Two household water emergencies in the same week. A new record!
On Sunday it was the shower shutoff valve. Now it’s the pressure release valve on the furnace, doing what it’s supposed to do.
That plastic pan had just started to overflow when I caught it. A technician from the oil company should be here sometime this evening. The pan dates back to when I did my own oil and filter changes, starting with my first car, a 1965 Chevelle.
When the bathroom in the primary (formerly master) bedroom was remodeled 20 years ago, I had the contractor put in a closet access panel behind the shower valve. I knew that someday the panel would be needed. Today is that day.
The plumber should be here in a couple of hours. He said it looks like an O-ring failure.
Exciting Update: It’s fixed. As I suspected, the plumber who worked on it about nine months ago screwed up. I also suspect he may have done a lousy job deliberately because he was pissed off that I ended up not needing him for the dishwasher installation. The new guy I’ll be using from now on showed me exactly what was done wrong.
A reminder of the effect that chemotherapy had on my facial hair, turning it thin, wispy and gray.
After being clean-shaven for a couple of months, I was curious to see if the change was permanent, and it wasn’t.
Folk singer and actor Burl Ives was a Communist sympathizer who cooperated with HUAC; however, Ives’ most enduring legacy is almost certainly his narration of 1964’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
A tip o’ the Dog Rat toupee to twinster Jeanie Beanie for letting me know that Rudolph is returning to NBC after decades at CBS, for a special 60th anniversary airing.
Jean and I have a possible connection to Burl Ives through our maternal grandfather. Our parents met at Eastern Illinois State College, where our grandfather, Eugene Waffle, was an English professor and later chairman of the department.
The connection with Ives is explained at this link:
However, during a “Beowulf” lecture in his English class, Ives decided to stop pursuing his degree and he wanted to become a singer. He left in the middle of class. Allegedly, the teacher made a nasty remark about him as he left and Ives slammed the door behind him, shattering the glass.
https://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2021/10/04/the-person-behind-burl-ives-studio-hall/
My grandfather became an English professor at the college in 1926, as seen here:
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/archives_faculty_sz/259/
With Ives attending the school from 1927-30, I wouldn’t be surprised if my prickly grandfather was the English professor who made the snide remark.
J.R.R. Tolkien lectured on Beowulf, having completed his translation of the epic poem in 1926. I wonder if anyone ever walked out of his class?
A few of you have seen how overgrown the grapevines have become on part of my property. With loppers and a pruning saw in hand, I have been aggressive in my grapevine attacks, now that I can reach the roots.
No, there aren’t any grapes, just the vines and leaves.
Considering how the chemotherapy turned my facial hair thin and gray in a few weeks, now that it’s been two months since the treatments ended I wondered if the change was permanent. After keeping myself clean-shaven, I’ve been letting my beard grow back in and, so far, it pretty much looks and feels like it did before the chemo. I don’t really care one way or the other, except that it’s significant as a possible indicator of my recovery.
And now, this other bearded man has something to say. He’s wearing Audio-Technica ATH-M20x headphones. I have a pair, and I can tell from Jon’s headband that my cranium is a lot bigger than his.
