My Colossus Exploded and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.

[Critter]

On December 6th at 3:35AM my Purple/Yellow Colossus exploded.....yes you read that right.

I had to get a bit of distance between then and now before I could post about this.  The week that this happened had to be one of the worst weeks of my life.  Here's the low down........

Monday....go to work to find that a power outage at work and as a result I had to deal with (I.T.) problems that resulted, not the worst day but a good start to a bad week as it took a couple hectic hours to get fixed up.

Tuesday....my little dog "Chia" whom I had had since she was six weeks old died....she had just turned sixteen the week before.  This coming just five weeks after the death of my 20.5 year old Chihuahua named Romeo.

Weds......more severe electrical issues at work which caused the failure of a battery backup device and the attached server.....total loss of the server hard discs.  Email and file server down!

Thursday.....server recovery mode all day.

Friday......more server recovery mode, all day again, and finally the end of a stressful work week (server back up and data restored).  

     Friday night I figured I needed some liquid wax motion to destress.  Came home from work and turned on the Colossus which had not run since last Spring this would be the first run for the cold season.  Oh, and FYI the lamp was in the master bedroom on my side of the bed.  My wife and I went out to dinner and we had a late evening on the town.  I came home at about 11pm the lamp was flowing and just beautiful.  I went to bed with the lamp running and planned on running it all weekend.

Saturday (3AM) wake up for a bathroom run.  The lamp was flowing great, I sat there on the bed and watched it for about 15 minutes and dozed back off.  3:35AM "BOOM!!!!!!!" suddenly we are awakened by the loud sound of the Colossus globe exploding, a slight concussive effect was even part of the event.  Oh, and I cannot forget to mention the sudden rush of 11 gallons of hot water and hot wax going EVERYWHERE!!!.  The lamp contents went across the floor covering about a 175 square foot area and all over the side of the bed, and under the bed and beyond.  Well, shit now we're up for the day!!!!  

The Clean Up:

Step one make coffee, lots of coffee!!!   Then to clean up this epic mess we had to basically move out of the room for two days.  My house has stained and sealed concrete floors and I can promise you that the wax and surfy water covering the floor was slicker than cat shit on linoleum.  I slipped and fell more than once during this event.  If we had carpeting in the room the room would have needed to have new carpeting installed without a doubt as the wax left its yellow stain on everything it touched....and it was permanent....as you will see in a bit.

I was instantly devastated by the loss of the lamp and just frigging confused as to how this could be happening.  The lamp had not run in at least seven months, it had the Lava Lite provided Phillips light bulb and had been fine for the last run the previous Spring.  Never-the-less, I decided to try to make the best of it and since our home is carpeting free as I cleaned up the wax (scraped it up with a metal pizza peel) I sat it aside.  It took us until about noon to get the wax and fluid up and have the floor be safe to walk on.  We had to get out a heavy duty wax stripper (liquid wax remover) to help get up the Colossus wax and have the floor be clean.  We had to reseal the concrete the next day and move furniture back in.

Well, the wax stained the wall paint on the wall near the lamp's location, we had to repaint that area of wall but we have plenty of touch up paint so no big deal.  

Well, while we cleaned up the room I noticed that our home's alarm system started to act up too and was giving off this annoying beep that it does when it needs a new backup battery or when one of the sensors is out.  I figured it was just par for the course as this week from Hell was still going full blast.

Saturday afternoon....needed to go to town and wash wax infused towels because those towels were not going in our washer!!!  We also needed to get a battery for the alarm system (or so I thought).  We were starving too so we decided to grab a quick bite to eat while we were in town.  I get the new battery, then we go to a local fast food joint and order a late lunch.  The restaurant staff were really slow and it took close to twenty minutes to get a few tacos and a coke.  Well just as they call my name and put my tray on the counter for me to pickup some old guy cuts in front of me, snatches the tray from my hands as I pick it up, and then he scurries off.  I tell the girl at the counter that he grabbed my tray.....she says "no, I'm pretty sure that was his".  Nope, he rummages through the food, bites into a taco and comes back up and angrily says "you got my order wrong". I look at this guy and say "no, you stole my tray and you should have to eat that as it should not go to waste".  Well, the clerk takes the tray and they take off the partially eaten taco and try to give me back the other items that while uneaten were opened by him and his wife.  I'm thinking "really? what the Hell else can happen this week?".  Well they decide I'm right and the order should be completely re-made (another 10 minutes) I finally get the tray of tacos, etc and go back to the table with my wife.  I sit down and just as I go to take a first bite my wife's phone rings and it's our neighbors calling.....the alarm system is going off and one of the other neighbors has called the cops.  "Aw F***" is what rings through my head as I tell my wife I'm headed back home to deal with the situation.  She stays at the restaurant and has her lunch.  I get home as the sheriff gets there and they check out the house....I've already told them that it's a malfunction but they just gotta look around.  Well, they were decent guys and they understood when I explained to them what was gong on.  We chat a bit and as they leave and back out of my driveway they back over my mail box knocking it to the ground and damaging the back of their vehicle.  HOLY CRAP!  Really???!!!!!   I go back to get my wife and maybe eat my lunch...nope cold, soggy tacos I gave up and just trashed them and went back home.

The new battery did not fix the alarm problem and I was a bit stumped, then I checked our phone lines and they showed to be busy without a phone being off of the receiver base.   I looked about for the problem and discovered that when the Colossus blew a tiny bit of wax had gotten into a phone jack that is behind my night stand, it completed the circuit making the line appear busy and the alarm system was going bonkers because it had been hours without a dial tone.  The Leviton brand phone jack was fried and I had to replace it....no biggie just a few bucks.

Sunday  spend the afternoon building a new mailbox stand, digging a new hole and getting that fixed so we can have mail delivery for the coming week.  Oh, and I pray hard that on Monday it's a new week and that Hell Week was over.

