Once again, I’m reminded how grateful I am to live where I live. I might not have mentioned this before, but it snows here occasionally. But we don’t typically have earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes or, thankfully, tornadoes. As devastated as Joplin, MO is, I’m afraid it’s Minneapolis we’re most concerned with this morning. Two of the kids live out there, and in the North Minneapolis area. So, as of this moment, we have no idea how things are going. Hopefully they – and Web – are doing OK.
I managed to knock the vast majority of off my weekend list the past two days. Some with more success than others. I even decided to finally install that dual-flush adapter. Now, this wasn’t exactly a difficult thing, but it’s been my experience that anytime you touch plumbing, it’s gonna be a pain in the ass. Everything went well, with the toughest part being trying to figure out which orifice to use for the fill valve (ordinarily figuring out which orifice to use isn’t a problem for me).
Unfortunately, as is typical, the easiest part of the job turned out to be the most difficult, and even though I was trying very hard not to, I managed to break the tank trying to take the flush handle off. It probably hadn’t moved in 35 years, and, well, I guess I didn’t have as good a hold on it as I thought I did. Bummer.
I was pissed for a minute or two, but, hey, this toilet is huge, and blue, and nobody’s gonna miss it. So off we went to Home Depot before it closed last night to buy a new toilet (with a dual flush built in). I figured I’d better wait to get my mind right before I put it in, though.
So if you need a dual-flush adapter, make me an offer.
Yesterday we celebrated Jenny’s graduation. She has earned a masters degree in Occupational Therapy. To do so we went to a restaurant in Woodstock where the populace has tried to make things look and feel like the 1960’s. Lots of tie dyed stuff, peace symbols, vinyl records and long unruly locks. But, not the 60’s. Kinda sad.
We left Lola at home and had someone come to walk her about 2:30. I thought she’s be fine but when we got home at 10:30 Lola was really upset, she hadn’t eaten and her belly was bothering her. It took a couple of hours and a Pepcid AC before she was willing to touch her late dinner.
Report from the North Minneapolis.disaster zone. I rubbed the following story into the skull of a scold who for some reason hates to see people biking.
I have to demonstrate the EXTREME SUPERIORITY of bicycling from an experience I had on Sunday. I happened to go into work for a short time. As I rode my bike in to the parking lot, I passed a coyote on a little stretch of grassland south of the building. I then parked my bike against the building. After an hour or so, the tornado came through from the southwest and ripped the roofs off of some pole-barns north of my building. I talked to a guy who said his car got totaled in the parking lot and said he was waiting for a ride home. I decided to check the situation of my bike, figuring it might be tossed around. It’s a light-weight carbon-fiber bike weighing between 15 and 20 pounds. It didn’t move an inch! I went to retrieve the garbage can sitting next to it which was sitting a good 20 yards away. Of course the bike didn’t move because it is a SUPERIOR DESIGN simply impervious to wind. They ordered everyone out of the building because of possible natural gas leaks. So I rode out of the parking lot heading back home. The grassland that the coyote was trotting on was now strewn with all the uprooted trees from the other side of the driveway. The tornado ripped every tree out of its roots that was sitting in the savanna.
Ha Ha Ha, PaulS (the scold) loses, Tornadoes lose, I win, Bicycles Rule!
:fire:
Edit: Where I was it was bad, but nowhere near as bad as Joplin. 😡
Congrats to all grads and survivors of Rapture and weather and its consequences. It seems like we are in end times though probably not of divine making.