January 1:

January 1:

"I am thankful for our new water heater."

Once upon a time, I could lift up a lever in the master bathroom shower area and feel warm water on my fingers.  The "once upon a time" ended about two weeks ago.

A little backstory:  I moved in with my fiancé, Scott, a few months back, and his house is pretty new.  I think it's about the same age as however best a Merlot will ever get.  That's also about the same time that the water heater goes out, so we spent about two weeks relighting the pilot light anytime we wanted to run the dishwasher or take a shower.

Now, I don't need my shower to be hot.  Scott takes pretty hot showers, but I'm generally okay about it if he takes up most of the hot water.  In fact, I'll turn it down a notch.

On New Year's Eve, I knew that I had plans with my family, so I had... had... to take a shower.  The new water heater was to be installed the next morning.  I'd hoped that there was some warm water left in the tank, but when I ran the shower and put my fingers into the stream, I felt chills.  The shower was cold.  By my standards, so that's actually saying something.

I tried to just stick my head under the stream, but it was too cold.  I'd move my head under it, a little more each time I could manage, and I considered not having a shower at all before my family New Years dinner.

Finally, I'd had it.  Knowing that I needed to wash my hair and use a razor, I said "fuck it" and jumped in the shower.  I yelped, cried, and whimpered at the temperature change, but as soon as I started lathering my hair with shampoo, I began yelling, "I'm hardcore!  I'm hardcore!!  I'M HARDCORE!!"  And I rinsed my hair of shampoo, and then conditioner; I didn't shave my legs (can you shave over goosebumps?), but I managed to check most things off my list.

Sixteen hours later, we had a new water heater.  It works very well, and I had a much longer shower today.