Mrs Q is out of town visiting her family. Mr Q got home from work, opened the garage door and, "Where the heck does all this water come from?". Got inside, and house is flooded everywhere, man cave and all. From the freeze, a pipe inside the wall leading externally had busted. All the freeze preparations, piping insulation and faucet dripping, were ultimately useless. Called my trusty handyman, and he will be here in the morning. So, I'm just taking my time, cleaning up slowly. I have all night long. The disaster already happened, so there's no sense of urgency. Luckily, all the toys are completely unaffected. So, thank God that it's not that bad.

But here is the kicker. In the last major freeze which was in Feb last year, we had the same water spillage originating from the same location. Luckily, at that time, I was at home and spotted it right away and was able to shut the water. So, the spillage was relatively minor compared to today. We thought for sure it was a busted pipe, so we opened up the wall the very next day and checked, but it was completely dry inside. Not even a little moisture. So, we were never able to come up with an explanation for that spill. So, the wall was patched up, and all has been well until tonight.

Let's hear your Christmas Eve disaster stories.

And Merry Christmas to all my friends here and your loved ones!

Not so much a disaster as an annoyance.

Microwave died last Friday. Finally got the new one in and installed it (mounted over the range—that was an adventure) last night.

Today, the oven doesn’t work. $122 part should be here sometime this coming week.

At least the microwave is working

Thank god for growing up on a farm and having to fix everything…and for YouTube lol

Q, sorry to hear of your flooding, what a fuckin drag

Hope the clean up is not too bad. We got thru the cold relatively unscathed, no disasters like early in the year in Feb. Just got back from our traditional Chinese restaurant Christmas Eve dinner.

Merry Christmas Q.

I'm glad it wasn't any worse!

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Let's hear your Christmas Eve disaster stories.

Well, I can't think of anything like burst pipes, dead stove, or a burnt Christmas ham. The only thing I have to post is some real Debbie Downer shit and I don't want to kill the thread on the third post.

Merry Christmas, ya'll. If you're alive and either reading or posting on Sigforum, life is really, really good, no matter the disaster.

I worked for Wells Fargo years ago. On a cold, cold Christmas Eve I got a call from a customer saying water was pouring onto the drive up from the overhead. I know this area contained our HVAC units. I drove to the bank and found a unit leaking from a split piece of copper. It was a mess.

I called our regular plumber who basically told me to drop dead. I then called a guy I knew who never worked for the bank. He was there in 15 minutes and fixed the problem in an hour. I told him to bill us 5x his regular rate. He became our new plumber.

Sorry to hear, Q.
We're in CO for Christmas, so we turned our water off at the main, just in case.

Relatively minor inconvenience in terms of The Big Picture, but the power went out noon-ish on Friday and didn't get restored until after I went to bed last night. Something like 36 hours.

Thankfully, the generator was a trooper, ran non-stop the whole time AND we had enough propane to get us through. I WILL be calling Monday to get it refilled.

One Christmas, grandma sent us a large afghan that she had crocheted. It came in a trash bag, so we took the afghan out and filled the bag with the gift wrap when we opened presents. A week later while talking to grandma on the phone, she asked how we liked the Hungarian Christmas music tapes she sent with the afghan. Ya, we unknowingly threw them out.

woke up yesterday to the furnace not working. took awhile but figured it's time for a new thermostat. Left to go pick up my son for Christmas weekend and the garage door goes off track.

got to work last night and we all parked our cars in the jail bays (our jail is closed) and about an hour into shift, we lose power. The jail's generator is not hooked up because it's been closed for years so we had to figure out how to get the bay doors open this morning to get out. lol

Sorry to hear about the water damage Q.

I don’t have a 12/24 disaster (don’t want one either) but on about 12/22/2021 my downstairs toilet had a full on sewage backup. Total shitsuvius that caused $8k in damages. The restoration people did the initial response on 12/24/2021 so I think it is close enough to join the club.

This would be a pretty miserable way to spend Christmas.

Q, I’d like to volunteer my plumbing skills. Do you live near Temple?
Also have skills in drywall and painting.

If so, email me and I’ll be more than happy to help

Damn- that is a serious inconvenience Q.

My minor disaster pales by comparison, so I guess I’m fortunate- as a small child, i knocked the tree over on Christmas Eve and broke many glass ornaments (they all seemed to be glass back then) but I’m still here so it couldn’t have been all bad.

Sorry for your water issues. They just don't build houses in Texas, especially south Texas. to deal with really cold extended periods. You are no doubt not alone with this sort of problem. Hopefully you'll get it sorted out and fixed in short order.

Only minor "disaster" we experienced this year was our young dog got sick on Christmas eve morning. He started throwing up, wouldn't eat or poop and just wanted to sleep. Looked pitiful. Any other normal day we would have whisked him off to the vet, but given the day and circumstances that was not doable. We were expecting our usual family (18 people) and my wife was freaking out thinking he'd get worse and we'd need find a 24hr emergency vet that was open. Well, in typical dog fashion he eventually got up, passed some gas, took a giant sized dump, ate a tiny bit and was back to his usually playful self by the time guests arrived.

That doesn't sound like fun, Q

Obviously, busted pipes don't fix themselves. Perhaps a long shot: But I wonder if there's a backflow preventer in the vicinity of where the water came from?

What a drag.
I have nothing to compare.
At least you got a guy to come over. Keep your spirits up and post an update when you learn the cause.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

.

All hands on deck, SAVE THE SIGS!!!

We had plans to host my in-laws; brother in law and kids coming from out of town. They booked a local hotel, boarded their dogs and were ready to leave and make the six hour drive.

My wife was coughing a lot snd didn’t feel well. Did a home Covid test…Positive. Went to clinic, tested positive again.

Cancelled hotel room, picked up their pets and called the whole thing off.

Planning a Zoom call this afternoon.

Hereafter referred to as The Christmas of 32 below zero and Covid.

But, life goes on and wife is feeling a little better today.

Relevant: this year I didn't, but I usually make gifts.

Nothing this year, but 12/21/20 I was ripping small stock on the table saw (was inlay for coasters) and was actually ahead of the curve in my gifts, and looking at finishing on time for once.

I was using 2 push sticks, but the blade stuck out a little too far and on the way back my right thumb brushed one of the carbide teeth, which grabbed my finger and pulled it in. I took a chunk out of the bone and and forever changed my fingerprint.

I haven't really had much urge to fire up the saw since. I want to replace it with a SawStop but the one I spec'd out came out to about $4k that I just don't have the cash for right now. Besides, I don't know if for what I do a band saw wouldn't be a better fit anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
This would be a pretty miserable way to spend Christmas.

[FLASH_VIDEO]<iframe frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U5yKfmjwIbg" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>[/FLASH_VIDEO]

Actually, that's a pretty shitty way to spend Christmas.