Sans Heat

Wow! My 11 day break from work was awesome. Christmas Eve, Christmas, Weekend, 4 days of vacation and New Year's Day followed by another weekend. I don't think I've ever had that many days off in a row. Of course I had great intentions of what to get done and in the end very little of that list was completed. That being said, I really enjoyed my break... with one exception. When I got up on Monday, Dec 28th and attempted to shower I had a very bad realization: NO HOT WATER!!!
My thoughts: No problem. Surely the pilot light was just blown out. If I relight it, I'm good to go.
Let me back up a moment. About 6 months ago I had to have my hot water heater serviced because it was leaking. They fixed it, but also told me that it was on it's last leg. I noted that and moved on.
So Monday I attempted to light the pilot, but to no avail. The problem was obviously something bigger. My heater is outside, encased in a hot water heater "shed". The shed it a tin building that looks to have been made about 50 years ago. Looks awful and dilapidated. I took the front cover off revealing the hot water heater and the install date of 1988!!!! Holy crap! That thing has been humming for 22 years!
I called it in and they said they could be there in the morning. Then I thought about it and said to myself, if I pay all this money to fix it now and then replace it in 6 months that will totally suck. So I decided to cancel the service call and head to Lowe's to buy a new hot water heater.
I went in, picked one out and attempted to buy it. Why did I only attempt? Well it's simple; to purchase a gas hot water heater you must first pass an inspection certifying that your house is up to current codes. So the next step was to schedule the inspection. Lowe's made a call to get me on the list and said that the company would call me within 48 hours to set up the inspection. Really? 48 hours. That is ridiculous. As it turns out, I'd have been happy with 48 hours without hot water, but it didn't stop there. They took the full 48 hours to call back. When they called me (on Wednesday), they informed me that it would be Monday before their next available appointment! Wow! Seriously?!!!! I accepted the appointment and met them Monday morning for what turned out to be a 5 minutes inspection. Luckily I'm up to code. I was informed that he was taking the paperwork to Lowe's and once they processed it, Lowe's would call me so that I could finally purchase the hot water heater. Today is Wednesday. Still no call. The paperwork HAS to be in their system by now. I'm going by this afternoon to buy it. If there is any problem with it, I'll probably go elsewhere. For now, I'm still Sans Hot Water.

As a side note, one may wonder how I would bathe during this time. Well, when the boys are at my house, it's a task to warm water on the stove and transport it to the bath tub. That takes a lot of warming!!! However, when I haven't have the boys I have spent much time at Gold's Gym. Whether I work out or not, I go every day to get that shower. Ha! It has made me work out a lot though, so that is a nice little bonus to this annoyance.