Now Where’s My Coffee?!!!

photog Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner ,

While I sent out copies of my book to somewhat willing beta-readers I remembered I had some projects kicking around the house.  When I mentioned this, Camera Girl informed me that I had failed as a maintenance manager.  She handed me the contact information of the last plumber we had used (quite a while ago) and reminded me that we now had three plumbing issues that needed to be attended to.  These problems had been haunting her sense of propriety for a good long while and now righteous anger had welled up and I was the malefactor who should have taken matters into my own hands long ago, “Call him today!  It’ll take a week to get him here so get this done before we’re too busy in a couple of weeks.”  I nodded my head in bitter remembrance.  She was right.  There was a water line on one of the toilet tanks that leaked when it was flushed.  There was a shower drain on the first floor that had a plate that had no screw holding it down but was welded tight and she was afraid it was clogged based on some comments she had heard from the kids during the summer pool season when they used that shower after swimming.  And finally, there was that sink basin that had a crack in the porcelain that leaked.

Each problem separately was minor and ignorable for at least the medium term.  But taken together they spoke of dereliction of duty, mopery and dopery, flimflammery and bone-laziness.  I was contrite.  I mumbled my assent.  And she left to go about her litany of errands.  She had to buy crickets for the two preying mantises that she had captured this week.  She wanted to save them from the approaching cold weather.  And also, to see if they would produce egg sacs for next year.  And she had various other duties; packages for the post office, books and movies to the library, a jigsaw puzzle for a friend of hers and some miscellaneous goods to buy at Wallymart.  Each one of these multitasked errands added to the indictment of my malfeasance.

So, I sat down and tried to put down on paper the plumbing work I wanted done.  After all you don’t call a tradesman and ask him to spend expensive time without trying to minimize the cost by defining the work.  First off there was the leaking water line on the toilet.  It was one of those somewhat flexible stainless lines.  Where it met the valve near the floor it was rusted from the dripping water it created.  But was it dripping from the toilet connection or the valve fitting.  And I realized I had never even bothered to decide which problem it was.  If it was leaking from downstream of the valve, maybe I could buy a new piece of flexible line and replace it beyond the shutoff valve.

So, I went upstairs and looked at the line.  It was dry.  So, I flushed the toilet and I saw drops of water flowing down from the toilet to the floor.  Now I was interested.  I kneeled down and twisted around and I could see a plastic fitting at the toilet tank.  There was a threaded nut.  So, I tried to hand tighten it.  It gave a little so I tightened as hard as I could by hand.  I dried off the line and flushed the toilet.  No water.  I flushed it again.  No water.  I flushed it a third time.  No water.  Hail the conquering hero!

I went down to the bottom floor and looked at the shower drain.  Sure enough, the drain plate had no screw but was tight to the orifice.  I stared at it for a few seconds and pulled on the plate as hard as I could and it popped off. There was some debris in it so I got my pliers and pulled out some hair and muck.  Then I ran the shower full blast for ten minutes.  No water backing up.  Now I was a veritable demigod of home improvement.

I marched up to the cracked sink with an air of bored confidence and examined the piping connections.  Sure enough, there was a plastic threaded coupling connecting it to the piping and almost nothing else in the way from removing it from the countertop.  With a look of contempt, I walked over to the contact information with half a mind to call up this tradesman and inform him that his services would not be needed.

When Camera Girl returned, I straightened her out on the status of her honey-do list.  “Items one and two solved!  Item three has been surveyed, a path forward has been devised and the schedule is already in place.  Now where’s my coffee?!!!

19SEP2025 – Quote of the Day

photog Quote of the Day ,

Solemnization of Matrimony

Is not by any to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly; but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, soberly, and in fear of God.

If any man can show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.

Wilt thou…forsaking all others, keep thee only unto (him/her), so long as ye both shall live?

To have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.

With all my worldly goods I thee endow.

With this Ring I thee wed.

Those whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder.

Book of Common Prayer

Is Anything Broken?

photog Current Events, OCF ,

If any features or functions on this site seem to have stopped working, let me know.  Today I was having problems with what are called plug-ins and I had to deactivate them all and reactivate the ones I want working.  The problem is over the years I’ve added way too many of them (25) and I can’t even remember which ones were useful.  So unknowingly I may have deactivated something useful.

Thank you for your support!

Boy, That Was Depressing

photog Current Events , ,

The Charlie Kirk murder has revealed just how deep the divide has grown between the Left and the Right.  And the visibility of the hatred is adding to the anger on both sides.  I’m pretty sure we’ve already reached the tipping point.  In other words, we aren’t going to heal this rift, ever.

But that doesn’t make it clear what follows.  After all, the South hated the North for over a century after the Civil War but there was nothing they could do to fight back.  In the same way, up until now there hasn’t been a mechanism for the red states to separate from the blue states in any meaningful way.  All they could do was compete to capture the White House, Supreme Court and Congress to keep the progressives at bay.

But with Trump back in charge of the federal government I think I’m hearing the first grumblings from the Left about splitting up the country into two separate nations; one red and one blue.  I was talking with some of the boys today at our weekly video coffee walk and someone noted this and asked where does Delaware end up.  I answered, ”With whomever gets stuck with it.”  But it’s a real consideration.  If this country gets split there will be tens of millions of people moving to escape the other camp.  And personally, I’ll be one of them.  And I’m sure it won’t be fun.  But it will be a relief in a lot of ways.  The acknowledgement that there are two different societies, two different moralities, two different souls living in these fifty states will motivate the realignment of people into two separate groups as naturally as oil and water separate.

And maybe that’s a good analogy.  If you take oil and water and put them through a high-speed mixer (homogenizer) you can emulsify the oil into the water as extremely small droplets that look like a blended material.  But if you turn off the motor slowly but surely the oil will reform into a separate immiscible layer.  And that’s what’s happening to us.  The forces that acted to bring us together are disappearing and the natural repulsion that each side feels for the other is getting the upper hand and we’re separating into two unmixable masses that repel each other as naturally as oil and water.  That’s what it looks like to me.  And the Left’s open glee at Charlie Kirk’s death just makes it easier to see.

But no one knows how this moves forward.  Fear of the unknown is a very strong force.  Both sides are feeling their way around this new dynamic.  Both sides sense the divide and have begun to attack the other side more openly.  But so far neither side has tipped over into mob violence (yet).  So far, we just have the ultra-psychotics on the Left attacking whomever they can find.  Charlie Kirk was unfortunate to give them such an easy target to hit.  But it could get much, much worse.

I guess the best case would be for both sides to sit down and hammer out a reasonable divorce settlement with each side getting a cut of the assets of “The United States of America,” like some kind of bankruptcy proceeding.

Boy, that was depressing.