Adventures in babysitting

There are reasons why my babysitting experience is limited. For some reason, the following story came to my mind today, thought it was funny, so I thought I would share. DISCLAIMER: All events, people, and facts of the story are 100% true.

One summer day, my sister and I were left to babysit our brother Tim and his friend Jeremiah, who were both around 6 or 7 at the time (meaning I was roughly 14, my sister 11). This was seemingly no big deal as Jeremiah was at our house a lot and the boys pretty much entertained themselves. Well, on this particular day, things got a bit out of hand. I don't quite remember all the details, but remember my brother running towards us (we were outside), tell us something had happened in the basement. My 6th sense told me this "something" was not gonna be good. So, my sister and I go inside and go down to the basement to find the hot water heater is spewing water like a geyser. I'm talking, the entire basement floor was covered with water. Not a good thing at all. I had no idea how to make it stop, so as the water continued to flow out onto the floor, I called dad at work (never something you want to have to do), needless to say he was NOT happy (I think he may have told me how to shut the thing off, I don't remember). So, he had to come all the way home from work (my parents live way out in the woods, coming/going to/from town is a bit of an ordeal) and clean up the flooded basement and fix the hot water heater. What caused such a leak, you may ask? Well, apparently Tim and Jeremiah were playing dodge ball (or something) in the basement w/this huge rubber ball (it was about 2 feet in diameter) and someway, somehow, the ball hit the hot water heater, thus the flood of 1989. I don't remember who got the blame, whether it was those horrible boys for misbehaving, or my sister and I for being the worst babysitters ever. Whatever the case, it is something I will always remember. The next installment will be a great story about underwear and grasshoppers....