I’d like to share with you a little experience I had this week.
Wednesday night I’m out at a meeting and an interview when I receive a text from my roommate that says “just a heads up we have no hot water right now.”
She tried unplugging the tank and plugging it back in with hopes that this would rejig whatever the problem was.
Unfortunately for me, who was desperately in need of a shower by Thursday morning, this was not the case.
I wake up Thursday morning and I’m psyching myself out for what is undoubtedly going to be the coldest shower I’ve ever had. I turn the water on, step in the shower and as soon as the I feel the temperature on my feet I know this is going to be a problem. I back into the water and immediately jump out of the shower.
HELL NO. I am not trying that again.
Now let me remind you of the weather we’ve experienced over the last week up here in Cochrane. For about a week straight we experienced: -40 in the mornings, -25 in the afternoons, -35 in the evenings and overnight we hit the unbelievably chilling temperature of -50.
Regardless of how cold the water from the outside watermains was … my hair needed to be washed.
I decide to do it the old camping style… back when mom and dad used to sit us in a laundry basket and pour water over our heads with a cup. I grabbed a cup, tipped my head upside down in the tub and started washing my hair.
The water was so cold that I experienced symptoms of brain freeze, as if I’d just chugged a slushie. Extreme pulsing and pain shot through my forehead like my brain was shivering. I took me a good ten minutes and when I was done my teeth were chattering.
Thank God I put on an anticipatory pot of coffee.
Next step: wash my body.
I was done with the cold water so I took the kettle from my kitchen to my downstairs two piece bathroom, boiled water, placed towels all over the floor and began to sponge bath … creating pools of water all over my floor.
Needless to say, when I told Chantal what I had gone through at work she said “you could have just showered at my house,” which is exactly what I ended up doing Friday morning.
We also had our hot water tank replaced on Friday afternoon so with any luck I’ll never have to do that again. At least, hopefully not in the winter with with the cold water reflecting the -40 temperatures outside.
Cochrane-365 