The Water Heater that Tried to Steal Christmas

Of all the things I expected to hear on Christmas morning, "Honey! The garage is flooding!" was not one of them. I happened to be in the shower when that was yelled at me, and a myriad of things ran through my mind; foremost was the realization that a flooding garage could certainly explain the reason for a distinct lack of water pressure. Hurriedly toweling off, I rushed to the garage.

And what to my wandering eye should appear? A water heater gushing - gushing far, gushing near.

Most one-story, central Florida homes that I've seen and lived in have always had their water heaters in the garage. That's a good thing ... at least when the water decides to not stay inside the tank. From the open garage door I could see my wet driveway, wet street, oh, let's not stop there - a wet everything. Even the neighbors wouldn't need to water their lawns on this 40 degree morning. I had to get the water stopped.

Away to the street edge, I flew like a flash. Threw closed the main shutoff, and stopped loss of cash!

It was about this time that my two adult children pulled up in the driveway, expecting to enjoy a quiet breakfast and some gift unwrapping with my wife and me.

"Merry Christmas!" I called out to them as we hugged.

"What's going on?" my daughter asked, looking at the wet garage floor.

December 25^th. The one day of the year that I couldn't rush out and buy a new water heater. "It's going to be a water-less Christmas!" I told her.

My neighbor across the street offered to let us use her hose spicket, and I made a few trips hauling some five gallon containers, but let me tell you, that get's old pretty quick. A call to our next door neighbor #2 helped immensely, allowing me to run a hose from their house to ours.

And that's why our Christmas dinner guests discovered a stiff green garden hose snaking from our backyard, through the porch, into our kitchen, and dangling via a bungee cord over the sink. It wasn't pretty, but it allowed us to wash dishes. (And threaten dinner guests with a dousing, a warning which turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought!)

I suppose in hindsight that the gushing water heater and water-less house could have ruined our day. It could have made us cancel our dinner plans, made us wave off anyone from coming over. But somehow, I kept seeing beyond that. I knew that I could replace the water heater the next day, and the garage would hopefully dry out. But the people around me, at this very moment, they were precious. I wanted to notice them, be with them.

So as I now write this, I hope you've enjoyed.

All the time you have had with your own girl and boy.

With the presents all open, and the house now much neater,

Merry Christmas to all, with a new water heater.