Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Virtual standstill

Well, I was right, I messed up my knitting, I was only on step 4, when I couldn't figure out what the next instruction meant.  So I decided to try my intuition, and it was, unfortunately, wrong.  BUT I put in a lifeline, and so I unraveled back to that point and re-hung the stitches.  I have decided to regard this effort as a "beta" trial, a prelude to an actual wearable hat.  I have lots of yarn so I don't worry about using it on a doomed project.

Son C had an appointment with the ortho surgeon earlier this week and was given the OK to remove the leg brace.  But continue with crutches, and no weight bearing yet.  The leg brace d/c means he doesn't have to sleep on his back, and best of all - he can drive!  He went to the local game stop to get a game to play as soon as he got home.

 R saw water in the laundry room last Saturday.  When we checked, there was water coming out from under the 80 gallon water heater tank, so we mopped, and shut off the water to and from the tank (and the circuit breaker).  We put a garden hose on the outlet on the bottom of the tank and ran it out into the driveway.  It takes a long time to empty an 80 gallon tank when doing it at a trickle.  I called Roto-Rooter, who said they could not come until Sunday (!) and then didn't show up until Monday.   While we were waiting, we watched old movies, and N dismantled the doorway into the water heater area, since it wasn't wide enough to remove the water heater ( it was in there before the door existed.)  On checking my file I found the receipt for the heater, dated 1982.  So I had to admit that the heater was well past its use-by date.  We drained the tank while we waited for the plumber, and at the end there was brown sludge coming out.  It meant that from Friday afternoon to 11 am on Monday we had no hot water.  No showers, no dishwasher.  N and C had to go to C's doctor appt. so they both took cold water showers in about 3 minutes beforehand.  R showered at the gym.  So I got the duty to answer the plumbers' questions, etc.  They finished up before N came home, and the first thing he saw when he got home, was that there are no shut-off  handles on the tank; the only way to shut off the tank now would be to shut off all the water for the entire house.  Plus they seem to have set the temperature on the heater too low, it isn't hot enough for the dishwasher.  I showered in straight hot water after waiting two hours for  the heater to warm up partway.  Guess we will see how hot it is after working overnight.  The installer said the new one  will probably last only 5-6 years, tops.  The damages came to $1300.  I was shell-shocked.  I could get a lot of retail therapy on $$$ like that!

 Bumper sticker for the day:  "If at first you don't succeed, do it the way your mother told you !



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