Family Night with the O-Folk

Just so it's not all about plumbing and painting, here's My Darling B making Philly cheese steak sandwiches for dinner. They were awesome!

Adventures In Plumbing

My Darling B caught me seated before the kitchen plumbing as I was putting a new blade in my hacksaw.

"Oh-oh, it's time for the cursing to start!" she observed.

"Can't do it without lots of cursing," I answered, and got to work.

Adventures In Plumbing

Here's what I was finally getting around to fixing: I cobbled together this drain pipe from pieces I had on hand when I discovered that I wouldn't be able to install the sink disposal, as I thought I could when I put in the new sink back in December.

Although the drain worked fine, but My Darling B wanted her disposal once again. My task was to figure out how to give her one.

Adventures In Plumbing

And here's why I was unable to attach the disposal in the first place: The sink's drain ended up directly over the sewer pipe, which sticks out from the wall so far that the butt-end of the disposal would be in the same spot, spatially, that the sewer pipe is now occupying. So I had to cobble together the Rube Goldberg drain pipe while I mustered the motivation to do what had to be done.

Today, I finally had my motivation ready to do the job.

Adventures In Plumbing

I decided the best fix was to saw off the end of the sewer pipe, leaving about two inches still sticking out from the wall.

There's probably a good reason for leaving so much pipe sticking out. If you know anything about plumbing, you're probably wincing right now, thinking, "Don't do it!" Well, it's too late. I know nothing about plumbing and I'm not calling a plumber to fix this thing.

As you can see, I had a bit of a problem finding the room to get in there to do the job. I had to knock out a partition, then ask My Darling B to pull all the mixing bowls out of the cupboard because by this time my hands were covered in muck. Finally, I yanked a shelf out and crawled into the cupboard so I had the reach and the angle I needed to hack away at the pipe.

After working behind a desk for three years, I've gotten flabby and have no stamina for this kind of thing any more. It took me three-quarters of an hour to saw that damned pipe off. The last quarter-inch took at least fifteen minutes. If I ever have to do this again, I'm going to put in a request with the chief financial officer to buy the power tool that does this.

Adventures In Plumbing

I had planned to reuse the old disposal. It seemed to work just fine, but its butt end was so big that the base of it still crowded up against the sewer pipe even after I cut the end of the pipe short.

I would have to either cut some more off the sewer pipe, or I could drive down to the hardware store to see if they had a smaller unit. Hmmm. That's a tough one.

This unit was a little bit smaller, and it was made in the USA. All the rest were made in China. I've heard the Chinese have fallen on hard times over there, but so have we, and I'd rather keep Americans employed, or whoever it is in America that's making these things. Damn, got up on my soap box without even noticing. Sorry about that.

The butt end of this unit still crowded the sewer pipe, but there was enough flex in the rubber adapter to make room for the disposal.

Just FYI: I managed to get through this entire project without cussing, a first for me.

Pedaling Through Monona

On my morning pedal through Monona I spotted this lakeside home. With its second story and guest house on the shore it must've been considered big in its day, but it's receded down the ranks to become a quaint little cottage. Sandwiched on either side by bulked-out lakeside homes, the day when a buyer looking to build his trophy home and sees this as his teardown cannot be too far in the future.

Seth Thomas 1960 mantle clock

The nifty old Seth Thomas mantle clock I picked up this morning at St Vincent de Paul's thrift shop.

For a 40-year-old cheap electric clock it's in remarkably good condition, except that I can't get the motor to run, which has a bit of a negative impact on a clock's usefulness.

With luck I can find a replacement. I don't want to replace the movement because that would mean losing the chimes.

Seth Thomas 1960 mantle clock

This is the balky motor that keeps my nifty old clock from running. It defies all my efforts to break it down. I don't think it's made to be taken apart at all, just thrown out & replaced, but I don't know what to search for as it has no identifying marks other than the legend, "Made in Canada."