Showing posts with label Rube Goldberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rube Goldberg. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Day 3302

What a busy day. The roofing crew arrived early. It took a while to explain what was going on, but once we were all on the same page, the guys found two additional leaks. Since these leaks corresponded to areas inside the house where water was getting in, I felt like we were making progress. When I asked whether they felt confident that the had discovered all the potential leaks, they just shrugged. "We'd have to tear up the entire roof to do that," one guy said. At least the guys made an honest effort to patch the leak. We'll have to see what happens when it rains again.

I got a quote on fixing my office chair. It's going to cost more than it cost to fix the dryer. How can that be? It's only a chair. Reluctantly, I told the guys to go ahead and order the parts. The repairs will still cost considerably less than buying a new chair. Janet suggested just going out and buy a cheap chair at Office Depot, but I like my Aeron Chair. It has served me well and even though I don't spend a lot of time designing websites or editing videos these days, I still like to be comfortable when I'm writing the blog.

Since I was making progress on the roof and the chair, I decided to tackle the driveway as well. I went out and bought a hundred pounds of river rocks at Home Depot and dumped them in the pothole. It wasn't an elegant solution, but it just might work. At this point I just want to stop getting mud all over my car every time I back out of the driveway. Before filling the hole with rocks, I checked to make sure there wasn't a water pipe underneath. Nope. The ground is just saturated with all the rain we've had lately.

The last thing on my list today was an attempt to fix the weird French toilet in one of the bathrooms. This seldom works, but since I can't get parts for the toilet anyway what do I have to lose? Basically I just shut the water off, clean off the parts as best I can and them put the flushing mechanism back together again. This is the most complicated toilet I've ever seen. It was probably designed by the same person who designed Citroën automobiles. Rube Goldberg would be proud.

Dash is still slipping on the bricks, so I went to the storage warehouse and brought back a few more rugs. I've already brought quite a few of these rugs home, but I was surprised at how many still remained. We must have covered our entire house with cheap rugs when Dot was sick. The rugs do make a difference. They help Dash get up when he's been sleeping on the floor and they help him stay upright when he's awake.

Towards the end of the day I got a call from the guy who is restoring my Sequential Circuits synthesizers. He said that one of the synthesizers was as good as new now and that he was making progress on the other two. These synthesizers have been in the shop for over three months now. I didn't even want to ask what this was going to cost me. I still don't feel bad about restoring this stuff. Vintage Sequential Circuits gear is very desirable. When everything is finished, I'll either start playing the keyboards again, or someone will want to buy them.

All in all, it was a good day. I like making progress even if the progress is small. The weather should be nice tomorrow as well, so today's roof repairs should have plenty of time to dry before rain puts them to the test again. Fingers crossed. For some reason I'm slightly optimistic today.

Jordan is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Day 3159

Unfortunately, I didn't get a repeat of yesterday's restful sleep. Dash got me up in the middle of the night again. The diarrhea is back. We were outside quite a while last night. At least I was able to get back to sleep. I got to sleep in too. The weekend does have its fleeting benefits.

The toilet I thought I'd fixed for good a few months ago has started running again. My goal for the day was to fix the thing, but I failed. I don't know what went wrong. I repeated the procedure I used last time to the letter, but it didn't work this time. Go figure. Sometimes old houses can be infuriating. One thing is certain. I will never buy another French toilet. Finding parts for this Rube Goldberg contraption is almost impossible.

I can't keep up with Texas weather. This morning it looked like we were going to have clear skies for the next week. Around dinnertime, I started hearing thunder. When I looked at the weather radar, I saw a severe thunderstorm headed our way. I was glad that Dash got a nice morning walk, because he certainly wasn't going to get an evening one. It's still raining now, but luckily the thunder has quit. Oh, well. I guess I really didn't need to turn the sprinklers on this morning.

While we were eating dinner this evening, Dash got one of his frequent urges to go outside. We both raced for the back door, but we didn't make it in time. Dash slipped on the bricks as he was starting to poop and ended up falling in the poop. He was a smelly mess. I took him outside and hosed him down while Janet cleaned the brick floor. After Dash was clean and dry again, we resumed our dinner. Incidences like these don't even faze us anymore. Loose stools might be an unwanted consequence of finding a diet that Dash will actually eat. I don't have a clue at this point. There are way too many moving parts to this puzzle.

I'm glad I finished my Saturday errands before the rain started. I would have felt compelled to wash the car when there were way too many other things that needed to be done. I did my best to complete my weekend to-do list, but Dash had other idea. He was being very needy today and wanted me to nap with him. After a while, I was happy to oblige.

I noticed on Facebook that one of my favorite dogs is nearing the end of her journey. It made me sad. Janet and I fostered this dog for a while a long time ago. She has had a long and happy life with a nice family, but dogs never live long enough. Enjoy your remaining days sweet friend.

I don't like to dwell on sadness, but it seems to be everywhere. It's time for something uplifting to happen. I'm a very pessimistic person, but I still believe in good things. You just have to look a little harder for them.

Lucy is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day