Dear Mr. Weatherman: I Have a Request

It’s cold.

I mean, it’s really cold. And I don’t like it.

I moved to Texas from Missouri because, after living in the Equatorial paradise of Kenya, I just couldn’t take cold winters.

Of course, we did move to England and it was pretty cold there, too. However, I was prepared for it there. I was not prepared for it here.

Even worse, the poor Hayley House wasn’t prepared for it either. Oh, we have a working heater and our hot water tank’s pilot light is still on. We even had a dripping faucet.

But it wasn’t enough.

Friday morning, I hopped out of bed and dashed to the shower…no water.

No water there, no water anywhere. We don’t have a frozen pipe in the house. We have a frozen main line pipe coming into the house.

And it’s not supposed to be above freezing for any significant amount of time until Sunday afternoon.

Talk about a bummer.

I’m having serious flashbacks to life in Kenya during the dry season. When water stocks are low, you quickly learn how to ration yourself. You know precisely how much water it takes to wash your face, hair and body. Two cups of boiling water can wash a lot of dishes.

Surviving The Deep Freeze of 2010 at the Hayley House requires blankets, furbabies and about 8 liters of water – strictly rationed. I’m talking about 4 oz of water per person for teeth brushing and showers at the gym. I guess all the best stories in old age require suffering in the present!

Mr. Weatherman, is it too much to ask that we have temperatures above freezing for the rest of winter?

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