A thousand dollars a crack

Life has been very, very tough this week on people I know. Though mine hasn't been a bed of roses, by comparison my few complaints would seem so lame...but that is why you find them in this blog instead of the Times magazine. Besides, even though you are reading this, it is primarily a historic marker for my ownself or an update to family.

What is today anyhow !! Wednesday. Monday the water line from the hot water heater started leaking and the floor got wet. It was a simple matter of cutting off the water, tightening the nut on the CTS/PEX elbow screwed onto the outlet. Water back on and all was well until later that day and the problem was back, but stronger. Cut the water off and go to bed.

Tuesday morning...new priorities...repair water line. Go to hardware store, buy a union connector to connect that PEX line to a much easier to work with CVPC plastic line for hot water. Then a couple more fittings and some glue...$20 spent and a third of the day later the water line is fixed again but this time the culprit (crack in an elbow) is replaced. Turn the water on and come meandering back into the house.

High pressure jet streams of water going in multiple directions...quick run for the shut off, and return to assess damage and begin damage control. That stream of water went far, even reached my laptop computer that was turned on and on the little table on the bed. In fact there seemed to be a dedicated stream apportioned just to it...because it was extremely wet, and extremely "brokeded" (quote from "the longest yard" with Adam Sandler).

The carpet was soaked but even now that is gradually drying up with a combination of a ceramic heater and a fan blowing over it and warming it up to dry the deeper wetness. The laptop...which was my connection with income, and the world..was inconsolable. The water was cut off. I woke into the day after an entire night of nightmares so real that I actually wished one of them was just a nightmare but somehow "knew" it sadly was not...when I did wake up..I was confused as to where I was. (This is new to me only a couple nights lately have I ever had "serious" nightmares") First priority of the day today Fix the leak and recover from the damage.

Yet unable to be both at the leak site that I thought was repaired and at the outside water shut off at the same time so it was time to call Pops. Poor guy waited outside the gate till someone coming in carded in. "Why didn't you call me?" I asked, more than glad to have gone and keyed the gate open..."We tried, a couple times". Glancing at my phone, sure enough, multiple missed calls. "Ahhh dang it..that ringer doesn't work either!" (I've been trying to get a ringer that I can hear "most" of the time by changing frequencies of tones selected...another problem that I "thought" was fixed).

Anyhow he was able to see quickly that it was coming out of that fancy union that I had installed (that joins PEX or CTS with regular CPVC hot/cold plastic pipe). "That was a $6 connection piece!", "Well, it doesn't work". A study of it revealed that maybe the piece of pipe I had cut to go between it and the elbow wasn't long enough to fully seat in the compression union coupling. Back to the store.

After reworking it and putting a piece in that was just about one inch longer, the connection seated good and here came the test...YES!! Connection held!! Water problem fixed...now to start on the damage control.

That flooded floor. Set ceramic heater on the carpet and set a fan at the other end of the big wet spot. Pops heads home with my gratitude for being there to identify the source and for going with me to the hardware store..he even bought the parts this time. All of a sudden the floor started getting SUPER SOAKED coming from the bathroom. I ran in to discover that while the water was shut off I had left the sink faucet on...and somehow, though it hasn't happened before, the stopper in the sink had floated or fallen closed and maybe 10 gallons of water had overflowed the sink and joined the wet spot. Sheesh#@$% ! Quickly solved. A full-hearing person would have heard that water running in the sink, there are some distinct disadvantages here!!

Finally everything getting back to order but now out of work with no working computer. Go to staples...no more laptops...too hard to work on. Didn't find anything within my budget which was either part of the $150 left on my overdraft limit or they sold it to me on payments. They advised it is a couple weeks till credit approval is made. My older brother calls me to tell me Craigs list shows a guy has one for sale an hour and half away in mint condition for $140. Desktop, but no LCD monitor, but a really good 19" CRT monitor, was just formatted and windows xp pro put back on it and all drivers downloaded. "mint condition".

It was an hour and a half, timed it perfectly, walked inside, visited with the guy, totally checked out the computer, it starts pouring down rain but I don't hear it. He gets a big trash bag for carrying the monitor to the car because of the rain. "Ahhh..wasn't raining a bit" I exclaimed with relief. "It's pouring down hard now though, can't you hear that?" came his bewildered reply. Uggh, "no". Anyhow got it all to the car, headed to Best Buy to clean out the rest of my overdraft and the rest of my pocket cash to buy a wi fi usb connector.


So though it is "officially" Thursday. This is my Wednesday night post. The wet portion of the floor is getting smaller. The bed above the water lines is reassembled. I'm able to get back to work online! All the challenges and disruptions so far this week have basically been handled and though I'll be delayed a while with the loss of data and programs on the old work-laptop...guess it is a matter of keeping on keeping on until all the obstacles are overcome and the job is done.

One little crack in an old plastic elbow... .