An Involuntary Cold Shower

So, last night my hot water heater after 20 years of steadfast servitude, breathed it's last. Should I say more precisely, it leaked it's last onto my basement floor.

Luckily my dad discovered the leak almost immediately, but nonetheless we're stuck with the annoyance of either a) boiling water to have warm water to bathe in, or b) using very very cold water. Neither option is that appealing but we're coping.

So you figure something like this, they've got a top notch system over at the gas company for fixing such things. I mean no Canadian should have to live without hot water, summer or no summer. This is NOT the caribbean here, we are not all year around warmed by the sun, looking forward to the cool water as a respite from the heat.

Besides that, for some reason this water from the tap is colder than any other water known to man, I'm convinced it somehow manages to be below freezing and stay liquid.

Anyway, I learned that the gas company in fact does not have a well oiled machine equipped to quickly repair this problem in a reasonable amount of time. They're coming tomorrow a full 2 days later, and they won't even say when they're coming, they've given us a "window" of six hours in which they could come at any time. Which means they could show up at 10 or at 4 and it's the same to them. Well not to me! I have two more showers in the frigidity before this will come to an end and that's IF they fix it when they do come.

For this kind of thing it should be routine in and out and we'll be there at 10:23 ma'am no later. They should have teams of people dedicated to making sure water heaters are repaired 'round the clock, as they are reported! I mean, have THEY every tried taking a shower in water so cold it makes your bones hurt? Maybe if they did, they wouldn't be so damned nonchalant about their "window" and I wouldn't have to be convincing myself I won't catch pneumonia tonight.

I know I can go to a family members or one of my friend for a shower. But there's something to be said for being in your own home for these kind of things. Same reason I hate showering at the gym. It's not my shower, I feel out of place and I'm almost guaranteed to forget something crucial to my shower success. Nonetheless, I might mooch some hot water off my Aunt anyway, there's no use in dying over the principle of the thing, right?