A Half Inch Fitting

I am feeling kind of guilty tonight. Maegan is having trouble with her dishwasher, regarding a leak. It is a pretty simple problem, and just involves replacing the copper feed line with a braided steel one. It is a pretty simple problem for a guy on this side of sixty, but from her side it is a pretty large and potentially devastating problem.

 

I wish that I was there so that I could help her and I wish that I could be there for all of the other times that she could use someone’s advice and support. I don’t feel guilty about not being there, rather I feel guilty because I put my parents in the same situation. Don’t get me wrong, I think Maegan is in the right place for her, just as I was in the right place for me. I just wish that I was closer then and now. I don’t actually think she would call on me any more than Brendan and Arwen do, but every now and then I can be of assistance by loaning a tool or holding a flash light.

Maegan is a very smart and capable person and I am sure that when the water reaches her knees she will call a plumber and the insurance company.

Just talking to her today brought back memories of the times I could have used dad’s help and couldn’t get it. He was a pretty knowledgeable guy when it came to home repair. Sure, he had to learn the hard way that if you don’t unplug the stove when you are working on a short, and the metal of the back touches a hot wire, it will spot weld the back to the stove and blow the breaker. Not to mention that it will scare the shit out of you and your son.

I remember a time or two when he came to visit (read work) and helped me shingle the roof of the shed at the side of the house. We were up on top surveying what was needed when the roof gave way and all of a sudden we were on our asses covered in dust and debris. He looked at me and gave me some advice that I still use today, “Don’t tell the women!” I was helping my son-in-law on his garage a few years back when he rode the ladder from the top of the garage right down the side to the ground. I saw that he was all right and we looked at each other and said “Arwen doesn’t need to know about this.”

 

Dad was helping me to paint the ceiling in the living room, so we went and picked up the paint at Home Depot and came home, covered everything with plastic and started to paint the ceiling. It turns out that the ceiling was latex based and with a latex paint the ceiling softened up and started dropping off in clumps. Lesson learned the hard way, but learned just the same. We went back to Home Depot and picked up some oil based paint that would cover and not melt the existing ceiling. You know, every time I am in Rona or Home Depot I think of my dad and the times we spent picking up stuff in there.

I try to hit the Home Depot on his birthday every year. I often wonder what the people think about this old guy wandering up and down each aisle with glistening eyes and a sad smile on his face. Maybe they just think I really am a sucker for home repair and renovation. Maybe they look at me and think of the last time their dad came to help them and ended up making several trips to the store to return things. Maybe they are thinking “Do I need three quarters of an inch, or was it a half inch fitting?”

Good luck Maegan! I hope everything works out and if I could be there, I would be and we could flood the place together.

Snot on the Page

I've mentioned before that I love to read and nothing has changed since the last time that I said it. I used to read books that required you to think while you were reading and sometimes I would have to stop reading so that the information would sink in. Sometimes it did, but more often than not it would rattle around inside my head for a few years, get all muddled up and then come out as my own. It isn't stealing or plagiarism if you can’t remember where it came from.

I used to buy a lot of books as well and still have most of them on different shelves and in boxes throughout the house. There are a few that I will get out from time to time and either search for a quote or re-read just for the joy of it. I think I have read the “Lord Of The Rings” every two years since I was twenty, and “Time Enough for Love” by Heinlein about the same. There are other books that are in regular rotation, but most of them just sit on shelves waiting for someone to dust them. It is a shame really, and they certainly deserve better, considering the joy they have given me over the years.

Maybe it is the guilt I feel for those lonely books that sends me to the library for new reads now, and in recent years to the digital version of books that I can download and store on my eReader, instead of a dusty old shelf. I still want to have the hard copy, but frankly I am running out of space and money. I am comfortable with the path my reading is on and I foresee no change in the near future.

I am reading a book that I got out of the library right now. It is a good book, not a great book, but it meets my criteria of being entertaining and satisfying. The only problem with getting books from the library is that other people have read that particular copy before you more often than not. Sometimes it is a lot of people that have read the book before you get your hands on it. This book has been read before, and none too gently. The first fifty pages are rippled with water stains. That’s not really a problem if you think it is caused by water or some clear juice, but if you start to think it is urine, then you kind of have a problem. I swear to you that I could smell urine when I picked up the book. It is more than likely in my mind, because who would piss on a book? Well, who would piss on this book? I have actually pissed on a book, but it wasn’t a library book and the book deserved it. I had trouble getting through the first fifty pages as you can imagine.

Library books have other problems too. Sometimes you will turn a page and see what would appear to be crumbs caught in the fold. I could probably get them out, but it is easier to read the two pages and be done with the problem. There are often stains which could be blood, but then why would someone keep reading if they were bleeding? Too often I will turn the page of a library book and there will be someone’s hair caught in the crease. How pleasant! I am grossing myself out, so let us just say that I now have issues with taking out library books.

This is one good reason for me to switch over to digital books completely, because if there is a hair, blood or someone’s snot on the page, it is because the author and the publisher put it there to further the plot line.