Fun at Home

I just spent half an hour standing in my shower tonight holding back water shooting out of a busted faucet! My hands and arms are going to be so sore in the morning. I can confirm that the water pressure in Shreveport is pretty darn good and powerful!

I was taking a shower after our evening bike ride, getting ready to turn off the water. The hot water knob turns just fine....the cold water one just spins, and water keeps coming out of the shower head at full force. Okay, just great....I turn the hot water back on so I won't get too cold but there's no way to stop the water unless I can get the knob to seal back up. Otherwise we have to get the city to come out here to turn the water off...we have an old water valve outside that defies the use of any commercially available "keys"...you will only destroy them if you use them. Only the city can do it.

So I'm trying to reseal the knob and it comes off. And out shoots this solid horizontal geyser of water all the way to the opposite wall...and, boy, is it loud! It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where Kramer is getting blasted against the back wall of his shower the same way, but it was funnier then. Well, now we have to call the city to come out and turn off the water (it's almost 9 pm now). Jonnene makes the phone call after finding the number in the phone book and I have to wait, standing there holding the faucet knob in the pipe the best I can to minimize the amount of water pouring in so it doesn't fill up the shower basin and spill over into the house (and turn off the hot water). Jonnene quickly fills up a couple of buckets so we can still use the toilets later and waits for the city crew to show up. Eventually they do show up, the water is turned off, and I can finally towel off. I'm going to be tired in the morning!

So I'll have to see what happened with the faucet and replace it...or get a plumber out here instead. My plumbing skills are adequate but not perfect. Then get the city back out to turn the water back on. On top of that, we're getting our new blinds installed in the morning!

Couldn't ask for a better way to start the night.....