Be thankful for your American water heaters.

We have an orange butane tank (slightly larger then the propane version hooked to your backyard BBQ) under our kitchen counter responsible for heating our water and gas range. When the tank empties at the end of two weeks or so, we switch it with the spare, and place the empty tank at the curb on a Wednesday or Friday and wait for the Butanero to knock on our door with his truckload of full tanks. The best part of this system is never knowing exactly when the butane will run out. You get into every shower nearing the two week point wondering whether this will be the moment your steamy stream turns to ice. (Brian and I are currently tied two and two.) The weather has gotten colder though, and we're emptying a tank faster, and we missed the Butanero, and Wednesady was a holiday, and somehow we found ourselves last Sunday questioning whether we could make it till Friday on the tank we had stripped the BBQ of when we drained our spare. We spent all week rationing our butane... washing our hair with cold water and turning on the warm shower only to rinse off! We could just see ourslves carrying mugs of hot water one at a time up the stairs from the microwave! I am happy to report that we made it to Friday. We were never happier to see the Butanero. My favorite part of the story was seeing Brian get out of his cold shower Saturday night (when the BBQ tank finally went out) wrapped in a towel to change the tank- I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him. I was immediatedly pursued, chased throughout the house, tackled, and the picture was, unfortunately, deleted. It's a shame. Would have made a great addition to my post, no?