The Properties of Water

I've mentioned it before and right now I will take the time to reiterate this fact of Canadian living: Winter is freaking cold! Today it managed to get to -32C (That's about -21F) and with the wind chill, it went down to about -43C.

It's days like this when I think that I sleep through my alarm clock and miss my class on purpose. Subconsciously of course.

I spent the better part of my day in my room in the basement under about eight layers of clothes and blankets dutifully (and studiously too I guess) catching up on my class readings. And my blog readings. And my random internet readings. And an episode of Buffy.
Around noon my poor little brother- who was not gifted with the ability to forsee extreme cold and sleep through his alarm thus skipping school and the need to go outside- came home for lunch looking very much like the Michelin Man. Two grilled cheese sandwiches later, the kid was curled up with a blanket complaining he was too sick to go back to school. I, being the sister who is nine years older, clearly saw through this line of bull shit and began the long process of getting him back outside. [a touques, a balaclava, scarf, jacket, ski pants, 2 pairs of gloves, hood, and finally boots]

And then I went back to my books and my computer. Hypocrite, I know.

Later, at around 8:30 (after dinner, having to leave the warmth of my home to go to an appointment that didn't exist, birthday cake for my Opa, and roughly 37 cups of tea/cocoa/coffee/anything warm), my sister entered into my hovel in the basement to do some laundry.

Yes, my bedroom is ALSO the laundry room.

Unfortunately, the cold water would not run. After checking all the other faucets in the house we were able to conclude, with certainty, that the water pipe had froze solid. This was actually a bit ironic because not two hours earlier two fire trucks parked their big yellow selves on my front street to deal with a burst frozen pipe that had flooded our neighbour's entire basement.

Because my sister had already poured laundry detergent over her clothes and because i didn't really like the idea of waking up to freezing water around my ankles, I grabbed the hair dryer and began what would turn out to be a two hour long process of warming up and thawing the pipes through the drywall.

Of course, when it finally DID thaw out completely the water jetted out of the spout in huge freezing torrents right directly into me and my sister. This was actually kinda funny because my dad sauntered down to help only when he heard our shouts of "SHIT SHIT SHIT!! help SHIT SHIT help help SHIT!!". He wanted me to call him when the water started to show signs of actually moving rather than sticking around and keeping us company while we PREVENTED A DISASTER!!

Although, I now feel much handier after the experience...