Chuck luck strikes the Pen City Current funhouse

Spring has sprung.
I had my yard treated for dandelions and grubs and the purple stuff that I kinda like because it’s Viking purple. If I had some other Viking decorations in my yard, I'd ask the weed geeks to leave it for the full effect. Everything looks good in purple.
In getting it all ready for the warmer temperatures and rain that’s coming, I had the gutters cleaned out professionally earlier this week. I’m not going on top of my house anymore. It's almost three stories and I don't have that kind of confidence at my age.
I came home Tuesday morning from a meeting to Charlie Roberts’ crew climbing on my roofs and pulling the shingle grits out of the gutters. I was happy to see them. I went inside to get him payment and, when I came downstairs, I could hear water running from the flow check on the first floor.
As I walked toward the middle of the house, the water noise grew louder and louder and I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. That sounds like a lot of water and it sounds really heavy.
I got to the basement door and I feared I would find something horrendous behind it.  I opened the door and looked down to see water pouring in over the foundation of my concrete walls and onto the floor completely flooding my basement.
Apparently, you can’t leave your garden hose attached to your spigot over the winter. Apparently, water freezes in the winter, and apparently the freezing progresses up through the hose and back into your spigot where it can, and does, rupture your bib hose, or hose bib, or whatever the hell it’s called.
I ran back up the stairs and told Charlie to shut off the water. Fortunately for everyone, I have just about everything down there stored in plastic tubs, with the exception of some older construction materials and a few boxes that needed to go the landfill.
Charlie came down, took one look and said, “Hey, you ruptured a pipe”. Thanks Charlie.
He then offered up his squeegee/broom combo tool and I pulled water to the sump pump drain for about 90 minutes. I know my back is in better shape thanks to Jason James, but it was certainly tested on this unplanned disruption to an otherwise great day.
So I called Ron Walker and told him what happened. "Oh, yep. You ruptured your hose bib. Did you leave your garden hose attached?"
Yep.
It wasn’t an emergency because we got the water shut off. Ron came in on Wednesday and fixed the whole thing. My house is like 837 years old so he had to drill a little to get all the pieces out, but he fixed it and now I have a new spigot and no water leaking. He also pointed out a bunch of other things that need a little maintenance, so looks like I’m going to have a plumbing bill this summer.
Here’s where I really get bummed out because I wasn’t really that mad about the water. I have a cement block basement, unfinished, so no big clean up, just some squeegee-ing and towel drying. It’s the home protection plan I have that 'frosted my pipes'. I have three plans to cover my house and everything from the city line to my sump pump is covered, except – yep, the hose bib. I argued with the company that provided the insurance for about 30 minutes saying it wasn’t a bib. It was a pipe. An 18-inch section of pipe. How is just one 18-inch section of about 500 linear feet of pipe the only section that’s not covered and the only section that happened to rupture.
Chuck Luck.
Nope, it appears that I’m not the only plumbing illiterate Viking fan in the world. They don’t cover it because it happens all the time. Well, damnit. The cost was negligible and I pay every month. They SHOULD pay for it, be the better company. They could just add another $1 to everyone’s premium and then be the company everyone turns to on reputation. Then they should pay their contractors quickly so contractors want to work for them and now you’ve got a great company that wins on volume.
But that’s just from a guy who pounds away at a keyboard everyday. Don’t listen to me, I don’t know jack about anything.
Anyway, spring is here and my gutters are cleaned and my pipes are fixed and the lawn looks good and I got to see the nephew in the William Penn spring game in Oskaloosa. It’s been a beautiful start to another wonderful spring in southeast Iowa. 
And along those lines, I sat at Turnwater Friday night, outside, overlooking the picturesque vista that is the Mississippi River and shoreline bluffs. I ate some wings and hung out on the patio watching the NFL draft. Not too bad. Not too bad at all – But that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.