2018 Life Logs, Day 289—Plumber, Writing, Laundry, Grandkids
Date: Tuesday, October 16, 2018
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High 68, Low 47 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Yep. It was a day of a little of this, a little of that, and not a whole lot of anything. When I had the energy assessment done last week, they found that when I run the kitchen exhaust fan over the stove, there is a leakage of flue gas from the hot water heater in the basement. I was to call a plumber and get him to install a fan of some sort to fix the problem, but when the plumber came, he really didn’t understand the problem. We tried to recreate the situation, but he found no leakage. So, I called the technician that did the assessment and actually got through to him. He explained to the plumber what needed to be done, but the plumber had never heard of doing such a thing and thinks it will not work. He is going to do some research with other plumbers, but he suggests that I offer to remove the kitchen exhaust fan and see if that satisfies the gas company. If weatherization work is going to go forward, the gas company will not proceed if there is any type of flue gas leakage. If removing the kitchen fan idea isn’t going to satisfy the gas company, the plumber suggested I would have to get a different kind of hot water tank and he estimated the cost of that at round $2,000. The hot water tank that is in place looks new and with a $2,000 price tag, the project is just not worth it for me. So we’ll see what happens. But the plumber was able to fix the drain in the bath tub. I have been having to hold down on the drain toggle to drain the tub after a shower. Sometimes I can get the lever in just the right position to drain without holding it, but not most of the time. The plumber thought he was going to have to have replace the entire drain system, but when he got into it, he found he could just replace the toggle. Much cheaper!
All of the above took much more time than I expected, so it was late morning before I got started writing my November presentation. Surely didn’t get as much done as I had hoped, but there’s always tomorrow. While I was sitting at the dining table writing, out of the corner of my eye I saw something fly by the front window. It looked like a Monarch butterfly, but I figured that couldn’t be so. I went to the window, and sure enough, there was a Monarch feeding off the last of the flowers in my deep beds.
I took this to mean that there’s still hope for summer-like weather! I had a late lunch and then headed to the laundromat. I had multiple pairs of jeans that needed to be washed. It was a big, heavy load, so I opted for the laundromat where I could do all of the heavy things in one big washing machine. I then took the more delicate things to Heather’s to use her laundry facilities for that load. It was warm enough to paint, so I had hoped to spray paint the two dining room chairs I had sanded for her over a week ago. I got the chairs outside and was ready to do the job, but then I couldn’t find the paint. It was almost time to go pick up Jonah, Ollie, and Jonah’s friend Kaiden, so on I went. On Tuesdays, Sam takes the bus to Woods Hole for his weekly drum lesson. I pick up Jonah and Ollie so Heather and Jed can wait in Woods Hole for Sam to complete his lesson before heading home. While the kids played, I was able to get the chicken mineral broth I made yesterday canned. Always some job waiting to be done.
I’m hoping to get up early tomorrow and go to an 8 am yoga class. I went to one class two years ago and thought it was probably not my thing. But I want to check it out again. Then I’ll head home to keep working on that November presentation.
