Wednesday, March 9, 2011

The Power of Blogger

Okay, so my water heater went out on Friday. Again. Seriously. AGAIN.

I didn't shower on Friday, and I'm pretty cranky when I don't get to stand in hot water for hours on a Saturday.

And, dude, water heaters are not cheap. So I wasn't real happy about replacing ours. AGAIN.

I keep saying again. See, we'd just replaced our water heater a year or two ago. I spent a couple of hours on Friday morning (before work, sans shower) trying to find the invoice or duplicate check.

Of course I couldn't. Small pieces of paper and I are not friends. They hate me. I hate them.

Anyway, I knew it'd only been a couple of years, and I knew it had been cold (because when you're standing in your garage shivering, praying hoping pleading the pilot light will stay on, you remember).

But I couldn't find the small pieces of paper.

So what did I do?

I remembered I'd blogged about it. And I went to blogger, and I looked up the post. And I can tell you that I replaced my water heater on March 27, 2009.

And again on March 5, 2011.

Who needs money anyway? Or hot water for that matter? As long as you have blogger, you're good.

Have you ever used blogger for something, uh, unconventional?

58 comments:

lotusgirl said...

How cool is it that you could find it on blogger? I'm so sorry about your hot water heater though. What a drag!

Denise Covey said...

No I haven't Elana, but I'll keep your story in mind. I'm with you with the bits of paper though. Ugh!

Denise<3

Natalie Aguirre said...

No can't say that I have either. But glad you found it. What a drag to replace the water heater so much. They are one of those things, like furnaces, that are supposed to last. Hope you work it out with the installer.

Anita Saxena said...

Water heaters are supposed to last longer than that. I thought they came with warranties.

Maria Zannini said...

Bummer. Sorry about your water heater.

I used Blogger the same way when I had to tell my doctor how long it'd been since I wrenched my knee. Very handy.

Jessica Nelson said...

I haven't. Yet.

So sorry about the water heater. That stinks!

Jonathon Arntson said...

Three of the four people in my household got up and took a shower this morning. Little did each of us know we were taking one at the same time. And no matter the water heater, old farm homes do not give hot water liberally, especially to three different showers. And so we all froze in our respective showers thinking the water heater was dying until we convened in the kitchen with our wet hair.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'd demand a refund! Dying on a Friday, just before the weekend, is not cool.

Unknown said...

How uncool. Water Heaters and little pieces of papers are the devil (when they aren't working and you can't find them of course).

I'm with Alex! Gimme my refund!!

At least you know blogger had your back.

Stina said...

Don't tell me that! We bought a new water heater last year when ours died. It still heated water. The water that managed to stay inside. The stuff on the basement floor wasn't very warm.

The plumber only had the extra large, super expensive model on the truck (of course). Naturally I didn't feel TOO bad for him when he had to get it into my basement on his own. ;)

B.E. Sanderson said...

Sorry about your water heater, Elana. That totally stinks. And I'm with you on the tiny pieces of paper. Tax time has me wandering all over the house looking for lost receipts. Ugh.

Blogger's great for helping me remember when something important happened. My memory stinks, but if I blogged about it, I can at least know I'm not out of my mind. ;o)

Wendy Paine Miller said...

Not Blogger off the top of my head, but I did get the name of a great lotion from Kristen Lamb on Twitter.
~ Wendy

Laura Pauling said...

that's awesome! The question is did it help you get a new water heater without paying? :)

Anonymous said...

I don't use blogger, but I have gone back and searched my own blog for something like this. Sorry about your hot water heater. We had issues like this for awhile because we have a lot of minerals in our water and they build up. My husband actually has to flush our hot water heater out every once in a while or we'd still be replacing the thing each year. By the way, the flushing out process is not fun--hoses from our bathroom out the door, and yuck to the stuff that comes out!

Anonymous said...

Oh dear! No hot water--blurgh.

Glad you had Blogger to help you out. ;)

Unknown said...

Yep. You're golden. But blogger over hot water? I'm not sure I can get behind that one. lol

Kelly Bryson said...

Hey Elana- Bummer. We thought ours was going out last summer until we figured out that lowering the water temp to save money doesn't work right when it's 98 degrees outside (Our official marketing slogan- Columbia, SC- famously hot! Doesn't that make you want to visit?) Anyway, the water was too warm to trigger the heater. Have a great day! Maybe burn some incense for your oven and fridge? Things happen in threes...lol

Kelly Polark said...

