[theWeezL]

ok, I will relate a story that will undoubtedly make you feel better.

A couple years ago my wife and I were living in this little house in Central Oregon. It was this tiny little cottage that had been renovated with all new everything. Anyways, one night I am going to take a shower and I remember that hte faucet on the tub had been dripping for a couple weeks and at about 11:30 at night with my wife sleeping I decide NOW is the time Im gonna fix it.

Well I shut off the water going to the faucet (or so I thought) and start to unscrew the hot and cold fittings. I took the cold off no problem. I am taking the hot off and there is a little dripping, but I figured its just pressure still in the system. WRONG! I get the fitting out to the very last little bit of thread and.........PSSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!

It starts shooting water at full force across the tub. I am frantically trying to put the fitting back on, but with the water coming out, I look like a monkey trying to put the coconut back in the dam, and the water is getting hotter! But I figure if I can just hold on a little longer I can get the fitting in place...and I know Im getting burned now, but I keep trying for a few more seconds..

I CANT do it! water is hitting the back of the shower wall so hard its spraying out and now the floor has at least an inch of water on it. I close the shower curtain and go to the hot water heater. Which in this little cottage was put in a corner of the kitchen behind a screwed in cabinet wall, next to a refrigerator. Well after I got the refridgerator out of the way and the cabinet wall off, I find I can barely turn the valve on the heater because now I notice that skin is hanging off my hand! large white flaps of skin are now rubbing off on the valve.

Well, I finally got the valve turned off. I woke my wife up (she slept through the whole thing, and I considered leaving it that way and denying the whole thing...except that I have no idea how to explain my hand). She mopped up the bathroom and I spent the night with my hand in a bowl of icewater. The next morning I went to the hospital, called a plumber, and got drunk.

The moral of my story...if your not qualified to do the service, pony up and pay a professional.

(I know, it has almost nothing to do with the thread...but it was a good story and it was a good lesson)