Mpemba Effect

Our hot water was frozen this morning, but not the cold.  I've noticed this happening before, but when I mentioned it to my daughter, Liz, she doubted this was based on any scientific knowledge.  I believe our conversation went something like, "Mom, isn't that completely contrary to principles of thermodynamics?" She didn't really say that, but wouldn't you be impressed if she did. I think she thinks I have been cursed and there isn't a scientific principal to prove this, but let me educate you and her:

Hot liquids sometimes freeze faster than cold.  I think plumbers and ice cream makers all over the world have known this for as long as there have been plumbers and ice cream makers. This phenomena gained attention when a 15 year old Tanzanian student, Erasto B. Mpemba, observed this while making ice cream as a science experiment in his class. Erasto, from the continent of Africa (we are fans of Africa) didn't follow the directions, which stated he should cool his ice cream before putting it in the refrigerator. His classmates did follow the directions and pre-cooled there ice cream.  Whose do you think set faster? That rule beaker Mpemba!

There are  a few theories, but I have not found a definitive answer because it doesn't always happen except at my house!  The theories are: 

1. Faster evaporation of hot water, which reduces the volume left to freeze.

2.  formation of a frost layer on cold water, insulating it.

3.  different concentrations of solutes such as carbon dioxide, which is driven off when the water is heated.

More about Mpemba

My Winter Nemesis

Our Furnace

Living in a town that gets hundreds of inches of snow every year you might guess snow to be my nemesis, but  it is quite the opposite--lack of snow is causing all my winter trailer class woes.  Snow acts as an insulator around the base of trailer. Lack of snow causes my pipes to freeze. But before they freeze the problem is exacerbated by the true evil doer, my furnace.

I'm at work when the wind creeps beneath our floors, rising ghostly towards my pilot light and extinguishing its flame, thus our heat source.That pilot light hides miles away in the depths of that quarter size window attached to a chain.  I travel towards that extinguished flame at least every other day, cursing its obscure location and the emotional control I need to practice as I try over and over to get it lit. 

When it lights the pipes don't freeze, we are warm and Taye and I have a little trailer class celebration, which includes me trying to do some yoga and him trying to ride my back or lay somewhere on my yoga mat where my chest , foot or knee needs to be.  It's all good, its just our trailer class lifestyle.

Turtle Shell Debauchery

I like my neighbors, but I must admit to a contentious feeling I experienced today.  Ed, my trusty fix-it guy and neighbor said to me, "Michelle I saw something the other day that really disturbed me."  My initial thought was, what could I have done, but it was then that I learned about the debauchery that was inflicted upon Turtle's shell.

The Victim: Taye's Sandbox

During the summer months turtle lives basking in the sun of our small front yard.  The neighbor children come and play together here on our lawn and I fill a real sense of community as English and Spanish speaking kids build small sandcastles together and fight over shovels.

Once winter came I emptied Turtle of his sand and leaned him up against the trailer to hold out until next summer.  Maybe that old shell blew away or maybe someone came and took it, but what Ed saw is just wrong.  Everyone knows where turtle lives.

The men across the street placed the turtle shell on its back beneath there car and, and, and, they emptied the oil from there car into turtle.  Not cool, not cool at all. 

We've got water!

 I ran backwards around the trailer three times and then did a lap of sun salutations and it worked!  We now have water! Although, some people think that Ed had something to do with it. 

My thanks go out to my neighbor; Ed. Ed lives two doors down and is always there for us.  He spent the entire day moving heaters around beneath the trailer trying to get the pipes thawed.

Stuff I learned:

1.  If you pour a 5 gallon bucket down the toilet, it flushes—amazing.
2. When Ed refers to needing a Power Bar, he isn't hungry-he wants power strip.
3.  I already knew this, but it’s a good reminder: Ed works darn hard for a 12 pack.

Tractor Man

We are in day two of trying to thaw frozen pipes under the trailer.  If you’ve never had the opportunity to experience this you might understand that it is inconvenient not to be able to shower, make coffee and brush your teeth, but there are other inconveniences and perhaps insites to be had as well. 

At 6:45 this morning I wrapped Taye up in a blanket and set him in his car seat in his fireman PJ’s.  I peered through frosted windshield I didn't take the time to scrape as we popped over the speed bumps that exist every 20 feet on the road in our trailer park. After five bumps I sped up and we were on our way to the Kum and Go.   

Once there, I grabbed my pajama boy out of his car seat and made a run for the door, a construction guy held the door open ( thank you construction guy) as I ran with him towards the Women’s restroom.  It was a beautiful site that glittering toilet, and as Taye sat there with his PJ’s dangling around his ankles he commented on the Country Music piped into the bathroom, a cowboy singing about wantin’ to be a tractor man This is good stuff, something we would never have at home and what three year old wouldn’t appreciate a song about a tractor. We had a little battle over who would flush because it is a gift to be able flush, a true gift.  Appreciate it next time you have the opportunity.

After we got to stroll amongst the construction guys getting their coffee before work.  I decided to splurge on a cup of coffee with a shot of some sort of turbo flavor booster. My trailer class guilt bit me hard and I let Taye get a $3.00 Tummy Ticker Apple Juice with a Goofy lid. 

We headed back home over one, two, three, four, five bumps to ask a neighbor for another heater to put under the trailer and for the first time I understood country music:  I was just wantin’ me a flush toilet, nothing big, but so real. My son is just as happy with a Tummy Tickler Apple Juice, but our wantin' is real...