It\’s running!

No, I don\’t mean a foot race; I mean my water.

We had a hard freeze last night. Such weather is unusual for us; and it often means a lot of burst pipes all over the city. My pipes froze during the 2018 cold snap. Naturally I wasn\’t eager for a repeat performance; so I did what I could to prevent it.

I had saved several of those insulated bubble-wrap envelopes that Whole Foods uses to ship cold/frozen items. They\’re handy when I go grocery shopping by bicycle, and want to get frozen stuff! But if those envelopes can keep cold stuff cold, why can\’t the material keep cold out?

Day before yesterday I cut pieces out of one of those envelopes; and I duct-taped the pieces around what exposed outdoor pipes I could reach. I had no idea whether that would provide adequate insulation, but I figured it was worth trying. It was certainly better than nothing.

When a freeze is expected, the usual advice is to run a spaghetti-thin trickle of water overnight. Of course I did that, too. I wanted to have a water supply if possible. And today it\’s running!

I think I\’ll leave that insulation on the pipes. Maybe, when hot weather returns, it will mean that my cold water faucet will produce cold water; not water that\’s lukewarm. And who knows; we could still get more freezing weather. It\’s only mid-February; and a cold snap in March isn\’t impossible.

I suppose that this day will go down in local history as the Mardi Gras Deep Freeze. The hard freeze warning remains in effect until noon, and tonight it will be barely above freezing. Don\’t put away the heavy jackets just yet!