There. Another attempt. power
Give Me Power, Or give me dark! Ummm, just power please. Please. Please
... as I was saying, I left off on the 13th thinking I'd be posting again in a day or two, but man life can sure get hectic.
I have every other Thursday off, so I'm off right now (insert predictable comment here) enjoying a pretty morning and getting back in the blogging.
My last Thursday off, the 16th didn't really go as planned, I had a big bonus on my check and I had options on how to stimulate the economy. I also had a few legitimate errands to run, one was to the Mac Experience where I hoped to get my iPhone debugged since it would not communicate with my Macs anymore since the last Mac iTunes firmware update. I talked to David Wainscott there and he got me back in the flow with their more modern and powerful computers. I considered bringing one home, then declined.
Before I left the house I paid my ATT bill and saw that I could update to the newer iPhone 3G or 3Gs, contemplated that move but thought it best to get the current iPhone back in contact with the mothership iTunes software first. Good call.
After lunch and that visit with the Mac Experience fellows, I drove back home and stood in the back yard contemplating the patio/deck. I could add on. I had the truck and time and I had money for treated lumber. While in the yard I decided I'd water the garden as I contemplated yet other valuable uses of my time and efforts and well the center of the hose bib for the garden hose stripped out, I thought well maybe I'm going to office depot to get a new hose bib assembly instead of lumber. I unmounted it from the wall, saw where the pipe goes into the bib and took my pipe wrenches to those to disconnect it, instead of a successful quick and easy plumbing task I got troubles for my trouble. The poor grade copper pipes from the builders and contractors who assembled our home for us 17 years prior twisted in two making a simple job impossible for my plumbing skill set.
Here is where I have to mention that a several years ago the single knob faucet in the guest bathroom shower and tub started leaking into the tub. My father (a veritable renaissance man and jack of all trades) offered to assist me in replacing the failing unit (we were in Florida at the time it was offered, and he had not seen the unit first hand). Time passes, more water under the tap (bridge just doesn't work here) and the problem gets worse. Finally a year ago Mom and Dad are up visiting and a unit is purchased to replace the failing constant-runner. Upon further review, dad was reluctant to tackle the project, since the wall would have to be cut through from the backside. Not only that but pipes would need to be cut and fitted and brazed back together too. I didn't have the torch and tools at the time to make that happen nor the budget to get them.
Back to the day of concern, Thursday the 16th it was still early in the day around 12:30 and I had turned the water off inside the house to keep a bad situation from getting out of hand totally. Next step Dial-One, and within an hour a Benjamin Franklin Punctual Plumber was pulling up in front of the house, I told him of the problems I had had with my bib (without getting any one me) and he said no problem money can't fix (in completely different phrases, but that was the gist), next I walked him into the secondary bathing area and explained the situation there, he thought the guts could be replaced and quoted me the flat rate total for both jobs. Just under $500. I said have a good time and stayed out of his way. The hose bib was project one and took a goodly piece of time (but it was not an hourly deal, flat rate quote and all), that job done on to the bath. Here he came to the inevitable conclusion that the piece in there was also cheap-ass crap and could not be repaired, therefore replacement would be the only way. I brought him the unit we had purchased and asked if he could install that, he said it would save money and proceeded. That took a long time too but finally the job was done, Jenni had been home for over an hour, the water was back on and not trickling when the tap was off and Michael the plumber was leaving at 7:45. The bill with the cutting brazing and install was more ( $908) than a simple parts replacement and I was able to spend all of my bonus pay for a hard month of sales on one days efforts. I didn't get to buy toys bit it was worth it, and had to be done, and my water bills are going to shrink!
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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