Diary Entry 4: Denny, Mr Fix-it for Mom’s Snowbird Crew, to the Rescue

Mom and Tom have been wintering with friends from Pennsylvania for seven years. This year they did not get to come to Florida because of preparation for their grand daughter’s spring wedding. Yesterday as I worked on the black water valve we called Mr Fix-it to tell him how much we wished he was here!

After I successfully solved the black water problem our Mr. Fix-it emailed me saying,
” way to go!” Mom and her only other snowbird groupies here in Buttonwood Bay this year were still worrying about their hot water heater not working. Just before I shut off my iPhone, I got another email from Mr. Can-Do-Anything. He explained the solution to our neighbor’s hot water problem. Read on and see if you can understand…

Our Mr. Can-Solve-Any-Problem wrote, “When Harry had his motorhome winterized they closed the valve to the water heater so antifreeze would not fill the waterheater when they winterized it. Tell him to make sure the valve is turned back on to let water in the water heater. Explain when they turn the hot water faucet on water is not comming from the water heater at all because it is shut off completely to protect it from winter freezing. They need to understand that the valve shut-off passes the hot water heater completely so that the end result will be cold water when the faucet is turned on, UNTIL the valve is opened allowing water back into the hot water heater to heat.”

I immediately understood and wrote back, “You know what, I know exactly what you are talking about because I had this same issue with our Airstream! I just need to find the open / close valve to the hot water heater and maybe we will be in business!! I will check in it tomorrow. As of 9:00 pm tonight, when Harry stopped by here to visit, they still did not have hot water! I work on it tomorrow after they are moving around and will be in touch! “

Well, being the learn-the-hard-way camper that I am, I understood this solution because of personal experience with my Airstream. I, too, had lived for three days without hot water trying to figure out the valve issue. My motto for camping problems, ” been there, done that stupid thing, now, never again!”

Now, Handyman Challenge #2 has been solved and our neighbors have running water of the hot variety! But the story does not end that easy! Can you guess what else I have to share?

I did not get a chance to visit the neighbors and win their admiration! Guess who got the “wow you are truly something solving that problem!”; not me, and not our amazing Pennsylvania Fix-it man!

This morning as we were getting things ready for the Cable Guy again, I told mom about the solution to the neighbor’s problem and reminded her that it would be fixed in the same way our Airstream hot water system was. She remembered and after enough time passed for Harry and Connie to be up and moving, she went to our mailbox, stopped by their camper, fixed their problem in a flash, amazed them and came home telling me about it!

When Connie called about 45 minutes later to confirm that they did indeed have hot water, I jumped into the conversation. I had to make sure the original problem solvers got some credit for the Handyman Repair # 2! During the call, Mom sort of explained that Denny had written an email to me with the solution. Though i immediately understood how to get their hot water going, sharing ‘the fix’ with Mom gave her the ‘trick’ to solve their problem so she did it. All she had to do was drop by, find the hot water heater from the inside, open the cabinet, see the valve, and ‘flip the switch’. With one little push of the finger Mom opened the valve and let water into the hot water heater giving them a chance for real hot water. 45 minutes later they did have hot water and an hour later Connie was in having a hot shower!!
Mom became their hero and Harry is still shaking his head!!