It Is What It Is!

Not long ago we noticed a water stain around the base of our hot water tank and thought it might have a problem. We have had it for about 18 years. It is probably about time to replace it. To head off any problem we felt it is time to act.



We called a plumbing company with a reputation of being honest with fair prices.


Friday the person they sent showed up disorganized and he reeked of a smell that I relate to my Navy days when the same smell reeked from old Navy drunks.
But we didn't know he really reeked of alchohol and we gave him the benefit of the doubt. We let him sell us a hot water tank. His biggest sell ploy was that if he gave us a good deal he could sleep at night. He told us that so many times it was getting old. He was a braggart and scattered brain - why we decided to go with our first visit without comparison I have no idea. Were we just being kind to him? He was to report Wednesday morning between 8 and 9 and start changing out the hot water heaters.


Friday night at the concert that was on our mind. If he did have a drinking problem we did not want him messing with our gas lines to the tank. We decided to call him the next morning and cancel the order. There is a law call the "3 Day Cool-Off Period Law". It means you have three days to back out of a contract.
Saturday at noon Anna called him and said we wanted to cancel the deal and wanted to do some comparison shopping. He was very nice on the phone and said "No problem".
We made arrangements for someone else to look at the tank and how much it would cost and that person was about a grand cheaper.


On Wednesday morning at 10:30 Anna just left to get a haircut when the doorbell rang. At the door stood the plumber smiling and ready to go to work. I told him we called him Saturday at noon. He more or less said, "You did?" I told him we certainly did. I told him we cancelled the order, we decided to hastily. I asked him didn't he remember getting the call. He said a lot of people call him and he can't remember what everybody said. He ended the conversation by saying, "It is what is is!"


Then he went and sat in his truck for ten minutes. That got me a little concerned, but he finally drove off.
Whew!

Curses!! I Think I Have A Curse!

Have you ever read the book THINNER by Stephen King? There was also a movie by the same name that I didn’t see. The plot is that protagonist accidentally runs over a gypsy woman and the woman’s gypsy father puts a curse on him by touching him and simply saying, “Thinner!” And then he rapidly got thinner.

I wonder if we have been cursed too. I’m trying to remember if I treated somebody unfairly or was rude to someone and their father touched me and said “Your basement floods!” If that happened it was probably right before Thanksgiving.

A day before Thanksgiving while washing clothes our septic tank let loose and flooded our basement. We cleaned it up and had a septic tank company to pump out and repaired our septic tank.

Three days after it was repaired it happened again. We had the septic tank company to come out again and dug it up and said the problem was not with the septic tank but within the house but he put his suction machine on full power and popped out what was blocking the system, within the house. And, it was fixed again.

We thought our water problem in the basement was behind us and then a few weeks ago it happened again while we were washing clothes. We had a plumbing company come out and check it out. They duplicated the situation by running the washing machine. The washing machine filled up with water and then went into the spin cycle, which shot the water out to the septic tank. They didn’t see a thing wrong. They didn’t change us anything.
We thought maybe it was a one-time freak combination of things and now maybe it was over with.
Saturday I went down to the basement to put the washed clothes into the dryer and the basement was flooded and water was still flowing from the washer. The washer was completely full of water and was overflowing and the water was still being fed to it. The washer did not turn automatically turn its water supply off and go into a spin cycle to rid itself of the water.


We manually turned the dial to spin cycle and it stopped the incoming water and centrifugal forced all the water out to the septic tank.

With the shop-vac I vacuumed up the water. The canister holds 6 gallons. I started off counting the times I dumped the water into the back yard and lost count. I think it was either 48 or 54 gallons dumped.

How does one go about ridding themselves of a curse? Stay tuned?

Murphy's Monday

Last Monday morning I woke up hearing rain gushing outside. I decided not to take my dog Willow on a walk.

I went into the kitchen to pour my morning coffee. I noticed the floor was wet. I turned on the overhead light for a better look. Water sprinkled all over me.

The ceiling was leaking. Water was seeping down through the base of the fan and settled on top of the fan blades. When I turned on the light the fan also came on and gave me a little surprise.

Or a big surprise. We just had new roof put on in June.

We called the roofing company and they sent two people out within a reasonable time. It was pouring down rain. The leader went on top of the roof, climbing a ladder using one hand to hold and the other hand holding an umbrella. Which I thought would make a good picture – I should learn to always have my camera close by.

