February 27: The Water Heater

I'm not sure who this "Murphy" fella is, but his law is beginning to slightly bug me. We all know the widely-accepted meaning of Murphy's Law is that "anything that can go wrong will go wrong." For me, personally, this law usually goes into effect shortly after some other big event has occurred in my life; thereby adding additional, though unwelcomed, stress into my life. Case in point, yesterday I made the decision to invest a significant amount of money into a new laptop computer and a new camcorder. Not a foolish decision, but certainly one in which the "want" outweighs the "need". The fact is, we could have went on with life as normal without those items, but isn't the whole goal of working your tail off for your employer to be able to provide for your family and yourself both the things that you/they want AND need? Yes, I say. But this evening, oh, this evening, one day later if you will, I experienced a situation in which the "need" definitely far outweighs the "want". An entirely new experience for me involving our water heater. Let's take a little stroll through the night, shall we? My wife and I were about 30 minutes into "Paranormal Activity". And, I kid you not, I just asked her if she thought we should take it out. Not because I was scared, I hadn't reached that point YET, but because I have this strange superstition that if I bring things like that into my home, it opens up a door of some sort to let things like that enter and stay. No sooner did we agree to continue viewing, when my wife says to me "What's that sound?". Of course, I think she's just trying to spook me and respond with a rhetorical "what sound, honey?" But then I hear it too. I don't even know how to describe the sound because I've never heard anything quite like it. I leap to my feet and quickly identify that it's coming from the basement. So, I proceed down the stairs cautiously to discover that the valve at the bottom of our hot water heater is spraying water across the basement floor. I immediately become convinced that we've gone and welcomed some entity into our home as a result of watching the movie (and I'm still not convinced we haven't) and it's now decided to reveal itself by turning on the valve on our water heater. Clearly, I'm not thinking rationally at this point! Well, there's water everywhere, so I begin soaking it up with the Shop Vac. But, I notice that the valve continues a slow, steady drip. So, I'm concerned now. After a few trips out back to empty the Shop Vac canister, I decide to call my Brother-In-Law, Steve, who is extremely gifted when it comes to home improvement, appliances, repairs, etc. And, Steve helped me out immensely. Basically, my water heater is on it's way out, and the valve spraying the water was likely the result of a worn washer as opposed to the devious work of some supernatural spirit. So, instead of awaking tomorrow and enjoying a leisurely morning with the family before heading to Church (we're definitely going to Church), I now have to visit Home Depot for a new water heater...Murphy's Law. You know, there should be a law outlawing Murphy's Law! Try saying that fast fives times.