Garage water-pipes drained

We drained the water-pipes in our garage last night (yesterday, Friday, January 16, 2009).
So they wouldn’t freeze.
The garage temperature had dropped below 40°.
Didn’t have to drain them last year, because it never got that cold.
Two water circuits serve the garage; hot and cold each.
One serves the garage sink, and the other serves the tiny garage bathroom (a sink and a toilet), the bathroom that was added in case Linda’s aunt had a bathroom emergency after the long trip up here from Campbell (“CAMP-bell;” not the soup).
As such it was called the “Ethelyn’s bathroom,” Ethelyn being her aunt’s name.
Ethelyn is now gone, so the bathroom now serves us — and the Bluster-Boy in case he needs it after consuming 25 gallons of ‘Dew from the motorized ‘Dew dispenser in the rear Tour-pak on his GeezerGlide.
We saw him hooking it up at Tunnel Inn in Gallitzin last July.
Couldn’t spare 30 seconds to do something sensible, like put on a motorcycle helmet. But could spend two minutes hooking his iPod to his GeezerGlide’s faring speakers, and two minutes more hooking up his ‘Dew dispenser hose to his bellowing mouth.
We hardly use that garage bathroom at all; maybe once every four months. Sometimes the urge to widdle is fairly strong, plus I wanna flush that there toilet occasionally.
So I use that bathroom instead of one in the house. Linda too.
Plus it’s always there for the Bluster-Boy before parking his GeezerGlide in my garage with great flourish. (I hafta move a car out into possible rain so he can do that — oh, the humanity.)
I’d rather drain the pipes than have them freeze.
Plus there’s always the possibility of a cold-snap while we’re away.
Last February we made a trip to the great land of the shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower; there it was in the 60s.
But we returned to our CR-V with about a two-foot snow-drift over the rear window; apparently a blizzard had blown through Rochester.
But it never got cold enough to drain the garage pipes — with the garage-door closed it will maintain a temperature near 40°.
But a continuous cold-snap has recently occurred, and it likely will continue. Below zero nighttime temps will lower the garage temperature.
So we decided to drain ‘em; plus another trip to the great land of the shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower is coming up next month.
We don’t like draining the pipes; it means no water in the garage.
But I’d rather not have frozen-water damage.
Shortly after my stroke, we had the Bluster-Boy do it — thought I might not be able at that time.
It requires hand-dexterity, and working off a step-ladder; all of which seemed compromised at that time.
But the following year I was able to do it myself.
And at that time the Bluster-Boy wasn’t the macho blowhard he is now.

“We” is myself and my wife of 41+ years, “Linda.”

Our garage is attached.

“Ethelyn” is my wife’s aunt; her mother’s older sister. She lived in Campbell toward the end. She died a few years ago at age 98. (“Campbell” is the small rural town near where my wife grew up; also went to school. It’s about 60 miles from our house.)

The “Bluster-Boy” is my all-knowing, blowhard brother-from-Boston, the macho ad-hominem king, who noisily badmouths everything I do or say. —He’s heavily into the macho Harley schtick. (Last July he joined me at Tunnel Inn, a bed-and-breakfast I stay at when visiting Horseshoe Curve. [Horseshoe Curve, west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, is by far the BEST railfan spot I have ever been to. Horseshoe Curve is a national historic site. It was a trick used by the Pennsylvania Railroad to get over the Allegheny mountains without steep grades. Horseshoe Curve was opened in 1854, and is still in use. (I am a railfan, and have been since I was a child.)] My brother rode there on his Harley-Davidson ElectraGlide.)

“‘Dew” is Mountain-Dew soda; which my brother thinks is fantastic, and guzzles in great quantity.

“GeezerGlide” is what I call all Harley Davidson ElectraGlide cruiser-bikes. My loudmouthed macho brother-from-Boston has a very laid back Harley Davidson cruiser-bike, and, like many Harley Davidson riders, is over 50 (51). So I call it his GeezerGlide.

“Motorized ‘Dew dispenser in the rear Tour-pak” is of course made up.

RE: “Urge to widdle.....” —I am loudly accused of having a “prostrate” (prostate) problem by my badmouthing brother.

“Oh, the humanity” is something my brother always says, unaware of its connection to the Hindenburg disaster.

“Shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower” is where my wife’s soon to be 93-year-old mother lives, in a retirement community in “the shadow of the mighty De Land water-tower” in De Land, Florida.

The “CR-V” is our 2003 Honda CR-V SUV.

I had a stroke October 26, 1993.