It started out as a leaky kitchen drain pipe. It became a week-long ordeal and a huge job. Work included replacement of the Mom-In-Law's (MIL) house sewer line. That entailed digging of a trench from one corner of the — finished — basement to the other, out and under the front lawn to the public sewer main. There were countless trips by the plumbers carrying bucket after bucket of wet, stinking, hand-dug earth out of the basement. So, the rusted-out kitchen drain line got replaced, feeding into the nice, new sewer line. The basement trench was filled with stone, PVC pipe, and concrete (all hand-carried into the basement). The outdoor channel was also filled and mounded over. Big dollars, big mess, but much needed.
When yours truly went to replace the faulty kitchen tap (it leaked profusely when in use) we learned the water shut-off valves for that fixture were also no good: one was leaky and not repairable and the other just didn't work. Got those replaced. More $$.
She Who Must Be Obeyed had decided now would be a good time to replace MIL's terrible old toilet with a nice, new, low-flush unit. Let's get it all done now! Easy? Of course not! Not when the 50+ year-old lead pipe the commode was sitting on was found to be leaking like, well, a pipe with a big hole in it! What should have been a half-hour toilet swap-out turned into two full days' work by a professional plumber. Before you say, "aw… the Roto-Rooter® guy made more work for himself; it didn't need to be done; he's cheatin' you!" I'll just say, that old pipe was pretty obviously leaking for a good long time but nobody knew! There must have been two inches of corrosion and gunk on top of that pipe and I watched it leak during tests. It was hard, nasty, difficult work, too — Bill the Plumber had to remove the pipe elbow connecting to the sewer stack from between floor joists and over a load-bearing basement wall. That was hard, stinky, nasty work. There are easier ways for a plumber to make a living. It's actually a good thing the toilet job got added 'cause that wasn't clean water sploshing down between the basement walls with each flush! If She hadn't asked for a new potty, who knows how much more nasty would have flowed down there.
With a good bit of elbow grease and a pallet-load of cleaning supplies She attacked MIL's kitchen and bathroom. Gone are the old grease from the stove and tracked-in dirt from the floors. Soap scum and mildew/black mold were exterminated from the bathroom. Ah, c-l-e-a-n!
This plumbing job just seemed to go on forever with endless complications and difficulties, add-on work, 12-hour days, and frustrations but it's finally done. Best of all, MIL is happy, actually happy with her new facilities and has noticed the air in the house is fresher, cleaner, and healthier. Surprising what improvements come with good plumbing!
Returning from the Fairlawn shopping district, near Akron, I did a little cross-country exploration. She had collected a trail map for a little park we'd passed many times in past and it looked interesting. We'd not previously stopped so I wanted to discover what was there. With fair ease, I found the entrance to Allardale Park, we left the car and took a little walk on the one-mile trail. She hadn't planned on hiking, nor had I, but I'd brought my camera along just in case of, well, opportunities.
The day was warm, windy, and clouds ranged from thin to thick and dark. It was a very changeable situation.
The Allardale Park area was once farmland with some hills and valleys unsuited to cultivation. The late owners had planted thousands of trees over the years and gave their beloved land to the Medina County Park System for the enjoyment of all. Thank you Stan and Esther Allard, it is beautiful! The park system later added 200+ acres through purchase of adjacent lands. The mostly-earthen trail is rolling to hilly and is mostly through old woods. We saw and heard hawks in the canopy, saw damselflies and butterflies, and enjoyed the beauty of the woodlands.
In a meadow area many taller plants densely grew. Queen Anne's lace grew so tall I barely had to bend to photograph the undersides of some flower heads.
Leaving the park we headed home and passed through the little town of Hinckley. I drove past a local police car that was preparing to enter traffic — yup, legal speed and no other moving violations. The patrol car was in traffic behind me and suddenly those red and blue lights sprang to life! Eeek! What did I do? Pulled over and stopped, the officer came to the window and addressed me by name. Politely he said, "your driver's license has expired." What?! Oh, no, I'd forgot! After checking my now worthless license, the officer said, "take care of it" and let us go. Thank you!