The helper climbed up in the attic. The helper knocked on top of the inside of the top of the house while the boss-man would look around for a problem in the vicinity he was knocking and then shot the problem with a chalk gun.

I guess it worked. The leaked stopped. When the helper climbed out of the attic I noticed for the time his arms had a lot of tattoos on them and he had a Cub Scout or Weebolo cap on – the little blue kind with yellow lines, leaving from the top center button… where was my camera?

The leader said he THOUGHT he fixed the problem, but we won’t know for sure until the next time it rains. He said if it still leaks during the next rain call them. At least he was honest.

After they left it occurred to us that I didn’t ask him about the damaged ceiling. The next day there were two big discolored splotches caused by the rain. Oh me.

We also bought a new mattress over the weekend which was to be delivered the next day on Tuesday. Anna removed the dust ruffle thing off the old mattress complex and took it down to the basement and washed it in the washing machine so it would be clean for the new mattress.

After she washed it she tossed it wet into a basket to wait for the dryer to finish up with the load it had in it at present.

In the mean time, Willow was digging for chipmunks in our backyard and got muddy. I wiped her down with a towel. Then I tossed the towel into the basket of what I thought were dirty clothes, without looking closely.

Later Anna told me to put the wet dust ruffle into the dryer. I saw the dust ruffle underneath a wet towel and thought the towel was also freshly washed. So, I put both into the dryer and started to walk away.

Then BOING!! I remember the dirty towel. I took the towel out, then took the dust ruffle out and examined it. Somebody must be watching out for me. The ruffle had no mud or dirt on it.

Then, later that evening I was cooking chicken parts on the grill. It was a recipe I got on the Internet that taste pretty good. I have used it several times already. As far as this narration go the only important part is that you completely bath the chicken in barbecue sauce in direct heat it with the lid down for two minutes.

After the two minutes I collected my chicken up on a platter and went inside carrying the chicken. Somehow – a misstep I think, the platter tilted a little and a thigh, covered thickly in barbecue sauce managed to topple off the platter onto the carpet.

Darn!

Luckily because I jumped right onto cleaning the carpet stain it came right out. And I ate the thigh.

No problem. All's well that ends well.

Yesterday is Pending

Yesterday was an eventful day or busy day… I think it was mostly de-eventful, using the prefix of “de” as in de-boning a chicken.

First I went to my first class this season at ELM. ELM is a continuing education kind of thing operated by the First Methodist Church in Marietta. The subject I am taking is North Georgia History. The class was limited to 10, but while sitting there I counted 10 – but wait! I didn’t count myself, so there were eleven! She said a bunch of people were turned down because of the limit size of the class. But one squeezed in after the gate was going down… which one? I wondered. Since I mailed in my registration the day I received it, I don’t think it was me.

The instructor is a lady that used to write for the Dalton Daily Citizen. She moved to Dalton with her husband when he was transferred to one of the carpet mills in Dalton.. She is originally from New Jersey.

A yankee teaching about history about North Georgia – that seems strange doesn’t it?

But maybe it is not so strange. I have a theory that people on the outside looking in can tell you more about the people in, as a whole, than they can themselves…. It is sort of like you can not see the forest for the trees.

When you are on the outside you can see group eccentricities and trends clearer than members of the group – make sense? I think that is one of the reasons people with accents make excellent marketers.

Her main topic was Rome, Martha Berry, and Martha Berry, which I thought she gave a very good lecture, interacting style. Next week it will be Dalton and the Chenille (?) bedspreads and carpet manufacturing which I am sure she has some inside information.

She also went on and on about how rich Georgia’s history is between 1800 and 1900 – it has it all she said. I think she is right.

While I was gone Jason the carpenter worked on the cabinets and the counters. The plan is to replace the cabinet doors and replace the counter.

He has a huge plastic tent over the kitchen area which keeps the dust from flying, the glue smell for driving us crazy, and all…. But how does he not go crazy from sniffing the glue?

I think Jason is a contractor of big organization that we made the deal with.

I looked out the window and I saw another car in our driveway. Then, a few minutes later a black Caddy SV pulled up and a man got out that was no technician or carpenter. He was in a very well tailored suit. I thought something of up. Jason ran into a problem and contacted the company. They talked to Jason for a while… well, a long time. Then the man in the suit came out from the plastic tent to have a talk with us.

Jason ran into a problem. Which is too complex to explain here, as if I understood it enough to understand. And the options to fix it all are even more complex. It has all to do with when Jason took off the old counter top the cabinet frame underneath cannot meet the countertop that was already tailored made.

