Sometimes the most unexpected mornings end up becoming the stories we’ll laugh about later — and today was definitely one of those mornings.
I woke up to my wife telling me we had no hot water. Zero. Nada. I had a choice to make:
A freezing cold shower… or driving to my mother-in-law’s house to warm up in hers.
Now look — people everywhere brag about their “cold plunge journeys.” If they can do that on purpose, I figured I could survive a cold shower out of necessity. Plus, it was a crisp 30° outside, so this wasn’t your trendy cold plunge moment. This was a “just get through it” type of morning.
So I did it. Fast. Brutally cold. Character-building.
And honestly? I handled it better than expected.
After my survival shower, I tried restarting the water heater. No luck. A little while later my son woke up, and I convinced him to take the cold shower plunge too. Misery loves company, right?
Once that adventure was over, we packed up for brunch with the family — cooler loaded with chocolate milk, orange juice, and the holy grail: Starbucks Brown Sugar Shaken Espresso. My wife finished the gravy for the biscuits and gravy, I topped off my coffee, and yes… I slipped The Bearded Guy Hot Sauce into my pocket like it was contraband sneaking into a festival.
We headed to the barn where the family meets, arriving before almost everyone (except my mother-in-law, who is always early). My wife’s aunt showed up to open the place and I started gathering tables and chairs. Then my brain reminded me — I forgot to lock the automatic doors at work for the holiday.
So out comes the tablet. Let’s just say managing the system on the tablet is about as smooth as wrestling a raccoon, but I got it handled.
Once everything was set up, we prayed, filled our plates, and it was game on.
That’s when the hot sauce magic happened.
I put a little Bearded Guy hot sauce on my food. My youngest, Sarah, came over to get some. Then somehow it got passed around like it was the newest family tradition. My brother-in-law Kent poured it like it was Frank’s Red Hot… which was his first mistake. The Bearded Guy is at least five spice levels past that. I just giggled and whispered, “wait for it…”
He felt the burn.
He powered through.
Then he went back for seconds with more hot sauce.
Respect.
I got to chat with my wife’s uncle about his camper, and it made me excited to get my own little camper back out once things warm up. We all talked, laughed, and didn’t leave until around 12:30. At that point I thought — there is no way this turkey is going to get done in time.
But we got home, prepped everything, fired up the grill, pulled the turkey out of the brine, and introduced it to the turkey cannon. (Whoever invented that thing deserves an award. It’s basically a beer-can-chicken contraption for turkeys, and it is glorious.) I filled it with chicken broth and seasoning, and somehow that turkey was done in three hours flat.
We had all the fixins.
We had a great meal.
And we had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving day for the most part.
Sure — the hot water heater died. Honestly, I’m convinced they come with some kind of secret timer that makes them fail at the most inconvenient moment possible. Tomorrow I’ll deal with the repairs, along with every other person calling a plumber the day after Thanksgiving — apparently the busiest day of the year for them.
But even with the chaos, cold water, and broken appliances, I’m thankful. I’m blessed. And nothing today rattled me. Because honestly? Cold showers fade, hot water heaters get fixed, but days filled with family, laughter, and warm hearts… that’s what sticks.
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