Nathan
came over right after he dropped Cailyn off at school. I had to go to water therapy, so I was
secretly hoping our little leak in the back yard would somehow miraculously be
fixed by the time I got home. No such
luck. Nathan and Chris had some quality
Mommy-Son time, though, over a cup of coffee.
That was a good thing. But still
we had to tackle the plumbing beast in the back yard.
Once we got the pipe wrap off and took a good look at it, we took a picture and headed off to Village Hardware, the tiny little store that has been around as long as I can remember. They never have a huge inventory of stuff, but somehow they almost always manage to find just the part you are looking for. And their staff happily does all the looking and cutting for you. It’s a do-it-yourselfer’s dream place. Between our picture, the image Nathan had in his mind, and the sales person, we came away with a small bag of goodies, all set to take on the plumbing world. You know, I guess I really could have done this thing myself. Chris and I have tackled much harder things in our life together, and she even told Nathan that she was gearing up for it when I started talking about calling the plumber. She sounded disappointed. Guess I’ll have to remember that next time something comes up. Of course it would have taken me twice as long to do it. I would have drawn a picture of all the possible combinations of pvc. I would have measured everything to the millimeter. I would have forgotten something key to the process, probably the glue primer. Oh, I would have done it, but we would be finishing up in time for supper instead of just after lunch.
As
it turned out, we got the contraption built with little difficulty. I say contraption because it is a strange
conglomeration. When that part of the
house was added on, the water was extended out of the house, as you might
expect, but then they ran a line underground all the way to the back flower bed
so there would be faucet out there. But
they still wanted a faucet right there by the house as well. So we had to figure out how to tie onto the
building line, veer off to a faucet there by the house, then connect to the
underground line. Sounds harder than it
was. You just had to know your way
around Tinker Toys. Same principle. Connectors. Elbows.
T’s. Nathan had it done in record
time. We waited the requisite fifteen
minutes for the glue to set, and then turned on the water. And there, in another spot altogether, was a
tiny leak. Back to the drawing
board.
This
time we went to Home Depot so we could have a wider array of choices. Nathan had a new vision of simplifying the
whole process this time, so I acquiesced to his prowess. What he came up with this time was indeed a
lot simpler than before. Fewer twists
and turns. This one took even less time
to construct and install. Didn’t surprise
me. I learned these words of wisdom a
long time ago when working on cars with my friend Cary in Arlington: “The other
side is always easier.” Once you do your
learning on one side, it stands to reason that the other side should go much
more smoothly. In fact we even
considered opening a car repair shop called “The Other Side.”
This
time all the seals held and we had an official success. Just in time for the drastic drop in
temperature that is expected here tomorrow night. I spent thirty minutes or so wrapping the new
pipes in the unlikely event it did drop to near freezing here. And then the plumbing was done. Well … until Nathan called a few hours later
to ask if I had a snake. The pipes kind,
not the slithery kind. Sigh. Round two.
Psalms
30:10-12 says, “Hear, O Lord, and be
merciful to me; O Lord, be my help. You
turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with
joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks
forever.”
Father,
thank you for being my Help in all the things that really matter. And thank you for providing help through
people in those times of tiny life leaks.
Amen.
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