Occasionally things just work out. I was sitting down to watch a little hockey at about 8PM tonight when my wife wandered down and asked me if maybe the pilot light had gone off on the hot water heater. It has been pretty windy so I figured it was a possibility. I ambled down to look at the hot water heater and started wading through the water that was all over the basement floor. Yes, the pilot had gone out, but, really it was the cracked water heater that was the issue.

 After an hour of dorking about with the old hot water heater I determined that it was well and truly shot and would need to be replaced. My 5 minute job was going to be much more than that all of a sudden.

Oddly, I had a spare hot water heater in the garage (don't ask).  So, I get busy draining the remainder of the old hot water heater, powering the new one down into the basement (all alone) and start looking at what I need to hook it up. Of course, I don't have the right connectors and so I sprint for Home depot. I get there 10 minutes before it closes, I get the parts I need and I race for home.

I move things around, install the new hot water heater in the right spot and I hook things up. Nothing leaks, the gas pilot light works the first time and I bleed the system. I have hot water about 4 hours after I determined that there was a leak and it only cost me $11.

This never happens to me. It always cost $500 and there are always leaks and things to tighten and do over. Except tonight, and frankly, I needed that. Best of all? My wife quite nicely recorded the hockey game and so I can watch a little hockey just before I hit the rack. Nice! A really big bummer just turns into a few hours of work and Hockey delayed is not hockey denied.