So apparently last night it got pretty cold. We know we got a fine dusting of snow but hardly enough to pad a crutch and heck, we’re used to that by now. No big deal. But the fact of the matter is, Spring is trying to spring forth here. We’ll have one day where we’re lucky to hit 50 degrees, and then two days later it’ll be in the 70’s. We knew at t-ball practice last night that it was pretty brisk out. The wind was snapping the chill in the air, making it feel so much colder. But honestly? Didn’t think much of it.

Now, around here it’s pretty standard to turn on your sprinkler system in April. Sure, you’ll still have cold nights, but nothing to really worry about. However, apparently up in our neck of the woods, it get’s a little colder than the rest of town and this has been no average winter. Should we have caught the weather on the news last night before drifting off to dreamland? Perhaps. But even so, the news only reported the low of 28, and that’s at the airport. We’re usually close to 10 degrees cooler up here. Not that we would have considered that. Have I mentioned how sleepy I’ve been lately? I can barely manage to stay awake through the awesomeness that is “Eyes” much less stay coherent for the 11 o’clock news.

The fact of the matter is, our sprinkler system was on last night. As was most people’s sprinkler systems in our neighborhood. And it got cold. DAMN cold. According to a very helpful guy who works for the company that built our house, it was about 20 degrees when he came into work this morning. NO ONE expected it to be that cold out. So this wasn’t entirely our fault. I blame God.

So about 40 minutes ago, I heard this water rushing noise. For a moment, I thought the sprinklers must have turned on. But that didn’t seem right either. The noise was too loud for just sprinklers. I peeked out the front windows and saw nothing, no sprinklers going. Very strange. So I went downstairs to invesitigate. The sound down there was much louder, rather alarming. I knew what it was. I was hoping I was wrong, but I knew.

I opened the front door and around the east side of our house, I was greeted by a geyser that would put Old Faithful to shame. It was spouting out of the pipe near the water turn off valve. And there was a LOT of water. Thankfully, I noticed the natural drainage Centex had worked into our landscaping was working magnificantly and the water was flowing away from the house and out to the street. Sort of starting to resemble a small river at this point. Naturally, I was alarmed.

I ran inside and called up K at work. He had me look up the emergency number for Centex and he gave them a call. The guy came right out. By then, I saw the house across the street (which is unoccupied, the people who purchased it live in California and only come up maybe once a month) was having the exact same problem. Water everywhere! It was anarchy. The guy was extremely helpful and this was apparently about the 20th call he’d answered this morning, same exact problem. Good to know I wasn’t the only one here.

The pipe had froze and burst last night. He even gave me the busted valve. Incredible. The only thing he could do at the moment was turn off the water (never fear, we still have water inside the house) and take down our name and number. He was expecting the rest of the neighborhood to go any minute. Best I can guess, our water pipes face east and got some early morning sun. This warmed the pipes a little, making them expand just enough to cause the valve to break. Fantastic, huh? The rest of the houses will have problems as the sun makes their way to their water pipes as well.

So they’ll send someone out to fix our valve. Hopefully sooner rather than later because you *know* next week it’ll be 70 degrees out. (FYI: in these pictures the river has tamed to a mere trickle. That’s that fabulous drainage at work!)