Warm home versus hot water

A store in Dahu Township, Taiwan

Faye eating hotdog on a stick in Taiwan

Last Friday, two days before Christmas, my heater quit working. I don't know what happened, but I noticed the house was getting cold and the heater didn't turn on. I went back to check to see if it was on and it was. When I turned the heat off then on I could hear the click, but the heater didn't make that "poof" sound and start churning warm air. I quickly went out and bought a space heater, so I was able to make it through the cold weekend. When I say cold, though, it isn't the same kind of cold and other parts of the country. Cold here means it dips into the 40s at night. The days warm up to 60 or 70. Today, Monday, I realized I can just call the gas company and ask them to light the pilot light again. I hope that is the problem. A few months ago my hot water heater went out. It was old and I have been expecting it to stop working for a few years. I tried to ignore it for a couple of days, like I have with the house heater this weekend, but I found out that was impossible. I found the problem with the hot water heater in the morning, and figured it was warm outside so I could take a shower without hot water. I was wrong!! Hot water is very important, more important than a warm house. I took a cold shower once, and the found a plumber that would replace the hot water heater, at the best price I could find, within 8 hours and the next morning the water was warm again. With a cold house I can buy a space heater, I can put on a jacket in the house, I can take a hot shower and stay warm all day. If I have to make a choice, hot water is something I can not put off, or do without while house heater I can delay. It kind of reminded me when I lived in Korea. When I first got there we lived in a apartment We lived in a 5 story walk up, on the top floor. We found out in the morning the water didn't have enough pressure to go to the top floor, so my smart wife had the owner put a vessel on the roof to supply water when there wasn't enough pressure, it is not uncommon in Korea. Well, in the winter the water on the roof froze, or the pipe coming down from it did. In the winter we didn't have water until noon, but I had to go to work at 6am. So, the night before we would put water in two large buckets and in the morning I would heat one up and then combine the two to make the hot water warm, and I would have to have a sponge bath in the bathroom, which happened to be on the porch outside! Yes, it was cold out there, more like freezing. But, I could endure the cold, and had to have a shower every morning. I didn't have a bad attitude about it. I could have done like the Koreans do and bathe twice a week in a community bath house. That was something I really didn't want to do, either of those options. I spent 6 months warming water every morning over a gas stove, then taking a sponge bath in the cold outside porch. We moved before the next winter and the next place had running warm water every morning! Sometimes it is the little things in life we take for granted, until we don't have them. Life is good now, I have warm water!!