Hot water......please!

This past weekend was suppose to be the weekend of laziness. There were no football games on, the last of the students left after graduation, and I had plans to have a "leggings and T-shirt" weekend (these days are usually only on Sundays but I wanted a whole weekend dedicated to my favorite comfy clothes). The only thing I had planned to do was to drive to B'ham to visit Lee, CB, Mom and Dad late Saturday afternoon and have dinner there. However my water heater had other plans!
On Saturday morning, I was about to get in the shower. I turned the water on like I normally do and waited for it to get hot but it never happened! After checking the fuse box outside and the one inside, I felt the pipes on the water heater and they were cold! Of course I called my Mom and they decided to drive through T-town after getting done at Lee and CB's house (Dad and Lee cut several trees down this weekend). At that point my afternoon drive turned in to a over night stay since I had no hot water.
Luckily the water heater was fixable! Dad and I worked on it for about an hour, then went to Lowe's for parts (and to price new water heaters if need be). We found the parts we needed and some we just replaced for good measure (but we didn't know that till later). Nevertheless, I have hot water!! The upper heating element had gone bad. We replaced it as well as a upper thermostat. Thank goodness I have a dad who can fix just about EVERYTHING! So for your viewing pleasure here is a picture that sums up the problem

Old heating element vs New heating element.....Can you tell the difference?