More Hurricane Vermont

Anyway, as I mentioned, we know the drill when it comes to power outages, and yet we still lost water. It's not the end of the world, you just have to go downstairs and prime the tank, which involves water and high voltage electricity, but no big deal, right?

Donning my wife's rubber gloves, I set about attempting to prime the darn thing, furiously trying to remember what MG had told me. As I mentioned, there is a trick to this beast, and requires some finesse, which is not always my forte since I tend to be the bull in a china shop, et al.

Anyway, being the big klutz that I am, I couldn't get the pressure up. The pressure in the tank needs to be at a minimum psi before the tank kicks in and runs on its own, and until you get there, the pressure fizzles out the minute you turn on the tap. I managed to get it to about 20 psi, which was too low, and then it wouldn't go any further. I needed at least 30-40 psi, but the thing was stuck at 20. Bummer.

I was ready to just live on rain water, but figured this had to be dealt with. It was Friday night, so it would have been hard to get a plumber out here until Monday, so I did what I normally do in these situations.

I called my Mentor.

And he was out of town. Waah! Since he was gone, I proceeded to call everyone I knew who might have a clue as to what to do, though I knew in the back of mind there were two people who could have helped me, no doubt. These would be the former owners of this house, MG and SG. The problem is, it's awkward talking to people about their former house that they wish they'd never sold and really want back.

So I called my karate teacher, real-man extraordinaire, who rubs dirt in his bullet wounds and eats deer meat raw, whose cousin also happens to be an experienced plumber. He called him, and his cousin called me, which was really cool.

By that time, however, I had broken down and called SG. I hated to do it, on a Friday night, no less, but he was really cool, and said it was never a problem. He gave me a few tips, and suddenly it all came back to me. The key to using this toggle switch is to gently push it up until it just catches, then the pressure will slowly leech into the tank, until it catches and the system is primed. What a pain, not to mention a less than ideal design. Whose idea was this, anyway?

Now we're back in business, we have water, and we now have a plumber. Life is good, until the next hurricane, that is.

Thanks for reading.