I was burning.


Not today, though. There was no hot water; no warm water; not even just cool water. Only ICE-COLD water! It may not have been so bad except for the fact that I had just come home from playing basketball and I was really hot and sweaty. The minute that water hit me, I felt like someone took a hammer to my chest. I could just picture my heart happily and easily pumping nice, warm, quick-flowing blood and then ... WHAM! ... it is suddenly thrown into low gear by the presence of fast-cooled, congealing blood that requires much more effort to pump the now toothpaste-like substance. I know that is a little dramatic, but, for the first time in memory, I couldn't wait to turn off the water and step out into the cool morning air blowing in through the window so that I could warm up!

My reason for becoming a human popsicle this morning is that our poor, sad little water heater (well, I guess 66 gallons isn't so little) finally gave up the ghost yesterday. It has been slowly leaking for a long time now and every time we fixed the leak in one spot another would pop up. It is just one more piece of evidence that the last person who lived here really had no clue what they were doing when they made updates to the place. The leaks started out as slow and seeped down the pipes and underneath the outer shell of the water heater, soaked into the insulation and, eventually, started dripping out the bottom. We made plans to replace it in the near future, but, when the water fried the power supply, the future become very near and urgent.

So we started the tank draining last night and we froze our butts off this morning (and when I say "we", I mean "me" since I was the only one that had to shower). We bought a new tank today and, for once, it went in without a hitch - which is a novel and completely unfamiliar experience when it comes to Jensen family home repairs.

I will say, however, that this experience has made me extremely grateful for one more luxury that I take for granted. I think about people in the past who never knew what water heaters were and either boiled water over a fire for warmth or bathed with freezing cold water. I am sure that there are even people today who do not have a water heater and would very much like one. I am grateful to have had one these past few years, even though it did not work very well. I am grateful for the financial blessings that made replacing it relatively painless. And, most of all, I am grateful for our wonderful friends and amazing family members who are always willing to give us their time, their knowledge and wisdom and their strength when these unexpected challenges arise. It is all rock-solid evidence of how blessed I truly am.