My vacation had all the elements of a good novel: drama, intrigue, romance, tragedy, comedy, hot tub soaking and sand in the bootie.
I'm feeling contrary today, so we'll start at the end of the story.
The story should have ended when we departed from our vacation comrades and embarked on the 3.5 hour drive back home. Instead that was just the intermission.
The real ending started while we were unpacking the cars.
Yes, cars, because we drove the Sube and the pickup (aka Flatbed or Chuckwagon). We were bringing the bulk of the food for the vacation gang, packed in plastic storage crates and multiple coolers. One member of the group, after seeing Wendy's shopping list joked: "Did you rent a flat bed for all of this?" Nope, we didn't need a flatbead, we had trusty Old Red, my 1988 Toyota.
Anyway, at some point after we'd arrived home, my brother called to tell me what a wonderful time he'd had at the Heart concert on Saturday and about the rest of my vacation. I told him we'd just gotten home, "Wayne, do you remember that vacation we took as a family, to Disneyland?"
"Yeah."
"Do you remember what happened while we were gone, to the house?"
"Yeah, the pipes burst."
[dramatic pause] "Yep, and there was water everywhere."
[another pause, wheels turning] "Oh, no, did your pipes burst?"
"Not exactly, the hot water heater leaked all over the place, or actually the output pipe for the tank. It's totally corroded by rust, we've been moving furnature and boxes and running the wetvac since we got home."
But this was not the tragedy of our story. We called Black Hills Inc., our go-to guys for heating related items and the sent someone first thing the next morning. The hot water heater had to be replaced and it was all done by 12:30. That's not so painful.
And this is where the ending ends so it's time to go back to the beginning, which will be the subject of my next post.
Posted by buggy at June 19, 2003 09:06 AM