"Bomb Cyclone"

The plan to head South to spend Christmas with our son had been in place for weeks. Our day of departure, (Thursday), weather was certainly a factor. I had to deliver meals in the morning and the forecast was for it to get "ugly with a capital 'U'" after Noon. Temps were forecast to drop almost 40 degrees in 12 hours with a rain/freezing rain/snow situation a possibility. I luckily finished delivering meals to our clients by 1000 hours and rushed home to "get outta Dodge" as soon as possible.


Knowing the situation our home would be facing during our absence I opened the doors to all the cabinets/sinks on outside walls and left the furnace set at 55 degrees to keep the house at a threshold temperature to avoid freezing. I considered leaving the most distant faucet trickling, but we were gonna be away for five days... did I want to leave water running that long?
No. (Don't get ahead of me here.)
Our trip South was uneventful. The car's thermometer read 34 degrees as we pointed our noses South, and temps rose to 45 degrees by the time we arrived in Northern Tennessee. Traffic was light.

Friday morning we got a call from a neighbor-
"My water pipes are frozen."
Uh-Oh.
Niggling worries began. But the guy with the keys to our home that I depend on to insure our house is okay was sick as a dog and I didn't want to bother him. Temps rose the next day and our "pipes frozen" neighbor reported that his water began to flow again.
I relaxed some.
Four days passed. We drove home in "still below freezing" temperatures.

We arrived home, opened the door, and Sara Jean exclaimed, "Water is running somewhere."
It was raining in my office. Raining in our downstairs bathroom.
Damn!
Quickly as possible I entered the crawlspace beneath our house. I had to crawl through snow to get there. It was raining under there too. I crawled 20 feet through two inches of water-soaked mud to reach the main shut-off valve.

The indoor rain continued for an hour. I realized there was a problem... the shutoff valve had NOT shut the water supply off. I crawled back under the house and forced the valve to close farther than I was really comfortable twisting it.
That act slowed the flow of water in my office to a "drip, drip, drip".
We deployed buckets to catch drips. I went to our outbuilding and grabbed the "wet-or-dry" vacuum.We sucked as much water up as we could and I got onto the phone to our insurance company.

Trying to contact a plumber after an event like this is disheartening-
"I have a week's worth of work ahead of you. I'll put you on my list and get to ya as soon as I can."

Today marks two days since we got home to find it raining indoors.
One of the plumbers we left a message with arrived this morning and started pulling out drywall. After "tearing up Ned" for an hour he found and repaired the leak.
We can once again bathe, brush our teeth, do laundry, run the dishwasher, and flush toilets.
We don't realize how much we take electricity and water for granted until they are gone, do we?

The process of returning to normal has begun. Being able to turn on the water tap is about 40% of that process.
Now the drywall, carpeting, fixing/replacing electronics, etc., process begins.

And thinking of those sleeping in the cold we once again realize how BLESSED we are.