Well I called Lava Lite that following Monday just to tell them about my experience and see if they could shed light on what could have happened....no light was shed.  I also sent them a bunch of pics thinking that maybe it would help down the road if they decide to do a Colossus again.  Oh, and I wanted to see if they would help me replace the globe. Now I don't feel now (or then) that I was due a warranty replacement because this lamp was well past its 90 day warranty.  But I had been at Lava headquarters earlier in the year and saw a couple empty globes there and a returned globe or two as well.  I wanted to buy an empty globe so I could get the lamp going again.  Sadly that did not work out and I could not get an empty globe.  Lava L. did offer me to file an insurance claim for damages....but not to replace the damaged lamp just anything that the lamp might have damaged.  Well there was some minor repainting to do, a few bucks for a new phone jack and the bedspread had been ruined by wax staining it.  However, it was not an expensive ($70ish) bedspread and we had used it for a year or two and frankly I'm just not that petty.  There was one other casualty as I had dropped a white T-Shirt on the floor next to the bed when I went to sleep and it too got covered in yellow wax.

In the end I had a really CRAP Week at work, lost a beloved little dog and my favorite Colossus.  The gain....a newly yellow (tie dyed looking) T- Shirt and salvaged Colossus wax and Colossus coils.  Yep that's right all that wax I scraped up, I melted it and strained it three times through progressively smaller sieves and used it to refill my Princess....seen here:

https://oozinggoo.ning.com/forum/topics/crestworth-rocket-aka-princess-update

I told you guys that the Princess got "Chinese Wax" and that the source of the wax was a "Shocker".....well is it?

I guess when life serves you Lemon colored wax you try to make Lemonade Wax out of it and refill another lamp. LOL

I didn't know if that wax would work after it had been on the floor and filled with lint, bunnies, etc but I just had to try.  I managed to get three good quarts of Colossus yellow wax out of this catastrophe.  Two quarts are in use in the Princess and the third is on reserve for another day.  Oh, and the T-Shirt, you can bet your ass that I am wearing that....probably the world's first fully Colossus Wax dyed shirt!

Here are a bunch of pictures of the whole fiasco, etc:

Lamp Before:

The aftermath:

 

The mailbox down:

What Came out of it

StrainingWax....

Cleaned up wax!  

In the end

A Yellow Shirt!

A happy Crestworth Rocket / Princess with wax donated from the Late P/Y Colossus:

My Precious Chia:

I now am trying to close the dark chapter that was 2014.  I really did have a kind of bad year last year and am looking forward to a better 2015.  I hope to pick up another yellow Colossus (Humongo) some time this spring/summer.  With 2015 being Lava's 50th Anniversary maybe there will be some cool new lamp or two to help make this a great year!

Critter

[VOXul]

Man, Critter, you survived quite a tough week filled with bad breaks! It is good that you are staying on the brighter side of things, the bad only makes us stronger! Good to hear that the exploding colossus didn't cause any injury to you or family, that must have scared the absolute $#!t out of you, I know I would have thought war was breaking out or something!

[Carol]

Crit, so sorry for the loss of not one pet but 2 in '14.  It's so hard when you lost them close like that.  My big girl and big boy were less then 9 months apart.  Hurts like hell and nothing but time can heal.......I keep saying the pain is soo hard that I won't get another dog.....um, i'm back up to 5 in the pack right now.....anyway, I think life, fate, god, whatever you wanna call it, whatever your belief is, gives us these bad lucks streaks from time to time where it seems that nothing else can possibly go wrong.  Is is a test of strength versus weakness?  Who the hell knows......I always say that life is like a roller coaster.  It's has it's ups and downs.  When it's going good it's going great, but when it goes wrong, it's horribly wrong.  You just gotta stay strong, keep your head up and ride it out, or have a mental breakdown and be on heavy duty meds for the rest of your life, lol!!!  I haven't been having very good luck since the end of '14, it seems to brighten up, then down a bit, so I'm waiting for my silver lining as we speak...........

 

Stay strong.....go with the flow.....

[Keith]

Oh my goodness!  What a horrible week.  So sorry for the loss of your beloved Chia, that is heartbreaking.  And having a great lamp like that bust, man that's gut wrenching.  

[Critter]

Thanks Erin. Yeah it would be a whole different story had the floors been hardwood or carpet.

[Erin]

Bill, I'm so sorry to hear about Chia. :( What a month you've had. :( Hope you're doing OK and thank goodness you had concrete floors. Wow. 

[Critter]

Thank you Heidi...she was a sweet, sweet little girl.

[Todd Miller]

Sorry you had a bad week, just remember; you have the wondefull

memories of your lost pet's.  Those are priceless :-)

[Critter]

Brad, Thanks. I can honestly say that week was one of the most stressful and bizarre weeks of my entire life. It was one thing after another. By the end of the week I was ready to explode with Frustration, Rage, Depression, Bewilderment and a collection of other emotions. That is primarily why I waited to post this tale and why I posted about the week rather than just the Colossus exploding.

[Critter]

Thanks guys....I miss the lamp and that now empty corner still feels "wrong"....but miss Chia even more.

Kirk that is what I suspect the most notable thing I saw was that the side of the globe that let loose was 1/2 the thickness of the remainder of the globe. This "thin" area was about 3mm thick. They are hand blown so I am sure that a less than perfect globe is quite possible.

[Brad]

damn the rotten luck!!!  i just read your story and it sounds like you had a really bad run.  nice thing is, it can only go up from here, right?  regarding the colossus, i wonder if there was a defect in the glass like kirk mentioned, or maybe the cold globe paired with the hot bulb cracked it?  regardless, that is the most bizarre thing i've seen regarding a lava lamp.