Hot Water

Ok, so, long story short... we were without hot water for a few days. The hot water heater made a scary noise, water was leaking... Roger ran outside and flipped the breaker (yeah, here in TX the breaker boxes are outside on newer homes) (weird). The manufactured date on the water heater says 2009. We got the new part shipped to us for free (yay! I like free!) and Roger finally got the thing running properly today. (Yay! I like hot water!)

Here was the problem.

This is Roger's "Holy mother of pearl! Look at that singed heating element!" face.

(edited to add: The thing on the left is the new piece.  The thing on the right is the fried up could have burned the house down piece)
That would explain the scary noise. 

Counting our blessings.  That could have been a huge disaster.