So today has been the Day of Two Water Problems. (so far. knock heavily on wood.) First, when I came downstairs this morning, from my dining room I could hear a very loud hssssssssssss coming from the basement. Ever calm, my first thought was Holy shit! I've got a gas leak or something and as soon as the furnace kicks on my entire house is going to blow up! So I booked it to the basement stairwell and turned off the emergency furnace breaker. Whew. Crisis averted. But still hearing the hiss. Headed down the stairs, to discover that there was a pretty big leak spurting from the water tank area. (but at least it's not a gas leak or something! No explosions!) Further investigation, a phone call to my dad, and I shut down the main circuit breaker so the water pump would shut off and stop the leak. (had I been thinking more clearly, I would have first gotten a flashlight and my cell phone, as hitting the circuit breaker left me down in the cellar in the dark with a dead cordless phone in my hand.) Anyway, it turned out to be a shutoff valve leak, dad picked up a new one, installed it (I totally could have done that), and it was all fixed. Yay!
However, I think this was the last straw on Water Problem #2's back. After Dad left, went to go throw in a load of laundry, and the cold water was only barely trickling into the washer. Fortunately, I have actually had (and fixed) this problem before, so I pulled out the washer, disconnected the cold water pipe (remembering *this* time to shut off the water supply to the washer...who says you don't learn from past mistakes?), removed the filter screen, which was pretty much totally clogged with rusty chunks and hard water deposits. A quick wash at the kitchen faucet, reinstall, hook stuff back up and voila! all better.
What's cool about these two problems is that a) they were both quick fixes and b) total cost $5. It *has* thrown me off-rhythm a little bit, but still. It's a bit empowering to know that I've repaired my own plumbing problem today (and I totally could have done the other one, I had even told Dad exactly what the problem was, but he didn't believe me and had to come see for himself. I was, of course, right.). Combine that with the router I installed on my computer yesterday and the router I installed on *Dad's* computer on Thanksgiving (AFTER my computer-specialist aunt had spent five hours trying to get it installed....and I just gave it a try while she was in the shower, and got it on my first attempt....bwahahahahahaaaa), oh, and fixing the car door on the van on Friday (I don't know HOW I fixed it, but that's kind of irrelevant, isn't it?)....I'm feeling a little kickass.
I haven't forgotten about telling all about our festivities on Friday and Saturday....just don't have time at the moment. Need to go get the laundry switched over etc. I'll get back to you later. Promise. mk
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