Good thing I'd already scheduled Monday off for other reasons and that a license bureau is within walking distance!
Oh, and the tinnitus is still at low level. No improvement over yesterday but not as bad as before.
The tinnitus is much improved today, not nearly so loud. I cannot say it's the ginkgo biloba –it's supposed to take longer to act– but I am very glad the sound has diminished. I'd like it to just go away and stay away. Happily, my hearing is otherwise excellent.
My tinnitus has been really kicking up over the past few days. That's the so-called "ringing in the ears" that people can get. In my case it's a very high-pitched sound, not a pure tone, over a range of frequencies so high it's a combination of squeal and a hiss. Fortunately it's something I've been able to tolerate pretty well, only occasionally getting really annoying, as it has lately. I've decided to give ginkgo biloba a try; there have been some positive results reported with that. I've started taking 60 mg twice a day with meals for a total of 120 mg — what Dr. Weil recommends. If it doesn't work for the tinnitus, it's said to have other benefits so it hopefully won't be a total waste. We'll see how it goes!
Oh boy what a mess! Mom-In-Law's (MIL) sewer line plumbing problem required a complete replacement of the 50-year-old line from a corner in the back of her home's basement all the way across the floor and to the front foundation wall! Expensive, really hard work (for the Roto-Rooter guys), and a huge smelly mess. It also meant destruction of the house's tile floor, laid by MIL's late husband back when the house was new. That's actually the sad part.
It's a really bad thing to happen but, as it turns out, once the poorly-installed, broken-down pipe is replaced from the house, through the front yard, and to the street, MIL's drains will work much better and a "mystery odor" will likely disappear.
Since the plumbing's out, MIL is staying with us for the duration. I took an emergency day off from work to help clear the MIL's basement for demolition work and to look after her for the afternoon.
A beautiful part of the day was the blooming of She Who Must Be Obeyed's asiatic lilies — large, lovely, sweetly-scented blooms. The mid-afternoon sun backlit one of the flowers and I excused myself from a conversation with MIL in order to record the image before the sun sank behind our garage.
A lazy Sunday started off with a call from mother-in-law about a plumbing problem. She Who Must Be Obeyed tried to sort it out but the phone company then had problems connecting calls to mother's Area Code! Fortunately brother-in-law was able to pop over to his mom's and sort it out. Still, looks like more work for SWMBO lining up a plumber for repairs. Gad! Not a good way to start off the day.
After an otherwise easy morning we finally settled on a visit to the Medina County Park System's Alderfer-Oenslager Wildlife Sanctuary — really a park with a strong environmental theme. My "dragonfly summer" continued with activity there: numerous types of dragonfly zipping about. One insect in particular caught our eyes, though with some difficulty on our part. Not only were the dragonfly's wings near fully transparent, its body is in the same range of green as the reeds and other plants that line the pond it patrols. Standing mere inches from the beasie, it took effort to rediscover its location if we looked away for a moment. It is apparently an Eastern Pondhawk. I really must return there before dragonfly season ends!
Today's lunch time diversion (yes, a "work" Saturday) was another trip to the Cleveland Metroparks' Huntington Reservation in Bay Village, Ohio. Stone wall-lined Porter Creek caught my eye. The already cloud-subdued light filtering through the green trees was beautifully soft. What really grabbed my attention was the interplay of light, shadow, and green growth against the cold, dark concrete of an ancient interurban rail bridge. Too soon time to go back to the office. {sigh}
No sooner do I make a post about my personal experience with the Apollo Moon program than NASA releases images just received from a new spacecraft. The Lunar Reconnaisance Orbiter, or LRO, is a new high-resolution satellite that is mapping the Moon at the best level resolution yet. Interesting to me… the best, most detailed of the new pictures depicts the Apollo 14 landing site… "my mission!" How's about that!
PhotonStopper 