Simple Things

The bathtub faucet had a steady drip....drip....drip. Being fairly handy I got out my trusty tools and took the thing apart, a simple enough 2 dollar repair. While I was at it I decided I might as well replace the weathered old spigot with a shiny new one. What's five bucks? Sometimes I have found that old spigots are very difficult to remove. You might have to really, really lean on a big wrench to get them off.

Did you know that if you repair a bathroom faucet and change the spigot that, after leaning really hard on the wrench, replacing all the old parts and turning the water back on, the drip at the spigot will stop but a new one where the hot water pipe attaches to the faucet valve will appear? Another thing I'd like to share is that if your brother tells you that trying to re-solder an old copper pipe to an old faucet is a bad idea, he is probably right. Sometimes, if you do that, a drip....drip....drip will turn into a drip, drip....drip, drip....drip, drip.

More advice would be to share that,  if you ever need access to the plumbing in case you have to change the whole thing out, tearing the sheet-rock off the wall in the hallway behind the faucet with the new parts and the drip drip in the pipe is better than ripping the ceramic tile off the shower wall. Sometimes, if you're like me, that takes all day and may require an additional 150 dollars in parts.

Anyhow, if you're married to me, when you get home from work in the afternoon there will be a brand new piece of unpainted green sheet-rock where a pristine wall stood when you left for just that morning. Sometimes when a girl comes home from work she stands in the hall and cries a little bit. I know what you're thinking, "How did he do that for only a hundred and fifty?" Well, that didn't include the sheet-rock or the paint and texture that I'll undoubtedly have to buy someday if I ever finish that ten minute two dollar project but by gosh my faucet doesn't leak. (It didn't last night anyway.)

Driving tip: If you find that your windshield is covered with what used to be happy little flying bugs and turn on the washer to clean them off those bug parts will render you completely blind by effectively covering the glass with a film of the highest density. This event will be compounded if it is night as headlights from oncoming traffic are magnified tenfold by smeared bug film. Don't test this advice while driving on a crowded highway at night. Pull over somewhere safe before turning on the wipers. If your washer fluid reservoir has enough reserve to finish the job, the bug blind film of doom will go away but it takes a few seconds. A few seconds at highway speeds is a long time to be bug-blinded. If you're short on water find a rag, paper towel, old underwear, whatever is available and manually help the washers.