Side note: In 2007, user Just Some Guy started a thread: Best Way to Survive Falling at Terminal Velocity (Need answer fast). The “need answer fast” caught on immediately—within fifteen minutes, garygnu posted
A Board legend was born. A quick Google search of intitle:“need answer fast” site:straightdope.com yields 2,390 results.
The house was built in 2003, so hopefully these aren’t ‘older’ conventional tanks. We’re in the northeast (downstate New York), so there hasn’t been any significant freeze; we’ve barely had a frost. Turned the main valve off (the plumber’s advice) and so far there is still no pressure in the tanks. He thought the timer was set up to run in the middle of the night, but I’m pretty sure from experience it run (ran) when pressure dropped (e.g. a long time ago someone left a hose on, leaving us with no water in the morning. We caught the error in the morning and had pressure by early afternoon at least).
Plumber should be here in the morning. Hopefully he’ll be able to test things quickly, find out that the timer needs a $3 part, and all will be well. Right?
(Oh, can we take a moment to enjoy the coincidence that my main project at the moment is a report on getting potable water to rural areas in the developing world.)
edit: just to be sure, we turned off all the televisions, instructed our Little Man to head into the light, and checked the swimming pool for unmoved bodies.