While it’s been a mild winter so far, we did have one frigid day a couple of weeks ago.  I was reminded of years ago, probably a decade ago, when Matt and I lived in a condo.  I woke up one morning to find no water coming out of the faucet.  Matt was asleep, so I decided to mention it later.  Then I forgot.  We had to run out and when we returned home and got out of the car you could hear what sounded like a waterfall inside our house.  When we opened the front door a pipe had burst and was spraying freezing water, already inches deep.

We tried to close the water shut off valve but it was painted opened, underwater, and we were freezing.  As the water sprayed at us, Matt yelled, “Bail!”  I ran from the room to find a bucket.  He thought I had bailed, leaving him there to handle the situation alone.  I returned with a bucket, caught the spraying water and immediately tossed it out the front door where it hit the walkway turning immediately to ice.

The water company claimed they couldn’t help us […]