Hurray for blogger! And booooo for broken water heaters.
I email myself important things sometimes so I have a record. Though I may not have done that one. Good thinking!
I'm fixing my car and my dishwasher this week (I mean I'm having someone else fix them)Booooo!

Anonymous said...

Is there still some kind of warranty on that water heater? The one in my house needs replacing, but it's 18 years old. I'd get your money back. Or have them replace it at little to no cost. I definitely call foul!

Angela said...

That sucks! I'm so sorry you're stuck with forking out butt loads of money and taking cold showers.

And like you, I'm not good with keeping receipts either. It drives my husband c-r-a-z-y.

Hannah said...

I have. It definitely helps me keep track of the books I've read, what movies I've seen, what restaurants I've eaten at... Anything really.

Summer Frey said...

Just a few weeks ago, I used blogger to figure out what I did on spring break last year. Hubby and I couldn't remember. :)

Sorry about the heater, though.

storyqueen said...

Seriously, the main purpose of my blog (for me) is to keep kind of a record of what I am thinking in terms of writing... Just.For.Me. But other stuff creeps in and well, I can totally see blogger being a great help about stuff like that!

Yay!

Shelley

Matthew MacNish said...

Didn't Shannon just replace hers too?

I have never used Blogger for anything quite that awesome, but meeting other writers who have made me a better writer is pretty cool.

You should consider a tankless water heater. They're expensive, but supposedly pay for themselves in the first year in energy savings.

http://www.tanklesswaterheaterguide.com/

Michelle McLean said...

OOoo, that sucks! We just had to replace the water heater in our rental house, and yeah, pricey! I'm also noticing a pattern here. Maybe you should set up a post for sometime in March 2013 (complete with a copy of your receipt for this heater) :D That way you'll have all the info you need when...er, if it happens again :D

Miriam Forster said...

Ouch. Hot water is essitnal for writers! How will you get shower-ideas without a hot shower?

The most unconventional thing I use Blogger for is cheater HTML. If I have to do something in HTML on another site (like Myspace) and I'm not sure how to pull it off, I do it in a blog draft and then copy the code.

Works every time!

Unknown said...

Oh no. Remembering when you bought your water heater is an excellent use of blogger. We were just talking about water heaters in my spin class the other day. I think we were talking about the task of changing pipes in older houses.

Henya said...

No, I never have. But it's good to learn from YOUR experience. (Hmmmm...maybe I should start blogging more about stuff happening in my life....)

Henya said...

No, I never have. But it's good to learn from YOUR experience. (Hmmmm...maybe I should start blogging more about stuff happening in my life....)

Laura S. said...

Hmmm, I can't remember if I've used blogger like this before. But I've had to refer to my journals because I needed to know a date when something happened. Blogging, journaling, same things really!

Chantele Sedgwick said...

That's awesome you found it on blogger! :) I can't think of anything off the top of my head that I've used my blog to look up. But I know I've done it before!
I'm sorry about the broken water heater! NOT FUN!

Shari said...

That's AWESOME. Not the part where you had to replace your hot water heater, but the part where blogging helped you. No, I've never used blogger for anything unconventional. Since, although I'm random, I'm still conventional.

Melissa said...

How cool that you found that on Blogger! That's SO awesome. I hope you can use that with the company or something??!

I've yet to use blogger for something unconventional but it has helped me meet awesome people and improve my craft. So... it's serving me well on the conventional front!

Amanda Gaume said...

Wow, sorry to hear about your water heater... but so glad that blogger helped!

Tere Kirkland said...

Um, only for stalking purposes?

Mostly kidding, but I did go through this weird phase where I scrolled through months of blog posts on *ahem* certain people's blogs to check how long they were on sub before their book sold. Yeah, I'm calling it temporary insanity. I'm better now. ;)

Patti said...

That makes me want to blog about household purchases, because me a little pieces of paper don't get a long either.

Nicole Zoltack said...

I'm sure I have or if not, I'm sure I will.

Southpaw said...

I feel for you. Aren’t they supposed to last like ten years? Not cool. Or should I say not hot?

