I did get a great ride in, if a little short, and easy because fred was tired and on his singlespeed.
So that was nice. Tuesday got the car over and inspected and actually was able to get the 50k service done at the same time instead of having to come back on Thursday. Drove L around for a few things, can't remember what at the moment because it was all displaced by wednesday.
The day that was going to be relaxed and then a drive to New Haven and then a stop at the camera store in Westerly and then the bike shop. I had finally maybe gotten the Leica R3 and the SP working properly. I'm not sure about the light meter on the SP but NOW I CAN SHOOT WITH IT ON so should fuck up as many shots. Anyway, had spent a bit of an hour or so after coffee Wed morning working on the cameras and L goes down to get her laundry out of the dryer and I hear "DADDY THE BASEMENT IS FLOODED" first thought is there's ankle deep water. But no, not that bad, yet.
The water heater gave out/sprung a leak and was pissing water out on the floor. From somewhere not sure where but it must have been near the top cause we couldn't quite completely shut the water off to it. It ensued in a long crazy chain of events. My brother and I had put the old one in back in 2013. We had to open a Home Depot card to pay for just the tank but between the two of us we got it in (mostly my brother). And fortunately the one we put in was almost identical in gas inlet and pipe height. Maybe a little taller. But shark fitting and boom. Done. Well it was a bit more involved than that but more or less kind of just that. Done.
I called him and he sent me the contact info for his plumber. I've met him a few times working on jobs with my brother but never had the resources or the critical need to call on one till now. He couldn't get there the same day but he said he could get there tomorrow and marshall said have him do it. There was still a lot to deal with in the basement so instead of driving to New Haven we got a train ticket for the kid. I was actually looking forward to the couple hours hanging out and chatting in the car ride there and then starting a book and camera bike shop stops on the way home. But instead of being gone for 5-6 hrs I dropped her off at the station and came home and got back to work. I was wrecked at the end of the night and hadn't even replaced anything.
It started a purge through. Recycling can is full and the garbage is also full (lots of wet stuff deemed not worthy of saving).
Fortunately it was only the utility space and part of the carpeted area. but we now know where the low spots are. Last flood we caught it before it got into the carpeted spots. This time? not so much.
But it is friday, heat has been a few degrees higher to help with the drying, furnace has been on recirc and fans have been on the carpet and I bought a dehumidifier this morning to top it all off. They are expensive, but then again so is having a plumber come in and replace it.
Worth it, every last penny. The new water heaters are all different even though it is just a 40 gallon short natural gas unit. More insulation, gas at a different height. So what would have been major work for me was trivial for the plumber. A couple valves were fucked up (including the gas shut off one) and actually the house shut off one. He didn't replace that but he did get it working after blowing a couple gallons of water everywhere, new wet spot.
But he got the new one in and the old one out in way less time than I could have even thought about it and he ran into lots of issues I'd have been hard pressed to solve.
After that we did a big shopping run then a look for dehumidifiers, came home w/o one, then looked online, and so I went back out this morning.
There's a LOT of stuff that needs to be organized and sorted out, and it has taken up a good bit of the time this week. Big wrench in the plans.
I really wanted to get in to the lab to use the scanner and get this roll of film digitized, maybe grab the extra monitor and one of the old fans. But that didn't happen.
Was thinking about riding in, getting on the bike today and doing a commute, but THAT didn't happen either.
This whole thing hasn't helped with the anxiety and depression much, but it has pushed a lot of the dark cloud away just by doing and having a priority task to focus on.
So much to do, no bike riding on break I guess. But we have hot water. Maybe next time we'll look at tankless, or something fancy and new and super efficient.
I had initially planned on heading to the shop, get the BB sorted on the Crocket, do the recall inspection on the Madone and check the FD shifting with Ben's help.
Also need to do the BB on the Stache, and get the drivetrain switched over on the Top Fuel. Lots of bike work to do. And there's a big storm coming on Sunday or so they are suggesting. There's a lot happening next week. A lot. Oof and then it gets worse.
Maybe it'll get better at some point. Grateful I was able to pay for a pro to do the water heater this time.
Grateful the water incursion wasn't worse and grateful for how it has shaped out. But I'm also tired. And Erin seems to have gotten sick (no, not covid, just a headcold, maybe RSV, dunno, but not covid, not flu, could just be bad cold, who knows).
So no pedaling, but just trying to be productive, at least I got a better chair for the piano desk before it got burried trying to move the dry stuff out to get at the wet stuff.
One of the things I picked up on the emergency supply run after the train drop off was four big totes. They're full already. One temporarily but the others have been put into use. Need to work on purging more and organizing. But wow that wet dry shop vac saved the day. Filled it up three or four times.
And now we have a decent humidifier to help the shoulder seasons when the furnace isn't heating or cooling and the air gets wet down in the basement.
Minor steps. Adult steps. Also, recognition of how lucky we are to be able to have hired professional help, first time kind of like ever really. Frustrating how broke we've been for so long, it would have been nice to have had a salary where I could have paid a professional to do the stuff before now, but even not I there's a list of shit I need to do that I should really pays someone to do but yeah, not going to happen yet either. Yay to the exploitive grind economy. Boo that what I'm really good at and found myself a career in is really low paying. But has great benefits and I am able to commute by bike everyday and live here, even if I have to do most of the shit around here.
Okay, this has been too long sitting doing 'nothing' back at it.
amor fati motherfuckers
heddwch
G
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