Hulk's is our baby, that's an obvious fact, but it's also our guinea pig when it comes to renovations, maintenance and everything and anything in between. I've never learned how to do more things in such a short period of time -- things I never thought I'd ever have to learn to know, like crawling in the wall to fix an electrical wire and how to make light fixtures on a whim. Consequently I've become quite the Pinterest junkie for home renovations.
Today's guinea pig project was frozen pipes. We anticipated possibly running into this problem so we keep the coal thingy-a-ma-jiggy running 24/7 and change it every 12-14 hours like clockwork. It doesn't matter where we are, who we're with or what we're doing, if time is up and those coals have to be changed, they get changed. We drove almost three hours the other day just to do so -- we don't mess around. Because of the drastic drop in the temperature many of our juice bar items have been freezing so I've started to store them by the coal thingy when we leave the club at night and a couple of things stay there around the clock. Did you know that extra virgin olive oil goes all jelly-like before it freezes? Yup. Did you even know it freezes? Well, I didn't until it did.
One of my friends had suggested keeping the taps and shower heads running a bit but with a monthly water bill that is already the equivalent to the rent some of my friends' one room apartments, we looked for another means. We procrastinated a bit in exploring other ideas so it was too late by the time we arrived this afternoon to frozen bathroom pipes.
Have no fear, the coal thingy-a-ma-jiggy to the rescue!!!
I'm convinced I'm going to greatly miss this coal thingy-a-ma-jiggy thing once the chilly winter weather leaves us and we don't need to keep it running in order to keep the blood from freezing in our toes. We cook all our meals on it's lid like it's a stove top, we place our laundry by it to dry it quicker, and it of course cooks our sweet potatoes and keeps our barley tea warm for our members. It's become quite the depended upon jack-of-all-trades thing to have at Hulk's and today it added another useful purpose. You see, every time we have to change the coals we're left with 6 used coals we then have to keep them somewhere safe while they burn out and cool. Turns out the bathroom is the perfect place for them!!! Having them cool down in the bathroom means our pipes stay warm and there's no frozen pipes greeting us in the morning, sweet.
Ok, so perhaps I'm a bit too excited about this but I really anticipated the frozen pipes taking a chunk out of my wallet to get them looked after. Life never cost me so much and was never as expensive until we opened Hulk's. Beyond the constant outflow of cash to maintain and run it, I feel I know think of Hulk's 24/7. Sometimes I catch myself randomly tuning into the club cameras, just to make sure everything is the way I left in. I have really invested everything I have into it.
The winter weather has brought us a whack of new issues and various problems that have kept us so very busy. The fact that the rest of the building Hulk's is in is abandoned poses numerous issues, up and beyond just the temperature problems. There is of course the possibility of homeless people finding refuge in the rest of the building. We've gone as far as completely boarding off one of the doors to Hulk's by simply making a wall where a large door once was. There are only two doors into Hulk's but the side door concerns me because it connects to the rest of the building. It has it's own 24/7 security camera but every week or so we try to do a "Homeless Run". A Homeless Run means we go to all the additional floors and in the several basements of the Hulk's building to check for people hiding out. It's quite nerve-racking to do so and thankfully I've never run into anyone to be put in the position to kick anyone out of the building. I wish we didn't have to do it but it is necessary for us to do this in order to keep our business protected. Snickers buddies seem to think it's some kind of game but I think it's rather sad and it always reminds me of the homeless man that used to sleep in our office. While Mouse Doctor and Snickers' run in with one of the building's homeless men was scary and rather odd, my run in with the homeless man in Hulk's was quite sweet and sincere. Sometimes I find myself starring out the Hulk's front doors, thinking about him and wondering where he is now. I wonder if he ever kept the letter I wrote to him.
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