A frozen sprinkler head — water through the second-floor ceiling, December 26, 2022.
A sprinkler head froze, and the water went everywhere. Upstairs, second floor — a complete mess.
This isn't what I wanted to do on Christmas Day, and the next day.
Here's the thing about a frozen sprinkler head: the house doesn't care what day it is. The water doesn't check the calendar. It just finds the path of least resistance, which in my case was through the second-floor ceiling and onto everything below.
The immediate job is triage. Stop the water, figure out what's salvageable, then mop. You mop a lot. The rest — repairs, insurance, dry-out — is the next day's problem. The first job is just to stop the bleeding. That's the reality of owning a house. It doesn't negotiate.
/ The Same Failure, With Tenants
It's also the reality of owning a business — except the failure has tenants.
A house that fails is your problem. A business that fails is everyone's. In a rental fleet, a down vehicle isn't just a repair — it's someone's ruined trip. The human cost is external and immediate, not private and deferred.
The sprinkler was a reminder of that. The building doesn't care what day it is, and neither does the business. Somebody has to deal with it — and the people who feel it first are the ones who never signed up for the mess.
That's the reality of owning a business — and the tenants dislike it too. #BadDay
Until the next run out — work hard, play hard.