One year ago today: November 25, 2016, beginning the work shed.
Five years ago today: November 25, 2012, use the NOR gate.
Nine years ago today: November 25, 2008, the silliest questions.
Random years ago today: November 25, 2013, 6 types of guitar players.
She’s a chilly one. That still found me under the house chasing that plumbing leak. Yep, the last guy ran rigid pipe into the sink fittings. Overnight, the entire hot water pipe worked its way loose. That is going to waste a half day to affect a temporary repair. I located the splices where the old iron pipe is joined to PVC, so I can do this myself. I’ll head over to Lowe’s in a few hours when they open. Meanwhile, this gives me an excellent opportunity to grab a morning coffee and breakfast. I’ll skip the ham and scrambled eggs.
Working the theory that there must be a plumbing fitting for every possible situation, I simply cut the entire offending section out with a trusty, well okay, rusty hacksaw. Then replaced the gap with a piece of flexible metal hose and two end fittings. I looked at it and went one step further. I added a T fitting and now have an actual hot water hose big if I want to wash the car properly. This saved a plumber’s bill (on-line estimate) of $280. I further got a really good look at the piping and you know, I think I could probably do most of it myself. There is quite a budget allocation for that new bathroom and it would be a real boon to my 2018 travel plans to save any of that.
In fact, here is the piece that saved the day. Eight dollar well spent. The two plastic fittings glue over the ends that I cut and the flex metal tube takes up any of the slack. This is temporary and to any plumbers out there, hey, I don’t care what the flex tube was really intended for. And neither does the hot water that is now flowing through it. So actually, I saved $272. The pipe was $6.29 and the PVC fittings were 55 cents each.
By later I had again read several books on porch design. Each has its merits but I’m going to select the one with the best diagrams and go with that. My idea is a porch with a 34” high knee wall around the perimeter, filled in around the bottom to create some privacy. Then screen in the upper portions. The instructions agree the studs should be no wider than 3 feet, which works out well with the posts I had planned for every 6 feet. Once again, I may simply lay temporary plywood flooring in place until I decide on something permanent. As usual, you are invited along for the ride.
Argentina.
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The undersink water lines. It is the one on the left, the hot water, that gave out just beneath where it enters the floorboards shown here. When I got under there, I took a good look at what’s behind the leaks. There is a new plastic pipe coming in from the street and I recall Howie saying it had been replaced. It is spliced to both the old iron house piping and the relatively newer PVC in the kitchen. Talk about amateur workmanship. I know dick about plumbing, but I know when things are slapped together. I prize the ability to work with copper, but I’m beginning to appreciate the plastic. There’s no such thing really as a mistake. Just always leave a long enough tail piece at each stage and splice whatever you need. Trust me, this is as exciting for you as it is for me.
I went back and re-read the instructions on a pressurized solar water heater. That’s the one that has a series of eight shutoff valves, but that is a design for parts of the country that freeze. The hot water storage tank is a used regular hot water heater and is stored inside the house. Time for yet another look at the system, so even if I don’t adopt it right away, I can install the necessary connections for when the time comes.
I rechecked the repair every two hours and bad news. My repair is good, but it is displacing the problem down toward the hot water tank. Each joint I repair causes another leak further under the house. Yep, time to replace the whole shebang. For now I’ll turn it off when I’m not using hot water, but that’s bloody inconvenient. The hot water line is basically a twenty-eight foot pipe from the hot water tank to the kitchen and to the bathroom. No way can I start that until at least next weekend. I’ve got other plans that can’t be put off.
You’ve heard of a clam bake? Well, how about a ham bake. C’mon try it. I can make you some ham and pineapple pizza if you’d like. Did you know ham is one of the most popular American meats? It’s the only non-process table meat sold that is fully cooked. So I can make you some sandwiches to take on the bus. Just think of it. The Great American Ham Bake. It’s great with Mac & Cheese, they say.
In other news, the power was off again. But it happened when I was outside so I never noticed. All my clocks and equipment are fully backed up with battery power. I didn’t know of the outage until I heard the neighbors up the street cussing over something.
ADDENDUM
In case anyone misses the point, I have definite views of how a good musician works an audience. It varies by venue, so I’m talking only those items that most situations have in common. Overall, I view musicianship as merely one component of being an entertainer. There are factors of appearance, personality, presentation, and fifty smaller aspects to being a dynamic performer. Not that I mention them much, I have my many shortcomings—but one of them is not hubris. I never think I or anybody can play their own favorite music so well at a night club that people who don’t like it will be converted. Got that, all you guitarists? Got that, Glen? Well, last evening I was downtown buying plumbing repair parts and I zipped into the old club. It was a guitarist I had talked to a year ago.
The guy is adequate, but man does he have the wrong approach. Like so many guitarists, he just doesn’t know there is any other way to do things. Fortunately, he plays acoustic. It was not busy and I chatted with him. He barely remembered a year ago because he has been through lots of other guitar players and bassists, none of which added any dimension to his material. He has no idea how well I know that situation. I hammered out a deal with him. The usual. I will learn one set of his material, no questions asked. We play that set at a few of his gigs.
If he does not notice the instant change in audience appeal, we part ways. What made me decide this guy was worth a chance? Ah, because I noticed he had tackled the same problems I did with my guitar. I rejected a number of tunes because I would have to leave out essential parts. An example would be the bass run in “Long Hair Country Boy”. This guy was just leaving them out. Because these represent the weakest tunes on most lists, he was playing them later in the evening [when I’m usually not there to hear it]. Yet that is when he should be playing his best stuff. Instead, such players lose the audience when the house is full.
Don’t misread me, the guy is out there playing regularly. But like the Hippie, he’s a fixture in the background. He can barely garner attention from the audience past the intro and first verse-chorus, with a smattering of applause when it’s over. He does not recognize that as and entertainer, that is a major, major fail. I call it the Law of Diminishing Applause. Over time, these guitarists get inured to fewer and fewer people applauding until if one drunk at the dart board claps three times, they think they are really working the room. You know who you are.
Last Laugh
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