Bad shit happens sometimes - WHOOOO HOOOOT!

Today, as I was on a webinar, my cat started going a little nutso, and I heard my wife from her office say —- “OH MY, I think that’s the water….”

Here in Austin, Texas, we are just not “built” for cold weather.

If we “hard freeze” (that is about 25 degrees Fahrenheit here) for twenty-four hours, we will have issues.

Well, today, it was my turn.

We have some copper water piping running along the exterior of our home that feeds the garden hoses and water misters for our back deck. This is common around here. Most of our time is spent guarding against 105-degree heat, not 14-degree (feels like 3 degrees) cold.

The pipe was wrapped with protective tape and that rubber tubing that “helps” keep the pipes from freezing and bursting. I had also set the water to slow drip, just giving a little more room should all of that fail. Well, it failed anyway.

So, up, I jumped from my webinar, grabbed a wrench and a crowbar from the garage, and headed out into the cold. I pried the lid that covered the water meter and shut off the water.

Then, to the back deck, where the pipe was still dripping, the water all around was already freezing to the ground.

Luckily, I was prepared and had what I needed to remove the damaged pipe and reconnect a spigot. So, after messing with it for about 45 minutes, all was back in place.

I took my ass back inside, a little wet, very cold, and in general pissed off; I plopped back at my desk and was about to restart the rest of my day.

Then it hit me.

It was the iceberg effect.

All I saw was the pain in the ass of the water leak.

The iceberg under the water line was HUGE! I just went through some “bad shit.”

As a new author, I have just had an epiphany.

Bad shit is a GIFT!

As writers, we take a character, make you like them, and give a shit about them, then we do bad shit to them to see what happens.

I now have a fresh new experience that I can use in my stories. I do not have to wrack my brain to imagine bad shit, I can pull from every single bad thing big or small and use it. By the time I am done, it will be something like:

As the temperatures dropped, the pressure built and built until the old copper simply could not contain it. The pipe burst and, within seconds, water began to spray across the floors of the upstairs.

Slade thought he heard something, but was not sure. Was that the washing machine he thought? Is Lizzy washing clothes in the middle of the day on a Wednesday?

Just as he was about to holler up to Lizzy to see if she was washing, he saw it. The water had begun to seep through the upstairs floor and run along the wall beneath. It seemed like slow motion.

This is the very same faux wall that just the day before had been put in place to hide the safe and that facade was falling away right in front of his eyes.

Shit - now what, he thought. Slade’s mind was racing.

He knew his tip was good and that the federal marshalls were on the way with a warrant. Everything they were looking for was in that safe. A safe that was now fully exposed…

Or something like that.

Irritations in our day-to-day happen.

They are a loss of some sort.

Here is one way that I, as a writer, can use them to win.

because……..

You’ve got to lose to win…

Stay warm y’all!!!