So, the man in the caddy is going back to his office and try to figure out a solution.

As I said, we got de-railed, de-boned; filleted ; our turn in the barrel…. Etc.

Up and At 'Em!

Good morning!

Early this morning remodeling begins on our kitchen.

It is a small kitchen, therefore won't cost very much - right? HA HA HA HAW HAW HEE HEE HO HO HAW HAW!

This is a good example of inflation. My parents bought a new brick house in 1955 for $500 less than this remodeling is costing.

Don't Get Him Started Until He Finishes

Last Wednesday I had a handyman type of person to come over and do some work. He was recommended by my next door neighbor Kathleen, who he just did some work for, and her next door neighbor Glenda recommended him to Kathleen.

His rate was reasonable, $25 per hours.

Glenda warned Kathleen to let him work and don’t get him started talking, which Kathleen relayed to me.

The man, who goes by his initials O.D., came over and got right on task and stayed with focused on it. I occasionally would go out and check and he was working away.

But I didn’t say anything off course, like mention the weather or the Falcons or anything. I didn’t want to press his talk button.

After he finished and put everything in is truck I invited him in so I could write him a check, which was a very reasonable amount, I thought. While I was writing the check he noticed Anna’s late grandmother’s pie safe and two other antiques close by. That pushed his talk button.

He told me the longest story of how he helped reclaim Abe Lincoln’s pie safe for Abe Lincoln’s log cabin in Kentucky. It was interesting story that went on and on. And the same time he was telling how he gained possession of an old antique pie-safe, and the history of that particular pie-safe he gained possession of, the different hands it went through and where it sit in garages for years and years, several conversations, word by word of people he dealt with while buying the right paint removal and the right refinishing tools and varnish, and whatever.

It didn’t stop there. That reminded him of a raised roll-top antique desk he noticed in somebody’s barn that he did some work for. His bill with them was $57.00. He offered that amount for the raised desk that they had no use for. It took months of bickering between the lady of the house and her sister, who each owned half the desk. They agreed to accept $75 for it, they thought it should be worth that. He told the lady they were right, it was worth $75 but you would have to do a lot repairs and painting, then it would even be worth more, but the $57 would be the most he would pay. The lady of the house went ahead and accepted his work as payment and the $18 difference, she would just pay her sister her $9 and let that be that. Word for word conversations from all concerned.

And that reminded him of acquiring another antique…. It was all blending in by then.

On weekends he runs a booth in nearby Lithia Springs, Georgia, where he finds deals and sells them. I guess he enjoys the stories of his acquisitions as much as the object itself.

He showed me in the back of his truck a cat litter box that looks something like a small animal plastic pet crate. He found it on the side of the road. The cat goes in the box, does his business, and when he leaves the door shuts behind him. He said he would get at least $5for that.

I enjoyed his stories of acquiring things and the interesting conversations… about 90 minutes worth. I am also glad he was telling me all this on his time and not mine.

The Dehumidifier

About a year or so ago two sections of our basement on the concrete walls were black with mold. I had one estimate from a friend of a friend to pressure wash the walls to get rid of the mold and to dig a French drain around the basement would cost about 6 grand.

I called a few other companies and they won’t even come out and look at the problem for less than $1000, but the reassured me that grand would be applied to the over all cost if I should decide to go with them.

One person I called reminded me of sticking your finger near a fire and a hot cinder popped or sizzled out and landed on your hand and no matter how fast you shake your hand you can’t shake that little burning painful cinder. This guy called me every day. It is a good thing we have caller id.

I de-molded it myself with bleach. Plain Clorox, or the Krogers generic brand.

Now it looks good.

However, de-molding it did not solve the problem. It only took away the byproduct. So, we bought a dehumidifier machine. Which it is a perfectly normal machine to have in Georgia with its high humidity.

I have to empty it every day. It fills up about once a day and stops when it is full. I think the tank holds either 1.5 or 2 gallons.

I wonder if that water is healthy purified water? It should have no chemicals in it because it is more or less distilled water.

The reason I am writing this is this morning why carrying the little tank full of water out to the outside instead of sitting the thing down and open the door like I usually do I thought I would hold the tank with one hand and open the basement door with the other hand.

Opps!

The water tank flipped and fell onto the floor with water going everywhere.

Then, I had to pull out my shopvac which I haven’t used in years. It has been so long I forgot how to use it. But, everything fell into place once I started working with it.

I must be a genius.