Krispy said...

Sorry about your water heater! But yeah, blogging can totes help with Real Life. Haha. I've definitely used blog posts to help me remember the timing of things.

Sage Ravenwood said...

I'm horrible at remembering certain dates and found myself looking up a key word on Blogger to find what I needed. G-mail is great for keeping track of things too. I have a couple recipes I keep forgetting to download. (Hugs)Indigo

P.S. We have a packet attached to our water heater with all the essential information.

Nichole Giles said...

This is true. However, are you aware that water heaters should have a pretty long warranty? Like, maybe 5 years or something. If you buy it from the same company, have them look it up. You need to insist--I did. Even if they tell you you'll have to wait a few days while they "order" the right one, tell them to do it. They will. Either you end up with a big discount, or a free water heater.

IME, anyway.

Good luck. And yay for blogger!

Tracey Neithercott said...

I have been mentioning my knee injury on my health blog, so one day when I couldn't remember how my knee felt after a treatment I just looked it up on my blog. So much easier than keeping notes!

Suzie F. said...

How very uncool of your water heater to konk out so soon! But on the flip side, very cool that you found the info you need on Blogger!

I've only been blogging for 6 months so I haven't had to use it to look anything up yet. I really should stop being lazy about adding labels to my posts. I may need them one day!

Unknown said...

That's insane. 2 water heaters in as many years? Blerg.

Marsha Sigman said...

Oh, the joy of blogger. Who needs a filing system anymore?lol

Maybe I shouldn't mention that my hot water heater is awesome and like 20 years old? Could it be because we don't live in ANTARTICA(Ohio?).

I think so.

J.B. Chicoine said...

I blogged about finding an unusual message in my box of Altoids Curiously Stong Mints...There in bold red print on the inside paper, I read: HOME FOR TROUBLED MINTS. I found that blogworthy, lol!

Heather said...

I can't say that I have used blogger for anything unconventional like that. But, now that you gave me the idea I just might some day! Sorry about your water heater, again!

https://booksthoughtsadventures.com said...

That is too funny...that happened to us about 3 times and we finally got a waterless hot water heater...no problems now!!! But probably now that I wrote this we won't have hot water...yikes!!!

Shannon Messenger said...

I had to replace my Water Heater 2 weeks ago, after it flooded my garage. Good. Times.

Though, in my case, I had a 6 year warranty. Did you check that? Cause you could probably petition for reimbursement.

If you need help with that let me know. My parents insurance co. covers water heaters, so I know WAY more about them and warranties than I should.

Lola Sharp said...

Dude, I'm sorry. :( Stupid water heater.

I hate small pieces of paper, too.

Hugs,
Lola

erica m. chapman said...

Oh! Sorry about your water heater. We had to get our heater fixed a couple years ago $$$$. Sucks.

You know, I'm not sure I have, but that's a great idea!!

Hope you had a warranty on the repair so you don't have to shell out more $!

Jemi Fraser said...

That stinks! It's always good to have blogger proof - but I don't know if the companies will believe us and take our blog posts as proof! :)

Lydia Kang said...

Seriously! Here's your diary, front and center. I've done that too. If only Blogger would also do my dishes.

Unknown said...

Whoa, that sucks! Is there any chance of it being under warranty?

Julie Hedlund said...

What it is about hot water heaters? A few years ago, ours went out on New Year's Eve, the day after the biggest blizzard the Front Range had seen in 10 years. Luckily, our plumber also runs a snowplow business on the side.

So far, no replacement yet. Maybe I should blog about it just to be sure...

Donea Lee said...

Ah, those small bits of paper don't like me either.... Sorry about the broken water heater. Hopefully the next one lasts you a long, long time!

Unknown said...

We had hot water heater problems, which turned out to be a design flaw in the brand of heater. You might want to check into that. We had a creative plumber do a quick fix, but now I don't jump into cold showers once a month like I used to. All I have to say: check the water before you get in.

Unknown said...

Not Blogger, but I did use Myspace in an unconventional way: to contact a former employee to distribute his 401k from a plan my company terminated and was trying to close.

The IRS address-lookup service was unsuccessful in finding him, but I stalked him to Myspace, sent him a message and voila, 401k cashed out and plan closed. Woot!

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