I Would Have Let Go

One of my favorite feelings is when you're sitting in the car during the winter, and you get out to go inside, and even though your frigidly cold, you know its going to be warm inside, so its so worth it. Going up to the cabin in the winter kind of sucks the fun out of this feeling, because we turn the heat off when we're not there, instead of, well you know, throwing money away. Anyways, we usually go inside, turn the heat on, and sit around a 30 year old kerosene heater for a few hours until the place warms up. However, the recent sub-zero temps took away even that. I walked in to put some stuff on the kitchen counter, and looked at the faucet where an inch long icicle was hanging. All of our pipes were frozen because a certain anonymous family member forgot to turn off the water when they left last. We turned on the heat and sacrificed the kerosene heater to the basement with hopes of melting the ice in the pipes. We went out to dinner, and came back to unchanged conditions- Ice in the toilet bowl and all. Turns out the pilot light went out in our heating system and blew a few fuses. We got it lit again, and turned all of the faucets in the "on" position so that we'd know if they'd thawed. I layered in several layers of sweat material and smart wool, curled up under even more layers of down covers, and watched Grey's Anatomy until my eyes closed. At around 6 am, I was waken by the sudden rush of water coming from every faucet. I was a little misty eyed as I watched it flow. If you can imagine the scene in Titanic when they finally come to save everybody, it was pretty much the exact same thing as that. Except less water.