August 29 – “Family Affair”

Well, it looks like our house phones all blew out when we lost power yesterday.  Don’t know if it happened when the lightning struck or when the power surged back on.  After spending an hour or so on the cell phone with someone without an American accent, he set up an appointment with a real person to come look at it.  Meanwhile, we decided to get a few Walmart special cheap phones to try out.  Sure enough, they worked.  Good as ever.  Canceled the appointment.

I took my fire department shirt to the cleaners the other day.  When I picked it up the lady first told me one price, then stopped me before I could pay, refigured, and changed it to a much lower one.  Thank you Pilgrim’s for acknowledging the fire service that way.

I was on a roll the other day after fixing the bathroom sink faucet.  So I kept going into the other bathroom where the bathtub plumbing has been having some difficulties.  The problem was an odd one.  When you turned on the water, it would only come out through the shower.  The knob in the middle that switches back and forth is frozen, and absolutely will not turn in any direction any more.  It has been that way for quite some time now, actually.  It was never an issue when Mom was alive, because Chris always used the hand-held feature that operated through the shower to help her bathe.  I guess it just got used to being on.  I used the YouTube trick to watch someone else do the surgery first.  That’s where I learned the proper name of the problem.  Seems the “Shower Diverter” was stuck.  Sounds much more official when you put it that way.  With Then I gathered up my tools and bravely went where this man had never been before.  It was easy enough to get all the external handle stuff out of the way.  Basically loosen just one screw and tug.  I even got the next bolt off with little trouble.  But that’s when the thing started fighting back.  According to YouTube, that middle piece should have pulled right out, allowing me to either replace or clean it.  But it would not budge.  Not even a little bit.  About the only place where I could get a good grip was made out of plastic, so I was afraid I might break it on top of everything else.  So of course I did the next obvious thing.  I put it all back and consigned the project to the “Call a plumber someday” list.  Sigh.  Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

Now we get ready to leave for Round Rock, Texas.  At least that’s where our hotel is.  I’m presiding over a wedding in Georgetown this weekend.  Nathan is also in the wedding, as is Cailyn.  And we plan to make a run or two up to Waco while we are in the area.  Gotta make this a real family affair. 

Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.”

Father, we could use some of that “safe” as we travel.  Amen.