Neither are the Plumbing Gods for that matter.
Tried to tidy up today's post/draft that was started on my iPad but the silly big computer would NOT connect last night. Five feet away the iPad is humming away sending data hither and yon into the web-o-sphere. The big Mac sits like a lump, not even giving me the dreaded "cannot connect to server" message. Just doing ….nothing. So Tuesday's post will be arriving on Wednesday for most.
And can an iPad keyboard get crumbs in it? Maybe it was that face-plant off the desk onto the wood floor, but the keys on my iPad seem to be developing a mind of their own. Or auto correct, which I have always thought of as incredibly intuitive, has decided it is smarter than me all the time. I type periods and get question marks. Or the sentence "I try going to the castle" becomes "It yoe going tot her aste". Huh? Crumbs in the keypad for sure.
Anyway, blogging issues. The pain and suffering I go through to entertain the (very tiny) masses.
So.
We made it to the Ice Castle in Breckenridge, but just barely.
Gorgeous enormous Ice Castle
Belle and a friend a zillion years ago
when they realized that South Park was a real place.
It was both fabulous and maybe a tiny bit disappointing.
The castle was smaller than we expected. But inside the icicles were amazing and there were paths and tunnels and little caves. Looking up was the best.
But we missed the boat. I think to truly enjoy the wonderful-ness of the Ice Castle we needed to go at night, when the sprinklers that keep it "growing" wouldn't be quite so obvious and the LED lights embedded inside the ice would glow. We agreed it would make a fabulous romantic date. In the day light it was not quite as magic.
Hopefully there will be next year. And we will go at night. This year there were three Ice Castles in the U.S. and Colorado has been one of the lucky states to have one for the last few years.
If you want to read a bit about how the Ice Castles are formed, click here.
And if you want to know how they came about in the first place, click here. It's a fun story and one of those "Why didn't I think of this?" moments.
O yes! I know why I didn't think of it.
I was living in Texas. My only hope of building anything with ice would require a VERY large freezer.
And then back to the Plumbing Gods.
We were gone all day on Friday, something I did not give one second thought to.
Until Sunday when I walked through the laundry area and heard the water heating revving up. I looked at the girls and neither one had been in the shower. And they certainly had not been washing dishes. So it pinged the back of my brain, but not much. A second pass through that area alerted me to the sound of splashing water. THAT got my attention.
The water heater, which is centrally located in a closet in the exact middle of the house (apparently situated so as to do the MOST damage possible in case of a leak), was spewing scalding hot water. Into the closet. And onto the floor.
Just like the stairs, the hot water heater is not installed according to any building code.
Which means when it overheats, the pressure valve releases and water goes everywhere, not neatly down a pipe and away from the house.
So while the Plumbing Gods were working against me, there obviously was a higher power at work, too.
If the heater had exploded while we were in Breckenridge, we would have come home to our own indoor water park.
And we could have had our very own little Ice Castle.
Whew. Dodged a bullet there.
Because really, what are the odds that we would be in the house the exact moment that sucker decided to blow?
We were Lucky with a capital L.
For the cabin tour, click here. (You can see what didn't get destroyed.)
For more musings on castles in Colorado, click here and here and here.
Me, doing my best Ice Princess impersonation.
Also trying very hard not to slip on the ice…
Up, my favorite direction, was the best.
We were a bit concerned about being impaled by falling icicles.
Thankfully we survived.
But we missed the boat. I think to truly enjoy the wonderful-ness of the Ice Castle we needed to go at night, when the sprinklers that keep it "growing" wouldn't be quite so obvious and the LED lights embedded inside the ice would glow. We agreed it would make a fabulous romantic date. In the day light it was not quite as magic.
If you are a teenager, this is just one big Instagram opportunity.
But isn't that cavern lovely?
Bunny tucked inside a little cove.
You can see along the sides where things are starting to melt.
Still, it was magical.
If you want to read a bit about how the Ice Castles are formed, click here.
And if you want to know how they came about in the first place, click here. It's a fun story and one of those "Why didn't I think of this?" moments.
O yes! I know why I didn't think of it.
I was living in Texas. My only hope of building anything with ice would require a VERY large freezer.
And then back to the Plumbing Gods.
We were gone all day on Friday, something I did not give one second thought to.
Until Sunday when I walked through the laundry area and heard the water heating revving up. I looked at the girls and neither one had been in the shower. And they certainly had not been washing dishes. So it pinged the back of my brain, but not much. A second pass through that area alerted me to the sound of splashing water. THAT got my attention.
The water heater, which is centrally located in a closet in the exact middle of the house (apparently situated so as to do the MOST damage possible in case of a leak), was spewing scalding hot water. Into the closet. And onto the floor.
Hot water heater.
In a closet.
Under the stairs.
Backed up to the kitchen on one wall,
the living room on the other.
And surrounded by water-hating laminate floors.
Great plan.
Which means when it overheats, the pressure valve releases and water goes everywhere, not neatly down a pipe and away from the house.
So while the Plumbing Gods were working against me, there obviously was a higher power at work, too.
If the heater had exploded while we were in Breckenridge, we would have come home to our own indoor water park.
And we could have had our very own little Ice Castle.
Whew. Dodged a bullet there.
Because really, what are the odds that we would be in the house the exact moment that sucker decided to blow?
We were Lucky with a capital L.
For the cabin tour, click here. (You can see what didn't get destroyed.)
For more musings on castles in Colorado, click here and here and here.
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