School began yesterday with a half day. Today was the first full day. Amy came home to cheerfully report falling off the monkey bars and getting to spend time in the nurses office with an ice pack made out of a rubber glove. I should start a poll to see who can guess how many visits Amy will have to the nurses office this year.
Tweetlejuice, Tweetlejuice, Tweetlejuice!
The writing of the school fee checks has begun
When school begins, there’s this great sucking noise at my bank like a giant Dyson reached into my account. It’s as if hundreds of dollars suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
Dear Internet…
It would appear that every single one of you sent me an email today. This may take a while to dig through and get responses out. Bear with me!
Dropping Public Option is NOT an Option
Contact your representative today! It’s easy. Just click here. Tell your representatives that giving up a public option is NOT an option. A pubic option is indispensable! Government run health care is not about jobless people or illegal aliens. Government run health care is about the millions of people who cannot get insurance and therefore cannot get affordable health care. The reasons people cannot get insurance vary from being self-employed (living that American dream!) and either not having enough employees or enough profits to get affordable health care, to pre-existing conditions which may or may not even be a factor in their health care (did you know being on anti-depressants 10 years ago could be enough of a pre-existing condition to deny you insurance coverage even if you no longer use the drugs?), to working jobs with inconsistent work schedules which cause the employee to be laid off for lengthy periods of time such as construction and fisheries (that lobster you enjoy so much was probably caught by a U.S. citizen without insurance), people who have maxed out their insurance such as the mental ill (just because they are ill doesn’t mean they should be shoved away), and the elderly.
50 million people is a lot of people. That means you probably know several people without insurance or health care. They are probably ignoring conditions that could be treated which will result in more expensive care in the long term or early death. So if you don’t believe we need government backed health care, have lunch with one of these people today, look them in their eyes, and explain it to them.
Remember, these people do not want insurance! They want health care!.
Update: My apologies for the numerous grammar errors and word omissions in this post. I believe most have been corrected. I was a bit rushed this morning and really did not have time to be posting but felt this issue deserved attention. It definitely won the "2009 post in greatest need of an editor" award.
Kill A Programmer!
Does your programmer frustrate you? Do the words "two weeks" rolling off his/her tongue make you want to strangle that programmer? Well, now, just like every time to you clap your hands a fairy dies..is that right?..clapping? and fairies? There’s something about hands and kittens dying too. Neither here nor there because now you can kill a programmer! To date, 46479 have been eradicated. Yes, with just the click of the mouse, you can fry one of those frustrating nerds! Or you can just ask them a question.
Our Door Greeter
Every night this spider builds a web by our front door that would make Charlotte proud. Every morning it is gone. I think the large view is awesome. Check out the really close up view!
From the mouths of babes
Amy went to the hardware store as my assistant.
Me: "Let’s get back home and do some plumbing!"
Amy, 7 year old wise beyond her years: "It’d be easier to hire a plumber."
Today is drippy faucet day
There are so many leaks in this house that if it were a boat it would be sunk. Today I am replacing washers and spigots and fixing all leaks. Here’s hoping our $90 water bill cuts in half next month.
Goals
- Replace spigot in front of house.
- Replace spigot in back of house.
- Evaluate leak in kitchen faucet.
- Fix leak in kitchen faucet.
- Evaluate leak in upstairs bathtub faucet and determine whether or not to replace the entire mechanism or just the washers.
- Fix leak in upstairs bathtub by replacing entire mechanism or just the washers.
- Attach water supply to downstairs sink.
First trip to Home Depot
I’m off to get supplies: 2 outdoor spigots, 1 box of assorted washers(oops forgot), and one 30 meter outdoor hose(didn’t like their hoses).
Conversions by http://onlineconversion.com/
Unnecessary Trip #1 – Rocky Hill Hardware
It appears my spigots are sweated on instead of threaded. I am afraid I’m going to break the pipe. If I do that, I’ll have to tear out wall and perhaps brick to make the repair. Instead of using force, I’ll try heating the pipe first and see if it comes off. I can’t find my torch end for my propane bottles so I’m off to the local hardware store. I’ll have to resist the urge to buy the new fangled hotter torches on the market today.
Home Depot Trip #2
Rocky Hill Hardwared morphed into a trip to Home Depot. I hate paying $13 for a tool I own but since I cannot find it that’s what I have to do. I’m also wondering if just trying to replace the washers might now be the route to go.
Trip #2 to Rocky Hill Hardware
Turns out it looks like this repair has been done before. I heated the pipe and removed the sweated copper. Turns out a threaded adapter has been sweated onto the pipe before but its so bonded to the old spigot that I think I would have broken the pipe trying to remove it. This was the correct approach. Now I need to buy a threaded adapter.
Completion Status
After 2 trips to Home Depot and 2 trips to Rocky Hill Hardware, the faucet/spigot on the front of the house has been upgraded and no longer leaks. The weed eater which hasn’t worked for 5 years is functioning and cleared a path to the back of the house to discover a steady stream of water from the back faucet/spigot. That one may have to wait until tomorrow. It looks like a previous DIY’er got creative with concrete. Time to cook dinner.
Hey Alan,Alan,Alan,Alan,Alan,Alan…
Holy Bat Batman!
I just stepped outside to enjoy the sounds of nature and got dive bombed by a bat. Very cool!
Dear SEC – you aren’t making me a fan!
So how is the SEC supposed to run a touchdown after shooting holes in both their feet?
To the quick thinkers making these decisions for the SEC, try standing in the ocean and push the tide back; you can’t. You cannot fight it. Instead embrace it and make it work for you. Encourage the fans to contribute videos, and commentary, and stories, and pictures and let your website be the portal for that flood of information! Twitter is poised to dominate in the real time search market because the wealth of information comes through their gates. Imagine if you, the SEC, did that for college football! Oh, but you made your play. Some inexperienced sideline coach gave you bad advice and you’ve fumbled this ball. From my view up in the bleachers, I’m just not sure you can recover it. Good luck.
It’s really interesting watching dinosaurs die.
Happy Birthday Tommy!
My son turns 19 today! I’m getting him a t-shirt that says, "I turned 19 and all I got was this stupid blog post." I am proud of Tommy’s accomplishments. He has grown up to exceed everyone’s expectations. Happy Birthday Tommy!
