The Puddle Of Water

 

Song:  Lotus

Group:  Secret Garden

This morning...

I had gotten up and decided to make myself

a couple of BBQ shredded pork sandwiches.

I had spent the previous two days going shopping in Woodland Park...

and I had stocked up on all kinds of delicious meats and other food.

As I was heating up water for coffee...

I looked up and out the great room windows to see that we had a light dusting of snow

in the middle of the night.

But...

as I looked out the windows from the kitchen...

I saw something in the middle of the great room tile floor

that should have never been there.

I saw the reflection of the great room windows in the middle of the floor.

OH NO!

That could only mean one thing...

a large puddle of water (3 x 1 feet / 1 x .30 meters) was standing on the floor.

I couldn't believe it!

My beloved home had a major issue...

as water intrusion by whatever means...

is a very major issue to have in a sturdily built log cabin...

particularly with the custom build of my mountain chalet.

As I bent down to investigate the method of intrusion the water had taken...

I first looked up to see if there was a leak from above...

but after looking up...

besides not having seen anything out of order...

I realized how improbable such a scenario would have been.

First of all...

my home has an alpine slope...

and had a brand new thick metal sheathed roof installed just a handful of years ago...

and it has a life span of greater than mine will be (50 years guarantee)...

plus...

it was way below freezing last night.

No water could have infiltrated from outside...

unless...

it had come in as snow...

and then had melted on the floor...

but the only scenario which would have fit the evidence would have been an open window...

or sliding glass door at the horizontal apex of the great room

(there are two sliding glass doors allowing direct access to the front of the 2nd deck)...

but as I checked the doors, I realized that not only were they closed and locked...

but that there was no water anywhere else but in that particular spot in the middle of the floor.

I then looked for possible leakage from the tracks of the doors...

but...

no...

nothing.

And then a great sinking feeling came over me as another possibility came to mind...

a very worse case scenario...

and a very expensive one at that.

I have...

throughout my home...

underneath all of the flooring on all three floors...

a great series of serpentine laid water hoses which 

are pressure fed by a dedicated water heater which warms the whole house by pumping...

under pressure...

hot water through those tubes...

which then heat the whole house from beneath the floor.

I was then thinking that as it was way below freezing last night...

that perhaps...

a pipe had frozen...

which had then caused a leak...

but that didn't make sense...

as I have the whole second floor heated throughout Winter

(and the other two floors I have set to heat automatically if the temperature drops

below 50 F / 10 C).

Moreover...

the floor was warm underneath my feet.

As I ran other possible scenarios in my head...

I cleaned up the rather large puddle of water...

and then sat there on the floor looking for more water to emerge.

And then...

the most plausible scenario of all had come to mind.

Every morning...

without fail...

as soon as I get up...

Bandi sits at the front door as she eagerly awaits me to walk her

into the forest for her morning bathroom routine.

But...

on this morning...

she was not there...

but was rather lying comfortably on my bed...

without a worry in her little head...

and without any urge to move from her comfortable spot.

I then remembered that I had fallen asleep before her final bathroom run

between 9 and 10 PM the previous night.

I was actually overcome with a flood of relief as I realized what had transpired.

Bandi just looked at me without sorrow or guilt...

as if to say...

"Hey...your fault.  A girl needs to go when she needs to go.

You shouldn't have forgotten to take me to the bathroom last night.

But...I will forgive you so long as it doesn't happen again!"  :)

And...

yes...

it was my fault...

and...

no...

I wasn't the slightest bit angry with her.

I was actually impressed with the very large volume of urine she had in her bladder.

That was a very large puddle...very impressive!  :)

At night...

I usually leave my bedroom door slightly open to allow Bandi to freely get water

from her very large water bowl in the washroom...

 which then had allowed her to leave me her little gift in the great room

(I stopped leaving my windows open at night in Winter since I had gotten ill).

No worries...

I have a large bottle of enzyme solution specifically designed to clean up biological messes.

As a side note...

Bandi's urine was without odor...

which indicates a healthy set of kidneys and urinary tract...

and the fact that she keeps herself very well hydrated.

------------

I am looking forward to today's mail.

I had ordered some more Winter clothing...

and a few other things for the house.

------------

On the food front...

a few days ago...

I tried another Vietnamese restaurant in my search for fantastic Pho.

I was headed down my mountain to eat Pho...

and to shop at Walmart.

The restaurant was this little hole in the wall eatery...

but some of the best food comes from such places.

I started with fresh rolls as an appetizer.

Although they didn't have Bahn Mi...

they did have these rather delicious pork dumplings.

Their Seafood Pho was better than the last place...

and the huge scallop was a treat...

along with the other seafood...

but...

it just lacked deep flavor.

I don't know what spice or sauce was missing from their dish...

but once I taste fantastic Pho...

I will know that it will be the restaurant to which I will return.

And so...

onwards I will travel in search of my favorite Vietnamese restaurant.

On my way to Walmart from Colorado Springs.

On the following day...

I just felt like eating tacos...

so I stopped by my favorite taco truck in Woodland Park.

It was then that a fortuitous event occurred.

I normally order carnitas tacos...

but they had run out.

So...

I had seen this picture of a taco being dipped into some sort of meat juice.

It looked good...

so I ordered a few of them

(Quesa Birria).

I was going to take pictures of them...

but after taking one bite...

I had forgotten all about taking pics...

as I was so engrossed in the bursts of flavor and juiciness of these great tacos.

I couldn't believe that it had taken me 66 years to have even tried these.

That is why exploration of new foods is so important.

I had missed out on having these for so long.

OMG...

I had found a new favorite taco in which to look forwards to eating once again.

A very happy day for me!

Yesterday...

I decided to do more food shopping at Safeway in Woodland Park

(In the Safeway parking lot).

I had seen this at Safeway...

so I just had to try it.

Yes...

the meat was just as delicious as I had imagined.

However...

I won't be buying any more.

While the meat was tender and had a delightful smokey flavor...

the meat was just filled with thick tendons...

tendonal sheaths...

and thick, almost inedible, skin...

all of which had made it far too tedious to eat.

However...

I had eaten enough to be satisfied...

and Bandi absolutely loved it.

--------

Pretty soon...

 I will be going back to the Asian market...

and it will be then when I will try another Vietnamese restaurant...

and in the meantime...

I will try other ethnic restaurants at the same time

(I am in search of the perfect dumplings as well).

Hey...

a man can search for many great tastes at once!  :)